Let Brady deflate balls

Submitted by BluByYou on

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/05/08/nfl-inflating-footballs-air-pressure-rule/

This makes sense to me, let each team set their own psi.  Aside from that, the range is 12.5 psi to 13.5 psi.  To what extent did the Patriot balls exceed the range?  If their balls were at, say, 12 psi or even 11.5 psi, percentage-wise a negligable violation, like a $100 tax error vs a $100,000 tax error.  I don't condone violating the rules, but perspective needs to be applied.  Also, Brady and the Pats are likely targets for several obvious reasons, Brady in particular.  Like in golf, some rules are just plain stupid, like the penalty if your ball moves from an outsitde influence while addressing it.  Forgive me if this was discussed ad nauseam before.

ijohnb

May 8th, 2015 at 3:51 PM ^

may feel the need to puff his chest out a little bit, no question.  But this entire NFL season has been draining with all the talk of domestic violence, etc.  The league may need a complete makeover, and it looks like Brady may be the first to go under the needle.

Also - Balls.

Everyone Murders

May 8th, 2015 at 4:00 PM ^

These situations are really difficult to gauge.  A friend of mine who was a Kappa Alpha PSI told me that Goodell's got kidney issues, and his mood is affected by the contents of his bladder.  I, for one, think this is all blown out of proportion.

Additionally, sagging balls.

True Blue Grit

May 8th, 2015 at 3:42 PM ^

as a distraction so people won't pay attention to other things that are the League's fault - like poor enforcement as you mention, or their horrible handling of assault/abuse cases, for example.  What's so bad in this case, is they're doing it as the expense of one of the NFL's poster-players who makes them a lot of money. 

ijohnb

May 8th, 2015 at 9:33 PM ^

you think it is possible that the NFL kind of has Patriot fatigue and is kind of trying to break this thing up a little bit. I have to admit that I find myself a little bored by Patriot Super bowls at this point. I get the been there done that feeling. I could use a Patriot free season or two. They are wearing on me.

ghost

May 8th, 2015 at 6:57 PM ^

Robert Kraft's speech about wanting an apology will go down with Mario Lemieux's bitching about people hitting Crosby as two of the dumbest and tone deaf comments ever made by owners.

Also when NE's defense consists of "you can't prove it with 100% certainty" and "if we did do it it should not matter" its obvious they are guilty.

Mr. Owl

May 8th, 2015 at 8:07 PM ^

At what point does Brady just say "I've had a great career, made a lot of money, and am extremely marketable.  Good luck Roger, I'm retiring."

 

mishler3

May 8th, 2015 at 8:53 PM ^

Why is this even an issue? I live in South Florida and one of the former Dolphin players on the radio thinks this "investigation" is only because it's the Patriots. He also thinks a potential suspension is ludicrous. His on-air coworkers are onboard with a Brady suspension and believe that deflated balls is an unfair competitive advantage. ALL Dolphin fans are Patriot haters and want to see their empire crumble. It's so pathetic.

Rhino77

May 8th, 2015 at 9:51 PM ^

The NFL is hanging itself and it doesn't even care that it's providing the rope.

They claim the NFL has never been more popular but I think a lot of that has to do with fantasy. The product on the field is horrendous. You can't hit, players can't tackle, and there is virtually no defense. I used to spend the weekend watching several games, but now I just watch one or two at most. I know they don't care about the football enthusiast like I was, they want the casual fan who doesn't know or doesn't care that the product has diminished.

I wake up on weekends now and I watch European football/soccer. 5 years ago I didn't even know the game. That is what the NFL, NBA, and MLB has done to me.



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bacon

May 8th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^

I find the whole thing comical. The league is very passer friendly, will allow teams to doctor the footballs to great extents every week, but having slightly too much or too little air is illegal. Not only that, why is it that the league chose 12.5 as the lower limit? Does anyone actually believe that the NFL set the lower limit at 12.5 psi because they think it's a competitive advantage to have the ball below that level? Makes the ball too easy to catch? What a joke. The NFL does everything to promote offense, including letting the qbs hand select their footballs, yet the ball can't be too easy to catch because that would be unfair. 12.5 is an arbitrary number they chose at some point. Oh, and when cameras caught two other teams tampering with their footballs on the sidelines earlier in the year, they just sent them a memo to stop doing it. http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikings/post/_/id/11218/nfl-aware-of-…

RuebenRileyonRye

May 9th, 2015 at 12:10 AM ^

I'm honestly so tired of the NFL. I barely watched last year because of the hypocrisy of the Ray Rice and lying and cover up. The team I loved growing up was bought by a criminal and now made one of the most recognizable jerseys look like Bowling Green. I'm at a point where I will keep up with UofM and B1G Ten and and be done with the NFL. I was over the NBA years ago. I love the Tigers and that's about it. All this is ESPN not having anything to report. It's this and A-Roid. Here's a suggestion for ESPN - Start interviewing all the real baseball legends who are getting "passed" by A-Roid and tell the world how they feel watching him make millions passing them with juiced up numbers. That's a story.



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treetown

May 9th, 2015 at 10:21 AM ^

The NFL won't come off well any way:

1. IF the NFL suspends Brady for 2, 4, 6, etc. games - it will be compared with the Ray Rice situation - so alleged tampering will be seen as getting more attention that striking and rendering unconscious a woman and then dragging her body out of an elevator.

2. The NFL spend more time and energy investigating this issue then they did with the Ray Rice situation. They couldn't even be bothered initially with getting what the tabloids could find.

3. Is there any competitive advantage?

4. Most of all - the NFL's reputation as a top notch professional organization is now revealed to be as well run as some amateur sports group - sometimes it works well, sometimes it is just mediocre and occasional horrible - a lot of of part time people from referees, equipment people and despite years of concern, no sense of how to conduct any investigation.

Honk if Ufer M…

May 9th, 2015 at 12:26 AM ^

Jeff Blake said everyone does it:

"I'm just going to let the cat of the bag, every team does it, every game, it has been since I played," the ex-Jets QB said Wednesday in a radio interview on the "Midday 180" show on Nashville's 104.5 The Zone. "Cause when you take the balls out of the bag, they are rock hard. And you can't feel the ball as well. It's too hard.

"Everybody puts the pin in and takes just enough air out of the ball that you can feel it a little better. But it's not the point to where it's flat. So I don't know what the big deal is. It's not something that's not been done for 20 years."

http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2015/01/needles_on_sidelines_former_je…

The only competitive advantage would come from luck of the draw IF they used the same balls for each team and they were strictly regulated during the games. Then which ever quarterbacks have the perfect hand size for the standard ball and those who throw the best with that standard inflation get an advantage.

The way to entirely eliminate competitive advantages is to let each quarterback do whatever he wants to with the balls, whatever is best for you is up to you and getting it perfect is a skill or a problem for each person to solve. Get yours as good as it can be for you and the other team does the same for them. Why on earth not?

mwoody

May 9th, 2015 at 8:51 AM ^

NFL needs to immediately regulate:

  • Shoelace tension
  • Amount of tape on ankles
  • Sleeve length on Jerseys
  • Amount of water/Gatoraid allowed per player/game
  • Equalize number of fans in the stands in playoff games - each team gets exactly the same
  • Temperature in locker rooms

Deflategate is a complete joke.

ghost

May 9th, 2015 at 10:26 AM ^

Where was the outrage when the Falcons and Browns got in trouble.  Or the Cowboys and the Redskins?  Just because Boston sports fans belove their teams do it the right way doesn't mean every won else has to believe it.  The Patriot way has included now 2 instances of cheating, steroids, a DEA informant, and a triple murderer. A real classy organization.