#DFG: Canceling the Noise

[ElcaballitoMVP]

 
That is tremendous. Kensil, the ex-Jet executive with a hard-on for the Pats, fucking about with the intercepted football after the Colts got a hold of it. And then either Kensil or Grigson tips off Kravitz because they're upset they got destroyed in the AFCCG....
 
I hope Goodell fines the Colts $1.5 million, has them forfeit a first rounder, suspends Grigson and Irsay for 1/2 a year, and fires Kensil. This is fucking disgraceful.

 
To be clear, the message I got from my buddy was that the Pats had video clearing them of any wrongdoing. He believed it had something to do with Kensil coming down and messing with the intercepted football, so I assumed they had video of that. It's possible they could have video of this guy swapping out the footballs so he could sell them, which resulted in non-approved balls being "introduced" and Kensil getting involved. Trying to get more info from my buddy now. I'll let you guys know if he has anything worth passing on 

 

[Corsi]

Talking deflategate on NFL Live now.

 

[Jettisoned]

-NFL official leaks to some hack writer a vague report of some "suspicious behavior" on the part of some member of the Patriots
-Hack writer speculates that this piece of evidence is the smoking gun, proposes hefty punishment
-Hours later a more reputable reporter receives a leak clarifying that in fact, the suspicious behavior is either innocuous or is actually the fault of a league employee unaffiliated with the Patriots
-repeat ad nauseam
 
I just don't get the motivation for those initial leaks.  Does the leaker not think the rest of the story will come out? 

 

[Corsi]

Schefter:
 
Three league officials handed McNally footballs to be used.  All captured on video.  One was fired to his pattern of behavior.
 
edit: from what I could understand, it was two league officials and the K-1 official in charge of the kicker balls.

 

[LuckyBen]

Talking deflategate on NFL Live now.

Crickets from Brunell. And actually the only thing confusing about this is the incompetence shown by ESPN.

 

[ivanvamp]

 
To be clear, the message I got from my buddy was that the Pats had video clearing them of any wrongdoing. He believed it had something to do with Kensil coming down and messing with the intercepted football, so I assumed they had video of that. It's possible they could have video of this guy swapping out the footballs so he could sell them, which resulted in non-approved balls being "introduced" and Kensil getting involved. Trying to get more info from my buddy now. I'll let you guys know if he has anything worth passing on 

 
Remember when it was reported, very early on, that the NFL was "distraught"?  I wonder if this is why.  Because they knew that as this played out, THEIR OWN EMPLOYEES would be outed and it would reflect so poorly on them.  

 

[Leather]

The nature of leaks is that the leaker is supposed to remain anonymous.

 

[CoffeeNerdness]

To be clear, the message I got from my buddy was that the Pats had video clearing them of any wrongdoing. He believed it had something to do with Kensil coming down and messing with the intercepted football, so I assumed they had video of that. It's possible they could have video of this guy swapping out the footballs so he could sell them, which resulted in non-approved balls being "introduced" and Kensil getting involved. Trying to get more info from my buddy now. I'll let you guys know if he has anything worth passing on

IIRC there was a tweet from SharksOfVegas talking about video of Kensil on the sideline.

 

[Ed Hillel]

 
Right.  My point is just that people thinking this vindicates the Patriots entirely are incorrect.

 
Unless the same guy also handled Patriots footballs during the game.

 

[TheoShmeo]

This is beyond perfect.
 
SB Week 1: NFL leaks bullshit about the Patriots.  Gives the Patriots an "us against the world" sense and if anything intensifies their preparation for SB 49.  BB ends week with Mona Lisa Vito Press Conference.
 
SB Week 2: Kraft throws gauntlet down and demands an apology if nothing comes of the investigation.
 
SB 49: Pats win.  Cause Haters like Mike Francessa to throw an embolism while claiming that Pats did not actually win...Seattle lost.  Brady's, Edleman's and Butler's heroics, be damned.
 
