#DFG: Canceling the Noise

[Norm loves Vera]

Long quote.. but important.. I am glad this guy is refereeing the SB! 
 
"“It obviously caught me off guard,” Vinovich said. “I’m not gonna say what the Ravens should or shouldn’t have done. I mean, the easiest thing [for them] to do would have been to call timeout and let them match up. Basically it was just a brilliant play on Bill Belichick’s part and it caught them off guard. That’s why you have to be able to think quickly. Not only did I say he’s not eligible, I said, ‘Do not cover 34 [Vereen].’ But the DBs were obviously confused. What’s going through my mind is, Can he do this legally? Was Vereen in the previous play? All these different things start going through my mind. Then I realize that going from eligible to ineligible, you don’t have to be out one play before. The other way, coming back ineligible to eligible, you have to be out of play. Now he can’t go back to eligible without going out for a play, which he did. Some of the stuff they throw at you, you just go, whoa. That’s the great part of officiating—it’s always changing. Someone’s gonna think of something different to do. But the play was legal, totally legal.”
 
http://www.csnne.com/blog/patriots-talk/carroll-calls-nfl-patriots-eligible-ineligible-plays

 

[cornwalls@6]

Could Blandino have had a fit of concience over how far out of control this shit storm has gotten, and decided to go off the reservation and blow the whole thing up? If Howe's interpretation of this correct, these admissions are unreal given Wells' supposed gag order.

 

[NWsoxophile]

Within the next 24 hours, expect more tweets from Mort, Florio and others talking about entrechment, low burden of proof, etc.  Goodell is too egotistical to let this go.  

Well I hope he's ready to go to war with Kraft, who has made it clear he won't accept anything less than definitive evidence of tampering. 

 

[bluefenderstrat]

So in the end, the Patriots' balls were found to be slightly underinflated at halftime, in all probability due to atmospheric conditions, and the umpire took the appropriate corrective action.    That's ALL the report should say.

 

[Peak Oil Can Boyd]

https://twitter.com/jeffphowe/status/560909711868821506
 
Interesting use of "gauged".

 

[goSox04]

Jeff Howe ‏@jeffphowe  3m3 minutes ago
Blandino: "Walt gauged the footballs himself. It’s something he has done throughout his career."
 
So, does this mean no pressure gauge was used?

 

[Shelterdog]

Could Blandino have had a fit of concience over how far out of control this shit storm has gotten, and decided to go off the reservation and blow the whole thing up? If Howe's interpretation of this correct, these admissions are unreal given Wells' supposed gag order.

 
 
Well if the report says something like the Pats used a conditioning process (buffing the balls for 10 minutes before giving them to the refs or using a belt sander or whatever) which they should have known would get the balls to be under regulation pressure for game time but the report cannot tell one way or the other whether the Pats actually intended for the balls to be below 12.5 psi, and the league slaps the pats with a 25k fine for reckless, unintentional excessive ball scrubbing by poor Murph, don't you think Kraft walks away?  Fighting the good fight is nice and all but if the penalty is low enough and the findings weak enough at some point fighting may not be worth it.

 

[Jettisoned]

https://twitter.com/jeffphowe/status/560909711868821506
 
Interesting use of "gauged".

 
Oh FFS, is there is a single journalist who can actually get a useful answer out of someone on this?  How hard is it to ask whether or not he used an actual air pressure gauge to test the footballs?

 

[GregHarris]

Good choice having a former comedian up there for this act.  Let me know when they roll out Don Rickles.

 

[kartvelo]

 
Jeff Howe ‏@jeffphowe  3m3 minutes ago
Blandino: "Walt gauged the footballs himself. It’s something he has done throughout his career."
 
So, does this mean no pressure gauge was used?
 

It means, "Walt's been in the business for a long time. He knows a football when he sees one, and he don't need no stinking gauges."

 

[Filet-O-Fisk]

https://twitter.com/jeffphowe/status/560909711868821506
 
Interesting use of "gauged".

Intentionally vague, as was the official NFL statement:
 
"The investigation began based on information that suggested that the game balls used by the New England Patriots were not properly inflated to levels required by the playing rules, specifically Playing Rule 2, Section 1, which requires that the ball be inflated to between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch. Prior to the game, the game officials inspect the footballs to be used by each team and confirm that this standard is satisfied, which was done before last Sunday’s game."

