[CFrance]

Originally Posted by dbussone

What a thread. I'm the 150th poster on a thread about air in a football.
Folks, get a grip. Then get a life.

I'll agree with you up to a point, dbussone. But people the world over take their sports very seriously. Look at the riots caused by soccer matches. Look at the college riots after particular games/tournaments.

I think 150 posts is a drop in the bucket compared to that.

I think I do have a life. Part of that life is a serious love of a few sports--football, baseball, tennis. I get very upset when a sport I love is not played on a level playing field, for whatever reason.

Originally Posted by dbussone

What a thread. I'm the 150th poster on a thread about air in a football.
Folks, get a grip. Then get a life.

21 out of the 150 replies are from you!!!

[PennBF]

It is not about "air in football". It is about millions of fans signing in to watch a game they felt was "honest and fair". It is about millions of people being mis led about the fairness of the competition. In some cases it is about thousands or even millions of people believing the wagers they placed on a particular team was in fact predicated on fairness. It is the failure of major examples to the youth to believe their hero's are honest only to find out they are as crooked as any ganster. It is the potential destruction of the moral fiber of major sports in the USA. It is about multi millionares making "suckers" of fans in order to make a few more dollars. Finally it is a shame that some players/teams have such little regards for their reputation or standards that they would trade them for money. I believe they are called "bottom feeders".

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Originally Posted by PennBF

It is not about "air in football". It is about millions of fans signing in to watch a game they felt was "honest and fair". It is about millions of people being mis led about the fairness of the competition. In some cases it is about thousands or even millions of people believing the wagers they placed on a particular team was in fact predicated on fairness. It is the failure of major examples to the youth to believe their hero's are honest only to find out they are as crooked as any ganster. It is the potential destruction of the moral fiber of major sports in the USA. It is about multi millionares making "suckers" of fans in order to make a few more dollars. Finally it is a shame that some players/teams have such little regards for their reputation or standards that they would trade them for money. I believe they are called "bottom feeders".

All that and nothing has been proven. I believe that is it call rabble rousing and rumor mongering.

By the way, bets placed on the game were not affected by the balls that were used.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Originally Posted by PennBF

The answer is simple and does not require a "mensa" meeting. "Just follow the money". You have multi millionares who rely on the outcome of a game to make or loose money. To believe they would not cheat for more money is pretty naive.
It is not a case as to whether someone cheated, it is who and how. Look back on New England cheating by "stealing" the other teams signals. This sets the standards they are willing to follow. Of course they cheated. And of course they should have very stiff consequences. They should not be able to play in the Superbowl. Letting them play is rewarding cheating. Enough said.

It is a question of whether someone cheated or not. there have been several reasons put forth by several different sources on how the balls might have come to lose air. the NFL is still in the midst of an investigation to determine if anything intentional was done that would constitute cheating and deserve any kind of punishment.

Even if they find that something was done deliberately, the RULES, which you are so concerned over, call for the team to be fined $25,000. There is nothing int he RULES that require or even suggest that a team be banned from playing in a game.

As far as the video incident that occurred seven years ago, they were not found guilty of stealing the other teams signals. All teams video their opponents practices. The league has rules regarding the locations from which this videoing can be done. In the Patriots case, they had a guy about 25 yards outside of the area where he was supposed to be to be legal. They were found guilty of having a low level employee legally videoing the opponent practice from an illegal spot.

The bottom line is that people love to hate winners so those haters will continue to bring up incidents like that and try to convince people that this is why the Patriots have won as much as they did.

The press also hates The Patriots because Belichick doesn't make their job easy for them. But then again, why should he? He has his job to do and they have theirs. If a player, coach or team representative doesn't give them a nice juicy story or quote, they will make up their own. They'll continue to hammer this forever, the same as the haters will continue to hammer a low level employee doing a perfectly legal video in a barely illegal area.