Next Two Weeks: Pats Fans spend hours and hours watching and re-watching the game, while debating where Butler's pick stands in NFL and Boston sports history.  And ordering t-shirts and such.
 
Aftermath: ESPN breathlessly tells us about the Locker Room Attendant.
 
Hours Later: ESPN and NFL exposed as utter clowns, with allegations that NFL employees profited from stolen ball.
 
Ultimate Result: NFL has nothing on Patriots.  Wells report to come, I guess.
 
This is glorious.
 
PS: I neglected to include Kraft's utter blow off of Goodell on the victory podium and the allusion in his speech as to why this victory was so special.  We wouldn't have gotten that without BullShitGate.
 
Will the keystone cop nature of this whole thing be the last straw that puts Goodell's job in actual jeopardy?  Too much to hope for, I fear.

 

[Corsi]

 
https://twitter.com/MarkDanielsPJ/status/568157108996165632

 

[Harry Hooper]

-NFL official leaks to some hack writer a vague report of some "suspicious behavior" on the part of some member of the Patriots
-Hack writer speculates that this piece of evidence is the smoking gun, proposes hefty punishment
-Hours later a more reputable reporter receives a leak clarifying that in fact, the suspicious behavior is either innocuous or is actually the fault of a league employee unaffiliated with the Patriots
-repeat ad nauseam
 
I just don't get the motivation for those initial leaks.  Does the leaker not think the rest of the story will come out? 

. It is timed to make BB look bad at his Combine press conference. It wasn't supposed to get nuked so quickly.

 

[Shelterdog]

 
It's also another blow against any supposed inside source who isn't connected to Adam Schefter. It's pretty clear that there are multiple parties within the league who have been using the media to tell a very particular story with extremely limited pieces of information, but Schefter either isn't talking to those people, is smart enough to know what not to put out there, or simply works a lot harder than his colleagues to find out what's actually happening.

 
Schefter is smart enough not to put out a drib or a drab of information on a complex story because really, why be like Glazer and risk losing credibility by reporting that a dude went to the bathroom?
 
 I'll bet on this one he got off of a half hour heavily scripted presentation made by the Patriots to obliterate this latest story, Jon Kraft, Bob Kraft, Ernie Adams and, 3 Morgan Lewis litigation partners where they just went fucking nuclear on the NFL. 

 

[Ed Hillel]

There's a good question. If Adam Schefter knew about this and it's going to be in the Wells report...who were Naqi's sources, and how is it that they know so little about what's going on?

 

[nattysez]

. It is timed to make BB look bad at his Combine press conference. It wasn't supposed to get nuked so quickly.

 
Edit:
 
No Pats personnel are doing press conferences at the Combine.
 
 

The Patriots are one of just three teams – the Saints and Eagles the others – without a coach or personnel official scheduled to hold a press conference this week.
 

 

[Marciano490]

There's a good question. If Adam Schefter knew about this and it's going to be in the Wells report...who were Naqi's sources, and how is it that they know so little about what's going on?

 
Someone in the Pats organization to set up the rebuttal and embarass the league.  That's what's up.

 

[Leather]

There's a good question. If Adam Schefter knew about this and it's going to be in the Wells report...who were Naqi's sources, and how is it that they know so little about what's going on?

 
Who says they don't know what's going on?
 
They want to keep the narrative alive, and don't give a shit about Naqi looking like an ass in a day or two (or whenever the report comes out).

 

[soxhop411]

 
https://twitter.com/MarkDanielsPJ/status/568157108996165632

That ball boy should sue ESPN

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

 
Someone in the Pats organization to set up the rebuttal and embarass the league.  That's what's up.

 
I'm not so sure it wasn't the league itself.  It could be that the "sources" that Mort and others have had all along are people at other teams who are getting second half information and have an axe to grind.  
 