 

[RIFan]

Wells should just hand this in along with an invoice to the NFL.
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jan/29/bill-belichick/factchecking-bill-belichick-deflategate/
 
 
 
@scottzolak also posted on Twitter

 

Ha! Mortensen trying to talk about how his 2psi went to a difference of only 1.     Pathetic

 

[Ed Hillel]

So he may have just said Walt didn't use a gauge and admit that refs couldn't tell the difference between a legal and illegal football in one press conference? Where do we send the gift baskets?

 

[Yossarian]

I love how the Patriots have been far more specific about every detail they can find, while the NFL obfuscates and uses shaded language in their (very few) public statements.
 
Needless to say, this makes the Patriots less credible.

 

[Jettisoned]

Wells should just hand this in along with an invoice to the NFL.
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jan/29/bill-belichick/factchecking-bill-belichick-deflategate/
 

 
Well it's nice that a modest number of Americans are now willing to grudgingly acknowledge a scientific fact that has been well known for 180 years.

 

[E5 Yaz]

ESPN quiet on the Blandino answers thus far

 

[GregHarris]

God, I love Politifact.  Florida's best export since oranges.

 

[Section15Box113]

 
 
Well if the report says something like the Pats used a conditioning process (buffing the balls for 10 minutes before giving them to the refs or using a belt sander or whatever) which they should have known would get the balls to be under regulation pressure for game time but the report cannot tell one way or the other whether the Pats actually intended for the balls to be below 12.5 psi, and the league slaps the pats with a 25k fine for reckless, unintentional excessive ball scrubbing by poor Murph, don't you think Kraft walks away?  Fighting the good fight is nice and all but if the penalty is low enough and the findings weak enough at some point fighting may not be worth it.

 
Sounds like the practice of rubbing them right up to the point they hand the balls to the refs is not just a New England thing.
 
See the Mayne Event: Favre's Footballs clip from 2006. 
 
The money quote comes at the 1:19 mark: "The balls were due in the game officials' hands in 15 minutes.  The rush was on to deliver a high-quality product." 
 
What were the ballboys using?  The electric scrub brushes.

 

[Hoya81]

 
 
Well if the report says something like the Pats used a conditioning process (buffing the balls for 10 minutes before giving them to the refs or using a belt sander or whatever) which they should have known would get the balls to be under regulation pressure for game time but the report cannot tell one way or the other whether the Pats actually intended for the balls to be below 12.5 psi, and the league slaps the pats with a 25k fine for reckless, unintentional excessive ball scrubbing by poor Murph, don't you think Kraft walks away?  Fighting the good fight is nice and all but if the penalty is low enough and the findings weak enough at some point fighting may not be worth it.

If they fine Murph 25k, someone would start a kickstarter campaign and he would end up rich.

 

[Peak Oil Can Boyd]

Love that Florio, Mort, et al are not covering comments by NFL's head of officiating AT ALL.  If this doesn't prove they are interested in only forwarding one narrative, nothing else will.

 

[Zedia]

Long quote.. but important.. I am glad this guy is refereeing the SB! 
 
"“It obviously caught me off guard,” Vinovich said. “I’m not gonna say what the Ravens should or shouldn’t have done. I mean, the easiest thing [for them] to do would have been to call timeout and let them match up. Basically it was just a brilliant play on Bill Belichick’s part and it caught them off guard. That’s why you have to be able to think quickly. Not only did I say he’s not eligible, I said, ‘Do not cover 34 [Vereen].’ But the DBs were obviously confused. What’s going through my mind is, Can he do this legally? Was Vereen in the previous play? All these different things start going through my mind. Then I realize that going from eligible to ineligible, you don’t have to be out one play before. The other way, coming back ineligible to eligible, you have to be out of play. Now he can’t go back to eligible without going out for a play, which he did. Some of the stuff they throw at you, you just go, whoa. That’s the great part of officiating—it’s always changing. Someone’s gonna think of something different to do. But the play was legal, totally legal.”
 
http://www.csnne.com/blog/patriots-talk/carroll-calls-nfl-patriots-eligible-ineligible-plays

 

 
Is this right?  I read the link and I still don't know if the Solder TD should have been a penalty or not...

