I have said from the beginning that a quarterback knows more about the football he is throwing than anyone else . so in my mind even the slightest difference would be something a professional quarterback, even the worse of them, would readily recognize. a receiver would also recognize any variation.

Sports is such big business that every sport has now been sullied with every form of cheating envisioned. From shrinking basketball nets to steroids

The days of Bobby Jones integrity have vanished. I guess it is now the best cheaters win

I agree 10000%. I really look forward to watching the games at Gator's Dockside every Sunday.

And why should what players make even be brought into a conversation like this. The fact is that these guys make what they do because there are very few people in the world that can what they do. They are the best of the best and they are able to entertain millions of people who enjoy watching them.

A group of them gets hired by a team that represents your home town. Why is it so wrong to want to cheer for you home town team?

D'Qwell Jackson, who made an interception against Tom Brady in the first half said that he didn't notice that the ball was under inflated. If what you say is true, should a defensive back who handles the ball quite a bit also notice the difference.

This whole thing was a set up starting with Jim Harbaugh telling the Colts to look for under inflated balls. The only way this even came to anyone's attention was that some on the Colts bench took out a gauge and measured the ball of Jackson intercepted it. Jackson never said a word about it. He simply asked someone on the sideline to keep it as a souvenir of him intercepting Tim Brady.

Tom Brady says that the perfect ball for him is exactly 12.5 psi and asks that his footballs be at that pressure. If Andrew Luck likes his football a bit firmer or doesn't pay attention, it's probable that the Patriots balls were at exactly 12.5 and the Colts balls were at 13.5. If they both lost some pressure because of the cold. It's possible that some all of the balls lost some pressure, as many former NFL quarterbacks have stated is quite common. The Patriots balls could have lost a bit more and would have been under 12.5 immediately. Where the Colts footballs could have lost up to a pound and still be legal. We also don't know if there was a temperature difference in the rooms where the balls were tested. We also don't know if the same equipment was used to test both sets of footballs leaving open the possible that someone had a faulty gauge.

The NFL released a statement today that said that the investigation in ongoing. The balls were under inflated but they have yet to determine how they got that way. They have also hired a lawyer and an investigator who has, so far, conducted over 40 interviews and will be conducting many more over the next few weeks. In order for them to discipline the Patriots in any way, they will have to have absolute proof that someone on the team deflated the balls deliberately. They also said that The Patriots have been cooperating fully in the investigation.

Bottom line is that there are a lot of questions still to be answered so all of this, talk of cheating should stop until all of the facts are known.

New england cheaters
 

Yeah...and we all know nobody would be watching the Super Bowl if it wasn't for deflategate.

Sure we would -- can't miss those commercials!

Unfortunately I think the commercials have gotten worse these past 2 years. I'm hoping they are better this year.

The balls were all inflated at half and the Pats scored 28 points in the second half. So the weight of the balls did not make any difference in the outcome of this game.

Football is a collision sport and these players can only play for so long. it's their chosen profession they desire to play.

You are exactly right. The Patriots did much better the second half---this is all about nothing IMHO. Some receivers and some Quarterbacks actually want more air in the football rather than less. It's obvious that some don't like New England and that is your right but to call them "liars and cheaters" is over the top and smells of jealousy .

Tom wasn't talking about weight of the balls, but pressure which he said he preferred 12.5 because it gave him a better grip on the ball. A ball too hard would be hard to grasp with smaller hands.

Then there are no teams eligible to play. All teams cheat, whether it is holding, stealing signals etc. This is not church where everybody does everything right. Well, maybe that is not a good example. Perhaps politics, well again not a good example.

In answer to your question, yes they should be booted out of the Superbowl, right after all the other cheaters are booted out of their spots.

1000% correct. This has gone way over the top. A big part of it is jealousy. People love to hate winners and the patriots have won more games, by a wide margin, in the past 14 years than any other team.

It's also true that if they were to take away all of the points that the Patriots scored with the illegal balls, they would have won the game by 21 points and beat the spread by 15.5 points.

I just saw a report, by the way, that said that the NFL is going to report that although the balls were under inflated, they could not find the cause of the under inflation and no punishment was going to be handed out. They may be covering up the fact that a faulty gauge was used or the referee didn't do his job.

I have heard no details about what the ref did when he checked the balls 2 hours and 15 minutes before the game. Did he check all of the balls? Did he use a proper gauge? Or did he maybe pick up a few, squeeze them and say, "Yeah, these seem OK"? If that were the case, the NFL would have to come out and try to cover it up.

Or worse, they could say the investigation failed to determine why the balls were underinflated. That would just continue the litany of speculation without facts.