Are you "outraged" about deflate-gate?

Submitted by wolverine1987 on

I just watched a report on the Today Show where 81% of viewers in a snap twitter poll said yes to the question "if guilty should the Patriots be banned from the Super Bowl?" Leaving aside the silliness of the question, which isn't on the table as a possibility, the rest of the discussion was about how there is "growing outrage" over this. Is there? I'm probably in the minority, but this is nothing but a yawner to me as a scandal. I'm shocked, shocked, that there is gambling in this establishment. Scuffing balls happens in baseball, as does stealing signs, as does trying to get any edge possible. You catch a guy or a team, you punish them under the rules, you move on.

But I could be wrong, what do you think?

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Sac Fly

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:04 AM ^

This kind of reminds me of the Pineda pine tar thing from last year. Players do this, everyone knows it but no one says anything. It's more of an outrage that they made it public than the incident itself.

Joined: 04/03/2010

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LSAClassOf2000

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:04 AM ^

I am more worried about the possibility of some outlet somewhere in the world effing this story up and reporting it as "Belichick's Balls Underinflated, Study Concludes". That would make for an interesting aside from the main event here. As for outrage over this, you won't find any eminating from me - that's just the smell of this raspberry lemonade loaf cake on the desk. 

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Icehole Woody

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:09 AM ^

I'm not outraged and not so quick to point the finger at Belichick.  Rules must be followed but there are a number of reasons the balls may be a little below the league's 13+/- psi rule.  Maybe the Pats got a bad lot of balls with slow leaks.  Have they checked the balls for slow leaks? 

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Kermits Blue Key

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:16 AM ^

I'm outraged that the media has once again managed to tack the word "gate" onto a scandal. Can we please as a society agree that this is so played out and refrain from using it in the future?

Joined: 09/04/2010

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Rabbit21

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:44 AM ^

Gate will always be tacked onto scandals because Watergate is one of the news media's favorite bed-time stories of heroic reporters taking down an evil establishment.  Helps them sleep at night when their jobs have become spewing out the party line from their currently favored point of view.

Joined: 11/12/2009

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Sam1863

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:17 AM ^

"Outrage?" Nah. I save my outrage for more important topics, like global terrorism, religious extremists, and the fact that McDonald's doesn't carry the McRib sandwich all year round.

Bastards!

Joined: 04/27/2014

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The FannMan

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:20 AM ^

That our news media has reached the point where this is the kind of BS they want to talk about rather than covering actual news. I'm not talking about the sports shows, but the MSM news shows. I guess it's hard to cover actual news.

Joined: 11/25/2008

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Dubs

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:21 AM ^

I, for one, believe that had the balls been properly inflated, the Colts would have won by a score of 7-0 and LaGarrette Blount would have had exactly 0 rushing yards!  Rabble!

Joined: 05/30/2011

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jackw8542

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:25 AM ^

Can anyone explain how this would even give the Patriots an advantage?  Does the NFL check the ball inflation after every game?  My guess is that every team inflates its balls with the amount of pressure that leads its QB to say he likes the "feel".

Do we have any reason to believe that balls are inflated in a manner that is intended to guarantee a specific level of inflation?  Is there a machine that does it and carefully measures the precise inflation?  Or does the equipment guy inflate them until the feel "right"?

Aaron Rodgers said that guys with really big hands like the ball to be more inflated.  Does anyone know if Tom Brady's hands are particularly small, so that it would actually benefit him to have the ball be less inflated?

When I am inflating a football, I inflate it until it "feels right".  When I inflate a basketball, I inflate it until it dribbles "right" (and even then, when I take it outside where it is colder it stops dribbling right).

There are a few posters on here who seem to say "cheating is cheating" and think they have said something.  So far, all we "know" is that the balls were all inflated to about the same pressure and it was determined that this pressure was a little less than 12.5 pounds.  Is that cheating or is it an equipment guy not getting it quite right?

Seems like much ado about nothing to me.

Joined: 10/30/2010

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pbmd

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:31 AM ^

Breaking rules

This form of cheating is just disrespectful to league and opponent
Immoral men who would sneak around to deflate balls
Minimal advantage and probably should change rule to make legal
Better game with better offensive play



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jdon

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:32 AM ^

Hell, this just makes me like the Patriots more.

I love that all they care about is winning, and they play that way too.  Fuck all the bitch ass teams content to wallow in mediocrity.  IF the  Patriots can find an advantage they will exploit it.

jdon

 

Joined: 09/28/2009

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Blerg

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:34 AM ^

As a Colts fan...I want it to go away.  They could have played with bowling balls, and we still would have lost.  Bottom line: The better team is going to the Super Bowl. Besides, Seattle would have pooped on us anyway.