 

[kartvelo]

Intentionally vague, as was the official NFL statement:
 
"The investigation began based on information that suggested that the game balls used by the New England Patriots were not properly inflated to levels required by the playing rules, specifically Playing Rule 2, Section 1, which requires that the ball be inflated to between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch. Prior to the game, the game officials inspect the footballs to be used by each team and confirm that this standard is satisfied, which was done before last Sunday’s game."

Prior to last Sunday, I'd be willing to bet that officials would assume that any ball outside of those limits would either look like a beach ball or a dishrag. They had no idea that even the difference between 10psi and 14psi is almost imperceptible.

 

[Omar's Wacky Neighbor]

Long quote.. but important.. I am glad this guy is refereeing the SB! 
 
"the easiest thing [for them] to do would have been to call timeout and let them match up.

You mean, like anyone coaching a third grade travel team, in ANY sport, would have done?
 
Well, sure, if you want to go with the obvious........

 

[Harry Hooper]

Prior to last Sunday, I'd be willing to bet that officials would assume that any ball outside of those limits would either look like a beach ball or a dishrag. They had no idea that even the difference between 10psi and 14psi is almost imperceptible.

 
 
Exactly, and I look forward to every NFL QB gunning for the Colts next year for messing this all up for them.

 

[GregHarris]

Any more info on Mort backing off his 2 psi (bullshit)?

 

[Scriblerus]

What a farce!
 
The NFL should come out with statement that basically says, the rules regulating the range of inflation for game balls have been called into question over the past two weeks, and it is clear that revisions and clarification of reporting procedures are in order.  Given the apparent wide-spread confusion over the current rules across the league, no punishment will be handed down to any individual or team for infractions to the rules for game ball inflation previously committed.  Game balls for the Super Bowl will be tested and inflated as necessary throughout the game to account for any pressure changes created by weather conditions and/or game use.

 

[Hoya81]

http://nesn.com/2015/01/dean-blandino-deflategate-wasnt-a-sting-psi-in-footballs-werent-logged/

 

[Ed Hillel]

Ha! Mortensen trying to talk about how his 2psi went to a difference of only 1. Pathetic

 
Did Mort change his story to 1PSI below now?? That would essentially confirm that this entire thing is BS, as 1PSI would be entirely explainable via the climate change without having to account for other factors.

 

[Hoya81]

 
Did Mort change his story to 1PSI below now?? That would essentially confirm that this entire thing is BS, as 1PSI would be entirely explainable via the climate change without having to account for other factors.

Coming from this tweet from Zolak:

https://twitter.com/scottzolak/status/560909034585198592

 

[RIFan]

Only a tweet from Zolak.  He's been hanging out on radio row and probably overheard him in an interview.  He didn't say where he heard it.

 

[Ed Hillel]

Coming from this tweet from Zolak:

https://twitter.com/scottzolak/status/560909034585198592

 
Yeah, I'm just trying to find that interview somewhere.
 
As an aside, Jay Glazer's sources...not so much. Schefter stands alone on an island now, that wonderful elfman.

 

[Norm loves Vera]

Mike Petraglia ‏@Trags 33m33 minutes ago
Reading very much between the lines, Blandino shifted the focus from officials to the NFL. This is clearly ALL about NFL security now.

 

[kartvelo]

Mike Petraglia ‏@Trags 33m33 minutes ago
Reading very much between the lines, Blandino shifted the focus from officials to the NFL. This is clearly ALL about NFL security now.

Yeah,... no.

 

[E5 Yaz]

Here's the takeaway (at the moment):
 
1. If Anderson doesn't have a log saying what the balls were gauged to be pre-game, the NFL can still go after the Pats for "doing something" to the balls between when he checked them and when they were tested at halftime. But in that case, they'd have to have evidence of someone actually doing something to the balls.
 
2. If Anderson and crew approved them by "feel," they have a weaker case, unless they can prove someone did something.
 
3. That Blandino didn't know of a complaint about the 11/16 Colts game doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't one.
 
So, this moves the needle a bit more in the Patriots direction, but it in itself is not a smoking gun

 

[grsharky7]

Still nothing about Blandino's statement...funny, if it was to slander the Pats it would've been front page news

 

[kartvelo]

If there were video or other solid evidence of anyone doing something wrong, it'd be leaked by now. There isn't any evidence, because no one did anything wrong.
 
