Ted Wells' Investigation on Deflategate reveals that Tom Brady probably knew

This now changes Tom Brady's status from           the Greatest Quaterback Of All Time, to . . .     the Greatest Quarterback Of All Time who may or may not have known about some deflated balls.

It means nothing.

 

This was dumb when it happened and it's even dumber now. Even if this was an incremental advantage, the fact anyone still cares given the littany of other short cuts teams take is hilarious. And this isn't some homer argument; OSU could have been guilty of it and I wouldn't have cared.

It just proves what we knew already that Belichek and Brady cheated. I love Michigan and am glad Brady was a a UofM QB but this makes me think they are a bit dirty and always have been. Just my opinion!!

I realize that there are a whole lot of factors at work, but I was curious about the actual effects of temperature. I'm not disputing that the Pats probably have a lower inflated ball but was curious if starting out with a lower pressure given a big drop in temp (~60-70 degrees indoors to 40's outdoors). This is addressed in the later appendices (see page 199 of the pdf which is available here:

https://nfllabor.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/investigative-and-expert-r…

During the initial clamor about things a lot of people tried to use the various gas laws to prove or disprove things and one aspect I recall was that one had to use the correct units - Absolute temperature (Kelvin) and absolute or total pressure (not just gauge pressure). If you look at the table on page 199 I wonder if this was done. The pressure and temperature ratio (that is P/T) should be consistent for each pair but in the first case it only makes sense if the absolute pressure (gauge + atmosphere or 12.5+14.7) and temp is not 60 but absolute temp of 288.71 Kelvin. The ratios then work out with both pairs of P/T = 0.0942.

If you use gauge pressures and F temps you get P/T ratios which are way off -0.208 for the first (12.5/60) and 0.247 for the second reading (11.87/48).

If this is how they calculated the predictive curves then is the technical analysis flawed?

I'm not an engineer or physics major so I'm sure there are people here who might be able to help but wouldn't they calculate their analysis using absolute pressure and temp?

When I do a quick back of the envelope calcuation P1=12.5 gauge or 27.2 absolute, T1 = 70F or 294.26 K, then under T2 = 48 F or 282.03K, P2=26.07 or 11.37 gauge. Which seems fall into the 11.1-11.4 gauge pressure range in the report. Table 6, page 169.

Sorry about the length, and yes I do have too much time on my hands and this was all done after work.

they doctor their pigskins. Funniest part are texts that are exchanged between the Pats ballboys, especially the "Deflater."

I love the conviction of the report:

Maybe Tom Brady knew the balls were deflated, we can only say it's more likely than not

Maybe they'll keep the Super Bowl win and vacate the AFC Championship because Goodell doesn't want to upset Kraft too much

Maybe they'll suspend Brady and Devin Gardner's odds of playing QB for the Patriots next year will shoot up from 0 to Jimmy Garoppolo's health

 

Lots of Maybe's

 

 

I love the conviction of the report:

Maybe Tom Brady knew the balls were deflated, we can only say it's more likely than not

Maybe they'll keep the Super Bowl win and vacate the AFC Championship because Goodell doesn't want to upset Kraft too much

Maybe they'll suspend Brady and Devin Gardner's odds of playing QB for the Patriots next year will shoot up from 0 to Jimmy Garoppolo's health

 

Lots of Maybe's

 

 

Who gives a fuck?

<sigh>

There's that "gate" thing again. Why oh WHY do so many people tack "gate" to every "scandal?"

New York Times has it on their front page. Juliet Macur is the author of the piece.

A google search of her name shows that she wrote quite a few pieces on the downfall of Lance Armstrong. Now it's much more clear the angle she's hoping to parlay with this - she's hoping this blows up because this is kind of her niche reporting subject matter.

I write her a sarcastic e-mail congratulating her on the shittiest sports article I've read in years, feel free to do the same - [email protected]

What kind of final report includes the word "probably"? If all you've got is probably then you don't have much.

In an alternate NFL-like universe, Police did a 5-month, 241 page-long investigation of my last speeding violation.

1. Two policemen found that I sped up to 65 mph in a 60 mph zone (somewhat as the Patriots’ balls were about 10 % away from the legal limit).

2. The cops think that after passing a speed trap, I said “Ha Ha, I can now speed”. Of course, they failed to record my initial speed (just as they failed to record the pregame pressure of the Pat’s balls).

3. Police clocked my speed for 12 blocks but that of the guy next to me for only 4 blocks (just as the refs measured the halftime pressure of 12 Patriots’ balls and only 4 Colts’ balls due to a “lack of time”). One cop said the guy next to me was not speeding---but the other cop said he was (just as one ref found ¾ of the Colts’ balls also underinflated at halftime).

5. In my alternate, NFL-style universe, the police had never before tested the speed of any other vehicles (just as the NFL refs did not test at halftime any other teams).

6. Actually, it was not even me but my wife who was driving. But police claim they uncovered gossipy emails from my wife's friends.   The emails obliquely suggested that I may have encouraged my wife to exceed the legal speed limit. Even if not, they said I was “probably generally aware” of her speeding.

Of course Brady knew.   He wasn't honest about it.

I couldn't care...it didn't affect performance.  Brady is more cutthroat than most.  A smiling assasin.  They what's great about him.

is that the NFL was a tax exempt organization up until a couple weeks ago. That should be the bigger story.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/tom-brady-probably-isn-t-innocent-in-defla…

 

I guess the headline says it all. My take is that Brady knew and that it's common practice in the NFL. No big deal.

Let it go, people. It's a frickin' ball.

Dude got caught, so just admit it now and get it over with.  The QB fraternity will stick up for him since they probably doctor the balls also.  And everyone else knows that Brady may be the GOAT among QBs regardless of PSI.  

If this gets dragged out, it only hurts.  Social media and 24 hour sports channels do not let things go.

I learned everything that I need to know about cheating and scandal from watching Buckeye fans adamantly defend Jim Tressel four years ago...

"Probably" means that Brady is perfectly innocent, there is no evidence that shows otherwise, and these charges are totally made up.  And even if they aren't made up, everybody does it and this is just sour grapes from all of the teams that lost to him. 

Of course it takes a news source outside the U.S. to get it right - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/32621512

A report that somehow repeatedly reads into a celebrity millionaire QB's lack of handing over a cell phone as guilt...a report that presumes guilt in Brady calling one of the ball boys after the AFC game and talking for 15 minutes, a call that occurred after the ball boy texts Brady to call him to talk...THIS report, which was sanctioned by the NFL and clearly trying its hardest to make Tom Brady look guilty (because the NFL has every damn reason to want this report to come back proving Brady's guilt)...

...the best they can conclude is that the Patriots "probably" cheated and Brady was "probably generally aware" of the deflation?

Yawn. It was the biggest nonissue in sports before, it's even more so now. Even if they're guilty, I still really really don't care.