[shcisamax]

Originally Posted by cromlich

Each team provides 12 balls for their use. The balls are inspected and then turned over to the team.

Why didn't the person who was inspecting notice?

[Miles42]

Really easy the inspection is done then the Balls are returned to the team. Then it is rather easy to alter the inflation rate.

[MarkinMd]

You can't remove any team from the super bowl at this point. It wouldn't be fair to fans who have paid major dollars for tickets, hotel rooms, airfare, etc. Let the investigation begin and see how it plays out. Right now it is an allegation. If they are found guilty come up with a reasonable punishment, if not guilty move on.
The next area of question would how to avoid this in the future. One possible solution is after a team scores check the ball. If their is a violation, the score is nullified and an unsportsmanlike penalty is given. (I don't think it will add time to the game because all scoring plays are reviewed anyway. )

[redwitch]

Personally, I wouldn't want them barred from playing in the Super Bowl regardless. Under inflating gives a slight edge. Fine them and change the rules as needed. They're a great team and even I can't take that fact away from them!

I like the idea of checking the ball after a score. Leave the balls in possession of the teams as now. Put in writing minimum/maximum inflation/deflation allowed. Have a hefty fine if guidelines not followed and take away the scored points. Great idea, Mark!

[JRichm369]

This all falls in the lap of the NFL, There is a rule on acceptable tolerance of ball inflation, if they have this rule then they need to enforce it, if they do not wish to enforce it, then they should eliminate the rule.
The NFL makes an issue if the players are not choir boys they fine them suspend them bar them from any and all future involvement. However they do not supervise and enforce other rules that also impact the integrity of the game.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Originally Posted by redwitch

It's a bigger shame that a great team has to stoop to the antics that the Pats have used over the years. They don't need the extra edge, so why do they consistently go for it? A class act would have kept the balls within the guidelines. A class act wouldn't resort to spying on their opponents. A class act plows the field for both sides, not just their own. Sorry, but you'll never convince me that the Pats have class.

They do have a great team, a great coach and a great quarterback. It's a shame that isn't enough for them.

Consistently gone for it? Consistently cheated? What a load of crap.

First of all, the snowplow incident was found to be completely in line with the NFL rules at the time. Secondly, that was a different coach, different players, different management and different ownership.

The spy gate nonsense was just that. They were allowed to tape the other teams practices, just not from where they did. Had the videographer been a few yards from where he was, there would have been no violation. All the teams film their opponents practices. The fine and penalties were just another instance of Goodell trying to save face. He knew that what the Patriots did was a minor technical violation of the rules, but the media made such a huge deal of it that he felt that he needed to do something.

This last incident is exactly the same thing. He knows all of the teams do it and have done it forever. He knows that the league has been allowing teams to bend the rules and he has to somehow cover that up and make the league look good. Like many people said, if the league had any common sense they would have been supply balls and ball handlers for every game. Instead they allow this to happen.

Now I find out today that Jim Harbaugh, the Raven's coach and perhaps the biggest crybaby in all of sports, alerted the NFL that the Patriots were playing with under inflated balls. That's nothing but being a sore loser. He also embarrassed himself by crying that The Patriots were running illegal plays when they were perfectly legal plays. He should have shut up and he wouldn't have brought so much attention to the fact that he was out coached.

The Patriots have always done everything by the book and with class. Two minor incidents that could have called on every team in the NFL has the media and fans of other teams up in arms.

Like I said, being hated just comes with the territory when you're the best.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Originally Posted by CFrance

Actually, I wonder if it was detected, at least during the Indy game. I remember a ref blowing his whistle before a ball snap and changing the football out for another one. The announcers opined that perhaps they had a punting ball rather than a playing ball. But maybe it was an underinflated ball.

Off topic, but I wonder... are any of those posters who want the Patriots to be kicked out of the super bowl or severely punished the same people who voted to put Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame?

This is going to be the most-watched super bowl ever! So good hype job by the NFL.

Jim Harbaugh, the Baltimore Ravens' coach and well known cry baby reportedly notified the NFL to look out for under inflated balls.

If that's the case, why would the NFL not have made certain that the balls were right at game time?

Pete Rose was convicted and found guilty of violating the rules. The Patriots have been found guilty of nothing. There is simply an allegation. There is not one scintilla of proof that they knowingly and purposely under inflated balls.

Like I said, take away all of the points the the Patriots scored in the first half and the D'Qwell Jackson interception and The Patriots are still going to the Super Bowl.

If Harbaugh believed that balls were under inflated the previous week, why wouldn't he have brought it up then? That game, by the way was played in relatively warm, dry conditions.

Harbaugh can't win big games so he whines.

[Chi-Town]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

Jim Harbaugh, the Baltimore Ravens' coach and well known cry baby reportedly notified the NFL to look out for under inflated balls.

If that's the case, why would the NFL not have made certain that the balls were right at game time?

Pete Rose was convicted and found guilty of violating the rules. The Patriots have been found guilty of nothing. There is simply an allegation. There is not one scintilla of proof that they knowingly and purposely under inflated balls.

Like I said, take away all of the points the the Patriots scored in the first half and the D'Qwell Jackson interception and The Patriots are still going to the Super Bowl.

If Harbaugh believed that balls were under inflated the previous week, why wouldn't he have brought it up then? That game, by the way was played in relatively warm, dry conditions.

Harbaugh can't win big games so he whines.