Joined: 07/28/2010

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natesezgoblue

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:36 AM ^

You're taught to cheat in sports in general. Just enough to get away with. Offensive linemen are taught to hold, just enough that the ref doesn't see to throw the flag. If they did it give them their penalty and get over it already. Not a huge deal.

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NRK

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:36 AM ^

Excellent Casablanca reference.

 

To answer your question: no. Fake outrage and people finding a way to complain about a team they already hate. Spygate was a big deal. In my opinion 9/10, this is 1/10.

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Rabbit21

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:38 AM ^

It's a yawner and frankly, a slight advantage does not overwhelm the ritual sacrifice that took place last week. 

That said, the Patriots do have a history with this sort of thing(or fine, Patriots homers, perhaps a history of being slightly more blatant about their cheating than other NFL teams) and I can see people getting a little tired of hearing about this "great organization" constantly pulling these shennanigan's.

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TorontoBlue

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:39 AM ^

Were you "outraged" when Kenny Rogers got caught cheating in the 2006 World Series Tigers fans?  Should the Tigers have been fined or had draft picks taken away?

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Mr. Yost

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:47 AM ^

...but any hint of scandal having "-gate" in some not so clever name.

And no, this isn't a shot at the OP, because once everyone is saying/using the term...you almost have to use it in order to name that topic of coversation. Plus Patriots Ball Deflation Scandal is too long, sounds funny, and most of all...it's nowhere near as catchy.

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Hardware Sushi

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:47 AM ^

No.

This is just because the media doesn't have anything to talk about but hockey, basketball, and college basketball right now and those sports aren't at exactly the most exciting part of their season.

The Super Bowl is the only thing going on and they know they can't just say "Are Tom and Bill the best evar?!" and "Seahawks DEFENSE" nonstop for 2 weeks.

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ESNY

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:48 AM ^

As it stands now, I do not care one bit. My opinion may change if we find out a ball boy was sitting on the sidelines with a needle subversively deflating the balls while being hidden or if they swapped balls while the refs weren't looking. If the Pats merely tool advantage of an official not really checking the balls, good for them.

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saveferris

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:52 AM ^

There are two sides to this; Patriot-haters who want to make this a big deal out of this and everyone else who do not give a fuck.  Also, the Today show conducting a "poll" on how people feel about this is just piling on more bullshit since participation will naturally skew to the haters because, as we've already pointed out, everyone else does not give a fuck. 

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Doctor Wolverine

January 22nd, 2015 at 9:05 AM ^

It seems like the league should do a better job of defining the penalty for each rule broken. Everybody knows that holding is a ten yard penalty, so there is no arguing that outcome. If the rule book states that the penalty for improperly inflated balls is a forfeiture of the game, and a team does it anyway, then they have to accept that outcome. If the league does not define these types of things, it seems that they are inviting confusion and outrage at the ambiguity. For example, one of my colleagues is being terminated because she refused to get the flu shot (she leads a very holistic lifestyle). It may seem harsh, but that was the defined outcome in the employee handbook. I guess the question here is, does the NFL need to do a better job of explaining what penalties correspond to each rule? Thoughts from our HR contributers?

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Hardware Sushi

January 22nd, 2015 at 10:04 AM ^

Not an HR contributer but am a consultant who works in areas including corporate compliance, and the key to following the rules is to first read the rules.

Nowhere does it say forfeiture is the penalty. According to the rulebook below, the Commissioner has the option to punish as he sees fit based on severity of the unfair act. While you or others may feel that forfeiture is the right action and that's your perogative, the process for handling an unfair act is clearly defined...

Page 96 of the NFL rulebook:

"The Commissioner’s powers under this Section 2 include the imposition of monetary fines and draft-choice forfeitures, suspension of persons involved in unfair acts, and, if appropriate, the reversal of a game’s result or the rescheduling of a game, either from the beginning or from the point at which the extraordinary act occurred."

Considering the Pats won 28-0 after the balls were replaced, I doubt the severity would every merit forfeiture of the game.

C'mon doc, don't they make you read lots of books and stuff in school?

Joined: 03/08/2010

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Doctor Wolverine

January 22nd, 2015 at 11:18 AM ^

I am definitely not saying that they should have to forfeit the game. I was only saying that they should have to pay whatever penalty is defined by the league's rule book, similar to how disciplinary actions are carried out in accordance to the employee handbook at my workplace. My point was that the NFL could avoid these types of controversies by being very clear about the rules and what the punishments offenders will face. Sorry that my comment about ambiguity was...ambiguous. (As far as textbooks, they are overrated :)

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jblaze

January 22nd, 2015 at 9:05 AM ^

and the everybody does it arguement is as stupid applied here as anywhere else.

Also, if everybody does it, then why haven't we heard of this before with other teams? Bellichek is a cheater and should be banned next season (just like Sean Peyton).

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