I'm not so sure that Schefter goes full bore on debunking this story with just information that he gets from the Patriots.  I know we all are pretty pissed off at the league and the way they've handled this, and maybe I'm being ridiculously naive, but I think it's at least possible that the league and/or Wells were not happy about OTL last night and used their favorite reporter to get the story straight to avoid further embarrassing of the Patriots.

 

[Harry Hooper]

 
Edit:
 
No Pats personnel are doing press conferences at the Combine.
 
 

. Fair enough, though the leaker may believe every team is doing one or has to do one. Plus, BB is going to be amidst the media regardless.

 

[Jettisoned]

In lieu of eating crow, Brunell and Bettis can stuff some footballs up their asses on ESPN.  However, they only have to inflate the footballs to 10.5 psi, which, if their opinions are to be believed, should make the task far easier.

 

[riboflav]

Anyone want a Twitter claim...errr...rumor? The fired official is from, you guessed it, Indianapolis. 

 

[Shelterdog]

 
Someone in the Pats organization to set up the rebuttal and embarass the league.  That's what's up.

 
Fuck yeah.

My baseless speculation.  The Pats knew about this official getting canned very early on.  There are some leaks to the press the week before the Superbowl, Kraft tells RG no more leaks or we turn it up to 11 but we're sitting on our exculpatory evidence until Wells is done for the good of the league, Kraft gives his "the league should apologize when this is all over" speech, and then the Pats play nice in the sandbox for a few weeks.  Then this bullshit goes up trashing the poor innocent guy and the Pats just-to quote the immortal Alvin Mack--kill everybody

 

[E5 Yaz]

I agree with Marciano. I think someone has been assigned by the Pats to respond whenever anything leaks from "the other side" of this, and to use Schefter -- since he has the most credibility.

 

[soxhop411]

Anyone want a Twitter claim...errr...rumor? The fired official is from, you guessed it, Indianapolis. 

Link?

 

[Marciano490]

I agree with Marciano. I think someone has been assigned by the Pats to respond whenever anything leaks from "the other side" of this, and to use Schefter -- since he has the most credibility.

 
Yup, and to respond to knives with guns.

 

[DJnVa]

The grand theory of everything, from reddit:

 

OK this explains everything. The Patriots underinflated the balls before the game, and the officials only gave it a squeeze test instead of using a pressure gauge so they didn't notice. The Patriots then had a ball boy deliberately deflate 11 of their 12 game balls in the bathroom outside the officials' locker to give Tom Brady an even greater advantage at passing the ball and so that they would never fumble. Then one league official stole a kicking ball to sell, and he gave another unauthorized kicking ball to McNally. McNally knew that the new kicking ball was unauthorized, but he figured it would give the Colts a disadvantage, so he tried to pass it off as genuine to the officials, who noticed it was fake, which made the officials suspicious that the Patriots were doctoring their own balls. In the meantime, Brady threw an interception to D'Qwell Jackson, who noticed that the game ball was underinflated because of a combination of the ball boy's efforts and the cold weather. D'Qwell Jackson handed it off to an equipment manager, who gave it to Grigson, who had conspired with Harbaugh and Kensil to run a sting operation to catch the Patriots in deflating the balls. But in order to make sure the Patriots got in trouble, before handing the intercepted ball over to Kensil, Grigson further deflated the intercepted ball. And also the Colts overinflated their balls above 13.5 PSI before the game so that they would fall within the correct pressure range when the balls were measured at half time as part of the conspiracy sting, which the officials again did not notice because of the squeeze test's inaccuracy. Kensil assembled the Patriots' balls and individually measured and inflated them two times: once in the second quarter where most balls were between a few ticks and 1 PSI under 12.5 PSI, and this resulted in a Colts' ball being used by the Patriots' offense while the Patriots' balls were unavailable, and once again during half time in the officials' locker room where balls were 2 PSI under 12.5 PSI, which resulted in a delay at the beginning of the third quarter.
I think that's everything. Everyone else understand now?
 