In fact, there was never even any reason to have suspected that anyone did anything wrong in the first place, because science.

 

[Section15Box113]

FOX10 Phoenix has the video of the Football Operations Press Conference.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Here's the takeaway (at the moment):
 
1. If Anderson doesn't have a log saying what the balls were gauged to be pre-game, the NFL can still go after the Pats for "doing something" to the balls between when he checked them and when they were tested at halftime. But in that case, they'd have to have evidence of someone actually doing something to the balls.
 
2. If Anderson and crew approved them by "feel," they have a weaker case, unless they can prove someone did something.
 
3. That Blandino didn't know of a complaint about the 11/16 Colts game doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't one.
 
So, this moves the needle a bit more in the Patriots direction, but it in itself is not a smoking gun

 
His comments are illustrative of the non-rigor of the whole process, which is critical for the halftime check. If the officials were honest, they stated something like the balls were between 1 and 2 pounds low, so we topped them up. They won't cite specific PSI numbers. That puts them squarely in the range of (non-tampered) pressure loss BB discussed and other testing has found as feasible.

 

[Section15Box113]

Discussion of the signal for ineligible reporting as eligible starts in the video at ~11:00.

 

[johnmd20]

Here's the takeaway (at the moment):
 
1. If Anderson doesn't have a log saying what the balls were gauged to be pre-game, the NFL can still go after the Pats for "doing something" to the balls between when he checked them and when they were tested at halftime. But in that case, they'd have to have evidence of someone actually doing something to the balls.
 
2. If Anderson and crew approved them by "feel," they have a weaker case, unless they can prove someone did something.
 
3. That Blandino didn't know of a complaint about the 11/16 Colts game doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't one.
 
So, this moves the needle a bit more in the Patriots direction, but it in itself is not a smoking gun

 
I think it's a big move of the needle towards the Pats. They have nothing because, well, there is nothing to have. How about that?

 

[Doctor G]

Blandino's interview taken in the light of D"Guell Jackson's statement that he didn't tell anyone that the ball was soft, leads to only one logical conclusion. This whole thing was a premeditated complaint by the Colts. It also raises the question of did they intentionally deflate the ball they called into question in order to get all the balls tested.This might have started as gamesmanship. But after the whupping the Pats put on the Colts in the second half, gamesmanship might have evolved into character assassination on the part of Indy ownership and front office.

It is no surprise that Indy players are embarassed by this whole affair.

 

[wiffleballhero]

It seems like this story is going to taper off without the Pats getting a just reply from the league. 
 
Obviously the refs did not do any more than a squeeze test before the game. Everybody knows it and we need to wait for some face saving move.
 
The Piss Heard (about) 'round the World
 
What a farce.

 

[Section15Box113]

Chain of custody rules for the footballs at ~14:30.

 

[soxfanSJCA]

 I really hope Robert Kraft does not back down from his words, this has been one of the biggest and most  baseless smear campaigns i have ever seen for any team, ever. The only thing I can compare this with is the last time this happened in 2007.

 Its always good to find out who ones real friends are, too bad it is often a painful process getting there.
 
 

 

[E5 Yaz]

 
His comments are illustrative of the non-rigor of the whole process, which is critical for the halftime check. If the officials were honest, they stated something like the balls were between 1 and 2 pounds low, so we topped them up. They won't cite specific PSI numbers. That puts them squarely in the range of (non-tampered) pressure loss BB discussed and other testing has found as feasible.

 
Agreed, which is why the onus is on the NFL to either prove someone tampered with the balls, or drop the investigation.
 
I still think, however, that to save face they'll issue a general fine on the organization.
 
That's as optimistic as I'm allowing myself in non-game matters

 

[Section15Box113]

Differences in the football protocols for the Super Bowl at ~15:00.

 

[E5 Yaz]

 
I think it's a big move of the needle towards the Pats. They have nothing because, well, there is nothing to have. How about that?

 
Well, unless Blandino is talking through his hat and isn't clued into the investigation

 

[Section15Box113]

Ben Volin's questions to Blandino on Deflategate at 16:00.

 

[Harry Hooper]

FOX10 Phoenix has the video of the Football Operations Press Conference.

 
 
Can someone capture this stream for posterity?

 

[E5 Yaz]

 
 
Can someone capture this stream for posterity?

 
And send it to Wells