I think you meant John Harbaugh. I had to watch Jim quarterback the Bears. No fun either.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Originally Posted by Indy-Guy

I am from Indianapolis. There is no way that the deflated balls had any influence on the outcome of the game.

Are we led to believe that since the deflated balls situation did occur and had no influence on a lopsided game that it should just be ignored? Then how about the week before when the Patriots defeated Baltimore by 4 points. Ask a Baltimore fan what they think.

The poor Patriots they cheat only twice in the 14 years that William Stephen Belichick is head coach and get caught both times. They just aren't very lucky.

I had two conversations with very strong Patriots fans yesterday and I asked both of them who was the head coach of the Patriots before Belichick. Neither could tell me. One even said that he must not be much of a coach if he couldn't remember him.

The previous Patriots head coach was Pete Carroll the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. We all know Pete never cheated at Southern Cal.

They couldn't been true Patriots fans not to know that Pete Carrol was the coach before Belichick and that Bill Parcels was before him.

They not remember Dick McPherson who was terrible before Parcells, but they should at least remember Raymond Berry back in the 80s who took the Pats to their first Super Bowl. Hel, I remember Lou Saban and Mike Holovak.

What is the point of that comment anyway?

[dbussone]

Originally Posted by birdawg

That slogan is not meant to defend CHEATERS!

It's not. And you know what about Boston?

[DonH57]

The only factor in the colts /patriots game was the **** poor performance of the colts. I'm lost as how inflation of the ball had to do with the fact Luck got intercepted three times. Every team has either over or under inflated the balls. This has been going on for years. Old news.

[rubicon]

Really I believe the only response to this allegation which is appearing more and more to be substantiated is disappointment. A true sports fan must be dismayed learning that in place of sportsman like and fair play conduct that a team or teams have to stooped so low.

I slowly pulled away from watching sports the first time I heard Frank
Gifford comment as he watched a player doing a dance after scoring a touchdown "Don't you think you ought to act like you been there before?"

Frank Gifford was right and not much has been right with this game any longer.

Regarding this allegation if true, then every member of the Pat's team are complicit.

The Super Bowl will go forward as planned if for no other reason than money. Like the police officers did to de Blasio I will also turn my back on the Pats, err turn the channel. If the Pats win the Super Bowl it will be a hollow victory

[John_W]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

Jim Harbaugh, the Baltimore Ravens' coach and well known cry baby reportedly notified the NFL to look out for under inflated balls...

...If Harbaugh believed that balls were under inflated the previous week, why wouldn't he have brought it up then? That game, by the way was played in relatively warm, dry conditions.

Harbaugh can't win big games so he whines.

Most message boards require the poster to provide a links when you quote facts.

Here's a link NFL to interview Bill Belichick's staff NY Daily News

"Multiple reports highlighted Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson's interception as the point when Indianapolis suspected the balls used in the title game were deflated. The pick came in the second quarter on a pass intended for tight end Rob Gronkowski.

According to Newsday, Jackson gave the ball to a member of the Colts' equipment staff, who noticed the ball seemed underinflated. The equipment staffer then notified coach Chuck Pagano. General manager Ryan Grigson was notified in the press box, and he contacted Mike Kensil, NFL director of football operations."

First off, the above comments from Newsday indicate that Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson was the person who brought out the issue of the deflated balls, not John Harbaugh. Don't confuse him with the coach of Michigan, Jim Harbaugh.

Secondly, the only well known cry-baby in either playoff game is the one everybody knows, Tom Brady. He constantly whines to the officials and has on many occasions gotten a roughing the passer call for an insignicant hit. Something that you almost never see from Joe Flacco or Andrew Luck.

I wouldn't at all be surprised that Brady was the one who paid to have the balls deflated. Just this week former Bucs QB Brad Johnson admitted paying $7500 to have the balls in Super Bowl XXXVII tampered with. Link Ex-NFL QB admits paying people | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Third, Harbaugh can't win the big game? Did you forget the two New England home playoff loses to Baltimore? Had Gary Kubiak not made a blunder of a call, with the Ravens marching down the field and crossing midfield with a minute and a half left on the clock, calling for a deep pass into the endzone was a terrible call. So the Patriots won that game by 4 points, very lucky and was almost their third home playoff loss to the Ravens The team that can't win the big one? Think back now, two years ago, Super Bowl XXXVII who won?

Fourth, John Harbaugh as late as yesterday, said he saw nothing wrong with the balls used in their playoff game. Link Ravens did not notice anything about Patriots footballs, John Harbaugh says - Baltimore Sun

[Bruiser1]

Originally Posted by cromlich

Each team provides 12 balls for their use. The balls are inspected and then turned over to the team. Both teams do not play with the same balls unless a ball is intercepted. It's pretty obvious that foul play was in process at the game. The Ravens , also , protested about deflated balls against the Patriots. An official is the one who ? the deflation of the balls. It's not a sore loser. Belichick has been known for these kinds of antics in the past. Who knows what else he had done. If our team had done this we would be ashamed and expect punishment.

check

To late , Bellicheck, Troy Aiken, John Madden, and the Ball Boy have all thrown Brady under the bus.

Now if Goodell uses his banishment for life Policy ..(Rice ,Peterson etal) BRADY will be banished. (But that won't happen to the Patriots).

[DonH57]

So if a ball involved in a turnover was reported to an official to be altered what was done by the NFL at that moment in time? In an imperfect world how can the NFL know who altered the balls? I believe today I read that Aaron Rogers overinflated their balls to make it easier to throw. In officiating games the league needs to enforce the rules fairly.