 

[dcmissle]

This is beyond perfect.
 
SB Week 1: NFL leaks bullshit about the Patriots.  Gives the Patriots an "us against the world" sense and if anything intensifies their preparation for SB 49.  BB ends week with Mona Lisa Vito Press Conference.
 
SB Week 2: Kraft throws gauntlet down and demands an apology if nothing comes of the investigation.
 
SB 49: Pats win.  Cause Haters like Mike Francessa to throw an embolism while claiming that Pats did not actually win...Seattle lost.  Brady's, Edleman's and Butler's heroics, be damned.
 
Next Two Weeks: Pats Fans spend hours and hours watching and re-watching the game, while debating where Butler's pick stands in NFL and Boston sports history.  And ordering t-shirts and such.
 
Aftermath: ESPN breathlessly tells us about the Locker Room Attendant.
 
Hours Later: ESPN and NFL exposed as utter clowns, with allegations that NFL employees profited from stolen ball.
 
Ultimate Result: NFL has nothing on Patriots.  Wells report to come, I guess.
 
This is glorious.
 
PS: I neglected to include Kraft's utter blow off of Goodell on the victory podium and the allusion in his speech as to why this victory was so special.  We wouldn't have gotten that without BullShitGate.
 
Will the keystone cop nature of this whole thing be the last straw that puts Goodell's job in actual jeopardy?  Too much to hope for, I fear.

Well said. And poetic coming from you.

If, as reported, BB and TB were not interviewed, you have offered the reason why.

Let's get about the business of constructing the "15 team, add to the trophies, and crush their spirit.

What a corrupt clown show.

 

[Jettisoned]

The grand theory of everything, from reddit:
 

 
Can't make a movie yet, we're missing the third act.

 

[Kull]

Here's another interesting aspect to the original deflation controversy. The latest stories portray Kensil as the guy who measured the inflation of the balls at half time and then directed them to be reinflated for use in the second half. And that's key because he does NOT have the authority to judge inflation levels, nor was the "solution" the one specifically called out in the NFL's own rules (http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/5_2013_Ball.pdf)
 
1) The Referee shall be the sole judge as to whether all balls offered for play comply with these specifications.
 
2) In the event a home team ball does not conform to specifications, or its supply is exhausted, the Referee shall secure a proper ball from the visitors and, failing that, use the best available ball.
 
Kensil is not the Referee, nor was "reinflation" first or even second on the list of remedies. So even if Goodell wanted to go after the Pats for some sort of technical violation ("supplying underinflated balls", knowingly or otherwise), the league office's handling and remedy were a direct violation of the rules, forget "technicality".

 

[ilol@u]

^ that reddit comment is ridiculous. The Patriots did not tell the ball boy to deflate the balls in 90 seconds in the bathroom to give Brady a better advantage. It makes no sense.

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

Here's another interesting aspect to the original deflation controversy. The latest stories portray Kensil as the guy who measured the inflation of the balls at half time and then directed them to be reinflated for use in the second half. And that's key because he does NOT have the authority to judge inflation levels, nor was the "solution" the one specifically called out in the NFL's own rules (http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/5_2013_Ball.pdf)
 
1) The Referee shall be the sole judge as to whether all balls offered for play comply with these specifications.
 
2) In the event a home team ball does not conform to specifications, or its supply is exhausted, the Referee shall secure a proper ball from the visitors and, failing that, use the best available ball.
 
Kensil is not the Referee, nor was "reinflation" first or even second on the list of remedies. So even if Goodell wanted to go after the Pats for some sort of technical violation ("supplying underinflated balls", knowingly or otherwise), the league office's handling and remedy were a direct violation of the rules, forget "technicality".

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Mike Kensil, remember that name guys.......</p>&mdash; Sharks of Vegas (@SharksOfVegas) <a href="https://twitter.com/SharksOfVegas/status/559548842886963202">January 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Edit:  This post would have been kick ass if I understood how to embed a tweet.  Sorry.