In neither case was the an advantage gained by the Patriots and neither incident contributed to them winning the games that they have won.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Originally Posted by janmcn

Patriots locker room attendant a 'person of interest' in Deflate-Gate saga - Newsday


A person of interest is being questioned in the NFL's investigation into what caused the deflated footballs.

Like Mikeod said, how could the person that handled the balls not be a person of interest.

What this story says, by the way, is that they have video of this equipment manager leaving the referee's locker room with the balls and going to another room before bringing them to the field. As far as I can tell, they do not have video of him in the second room.

This is exactly how the press tries to keep a story like this going. Big headline; "The Ballboy That Last Handled the Balls is a PERSON OF INTEREST!"

Kind of makes those who don't think believe that the ball boy is guilty of something.

[redwitch]

Whether it contributed to the Pats winning is absolutely irrelevant. If Brady was aware that the ball was too soft, he had a moral obligation to get the balls properly inflated and it is hard to imagine that he couldn't feel this difference. If the under inflation was deliberate, it was cheating, pure and simple.

I sincerely doubt we will ever know if the act was deliberate, a force of nature or human error. Whatever the case, it happened. Like the illegal video taping, it will stand as another black mark against the Pats, Brady and Belichick. Glad I'm not a fan of theirs.

[dbussone]

Originally Posted by Bosoxfan

21 out of the 150 replies are from you!!!

You must really like my posts if you took the time to count them. Like I said.

Go Patriots

[CFrance]

Originally Posted by Bosoxfan

21 out of the 150 replies are from you!!!

Originally Posted by dbussone

You must really like my posts if you took the time to count them. Like I said.

Go Patriots

You're both funny!

[PennBF]

They cheated. All the rationale in the world cannot excuse them either by denying an infraction, being no absolute proof, and all the other attempts to say they are just an innocent team that had been caught before but are now just honest people who would not do such a thing. Hello, they already have. It is interesting how many want them to be innocent and will dig up any and all possible excuses to say they are. The facts are: there were 24 balls 12 from Colts and 12 from NE. The 11 of the 12 from NE were in violation, 4 well known and past Superbowl QB have said that they must have known of the violations, each said they would have known when handling the ball(s). They have a history of "cheating". Let's really get real and recognize what they are and not what we would want them to be. Finally is the statement that so what if the ball was 2 PSI below the "rules". That is the ultimate of saying so what if they cheated you have to prove it impacted the game. NO. Just that they cheated.

[birdawg]

Just heard on ESPN that all 24 balls will be coated with BALLAGRA hoping they will stay hard for 4 hours.

[TNLAKEPANDA]

Some of the comments on here are unbelievable to say the least.

[DonH57]

I'm amazed at those who believe the Patriots are the only NFL franchise who cheats or does things to gain an advantage over their opponents an others are above this. But back to the colts/pats game if the pats scored twice as many points after the alleged balls were corrected than before who really had the advantage? Sounds to me like sour grapes.I watched the game. You can't play the way the colts did and expect to win.

[janmcn]

Originally Posted by DonH57

I'm amazed at those who believe the Patriots are the only NFL franchise who cheats or does things to gain an advantage over their opponents an others are above this. But back to the colts/pats game if the pats scored twice as many points after the alleged balls were corrected than before who really had the advantage? Sounds to me like sour grapes.I watched the game. You can't play the way the colts did and expect to win.

Amen. Game over. The team with the most points wins. The top two teams play on Sunday, and the team with the most points wins the championship.

Allowing this team, that got their butts handed to them in a 45-7 loss, to make these allegations sets a bad precedent.

All the haters can probably find some other thing to do Sunday night at 7:00pm, while the fans will be watching the best game of the year. And the good news is Tom Brady is planning on playing another ten years, according to the NYTimes Sunday magazine article. Hurrah!!!!

[DonH57]

Besides allegations by others the NFL have failed to handle this incident like they have everything else. Between the media leaks and when and how the balls were handled by and by who, you don't know what to believe. But. Some do.