 

[Leather]

^ that reddit comment is ridiculous. The Patriots did not tell the ball boy to deflate the balls in 90 seconds in the bathroom to give Brady a better advantage. It makes no sense.

 
That theory has them deflating the balls twice.

 

[Trlicek's Whip]

^ Reddit Is ridiculous.

 

[jtn46]

^ that reddit comment is ridiculous. The Patriots did not tell the ball boy to deflate the balls in 90 seconds in the bathroom to give Brady a better advantage. It makes no sense.

Your sarcasm detector is on the fritz.

 

[DaughtersofDougMirabelli]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Mike Kensil, remember that name guys.......</p>&mdash; Sharks of Vegas (@SharksOfVegas) <a href="https://twitter.com/SharksOfVegas/status/559548842886963202">January 26, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Edit:  This post would have been kick ass if I understood how to embed a tweet.  Sorry.

https://twitter.com/SharksOfVegas/status/559548842886963202

 

[dcmissle]

^ that reddit comment is ridiculous. The Patriots did not tell the ball boy to deflate the balls in 90 seconds in the bathroom to give Brady a better advantage. It makes no sense.

Reddit almost got some poor, innocent guy or guys killed in the immediate aftermath of the Marathon Bombing.

Arguably, in conjunction with the NY Post, it did: this is in part why the BPD and FBI aired the videos, which led to the murder of the policeman at MIT.

So those boys and girls in their basements can go eff themselves as far as I'm concerned.

 

[soxhop411]

“@GlobeChadFinn: Roger Goodell: "I am available to the media almost every day of my job professionally." All right, let's see when he comments on this sham.”

 

[steeplechase3k]

 
Can't make a movie yet, we're missing the third act.

 
That Patriots win every game next year by 30+ points.

 

[amarshal2]

^ that reddit comment is ridiculous. The Patriots did not tell the ball boy to deflate the balls in 90 seconds in the bathroom to give Brady a better advantage. It makes no sense.

 
Apparently, welol@u
 
(It's tongue in cheek)
 
edit: fixin me idioms

 

[DaughtersofDougMirabelli]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQLQ6AC7NWg

 

[NortheasternPJ]

If the latest reports are even half true, Bob Kraft is going to go nuclear on the NFL front office.
 
I wouldn't want to be Roger now, except I'd have like $80 million dollars.

 

[ilol@u]

Fair enough. Didn't register in my head. I guess I'm just a bit frustrated about how the Patriots were left out to dry post-AFCCG, when the NFL officials/Colts were the ones that were 100% in the wrong.

 

[bankshot1]

today we settle all family business

 

[pappymojo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt9q-WChfeM

 

[jtn46]

Maybe it's about time the NFL hires a special investigator to figure out why there are so many leaks to the media.

 

[Shelterdog]

Reddit almost got some poor, innocent guy or guys killed in the immediate aftermath of the Marathon Bombing.

Arguably, in conjunction with the NY Post, it did: this is in part why the BPD and FBI aired the videos, which led to the murder of the policeman at MIT.

So those boys and girls in their basements can go eff themselves as far as I'm concerned.

 
 
FLYING JOKE
 
        ^
        I
 LIKE A MILE
        I
 
  dcmissle's head

 

[DJnVa]

^ that reddit comment is ridiculous. The Patriots did not tell the ball boy to deflate the balls in 90 seconds in the bathroom to give Brady a better advantage. It makes no sense.

 
 
If you could not pick up on the obvious sarcasm in that, the NFL has a job for you as a sideline official in charge of balls.
 

 

[JimBoSox9]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQLQ6AC7NWg

 
0:47 to 1:02 is one of the great examples of desperation B roll in live TV history.  Only time in the whole segment they didn't show Ley or a pic of Schefter.

 

[simplyeric]

I don't have enough Facepalms to adequately cover this. Just. Wow.