#DFG: Canceling the Noise

[dcmissle]

The other thing this does is pretty much force Goodell to appoint an independent reviewer of the sanctions. Independence , independence, independence ... If it's so damn important you better act like it.

Looks like Yee's initial statement really got under their skin.

 

[tims4wins]

http://www.paulweiss.com/professionals/partners-and-counsel/lorin-l-reisner.aspx
 
Reisner is no associate....LOL

 
Pretty sure he meant associate as in colleague...

 

[swingin val]

"Richard Farley, who has been the NFL Security Representative for New England
for approximately twelve years and is present in the Officials Locker Room before and during
every Patriots home game, said that he considers it part of his job description to accompany the
referee to the field and that he is generally in close proximity to McNally and the game balls
when he walks to the field with the referee. According to Farley, he often opens the door to
allow McNally to exit easily with the ball bags, and then McNally, Farley, the referee and the
head linesman will walk to the field together or in close proximity to each other. Farley cannot
recall McNally previously bringing game balls to the field prior to the start of a game without
being accompanied by or in close proximity to one or more game officials."

 

[dcmissle]

Wouldn't a real commissioner be heard from around now? I assumed Wells was put out there because Roger is so profoundly inarticulate.

No because he still purports to be the independent reviewer. That is why the sanctions came out under Vincent's name. This will prove untenable.

 

[troparra]

 
Please do not disregard the most serious of texts which happened in May of 2014, 5 months before the game with the 16psi, in which McNally's text indicate he was deflating the balls in a way that might cause a negative public reaction if it was discovered (I am not going to ESPN).
The October texts indicate several things for me. First of all they indicate that the Pats didn't have a watertight scheme there; it was probably a weekly battle with the refs. But also, that Tom was aware of what was going on. Why would he be concerned that McNally was stressed otherwise? And why would McNally be stressed in the first place if everything he was doing was done by the book? I mean if everything was done by the book, this is as a stress free job as there can be, right?
 
Last, but not least, McNally was constantly leveraging his involvement in order to get more loot. But people leverage their involvement when they go above and beyond. Why would McNally do so and talk in a prickly and disrespectful manner to his superior if all he was doing was his job? And why would that be tolerated? Again, this indicates he was doing something at least somewhat questionable.
Now, having said that. Can there be a relatively innocent explanation for all of this and Brady really not be culpable. yes it might. Does Tom Brady have a defense? yes. Is the case against him proven beyond reasonable doubt. No. But I don't think that these possibilities are the most probable. I think the most probable one is that there was some scheme going on and Tom knew about it. And knowing about it is a bit misleading in this case, because the scheme was instigated by his desires. So it's just not knowing.
 
So, all of the above is the strongest part of the case against Brady. The science, like I ve said before is highly suspect. The alleged crime the most minor out of minor crimes.
I guess we should all be jealous about the people tearing their clothes in sanctimony. They must be really virtuous in their lives, never having cut corners and always doing the squeaky clean thing. Personally, I haven't and I would be really happy if my worst wrongdoing was underinflating balls before a football game in order to gain a subjective, but not objectively proven, edge.

Those texts happened almost exactly a year ago.  Were the Patriots preparing balls for their preseason game months later?

 

[EvilEmpire]

This has been touched on lightly in a couple of places around here, but what happens when Brady and Yee challenge this is court? How far does discovery go? Are we likely to see key people like Kensil, Anderson, Brady, Jastremski, McNally, etc, all testifying under oath?

Getting a bunch of people under oath seems like the best chance to figure everything out.


Please let this be so.

 

[Revkeith]

Barstool. And many of them were just arrested

 
Doing what they do best.

 

[BroodsSexton]

"Richard Farley, who has been the NFL Security Representative for New England
for approximately twelve years and is present in the Officials Locker Room before and during
every Patriots home game, said that he considers it part of his job description to accompany the
referee to the field and that he is generally in close proximity to McNally and the game balls
when he walks to the field with the referee. According to Farley, he often opens the door to
allow McNally to exit easily with the ball bags, and then McNally, Farley, the referee and the
head linesman will walk to the field together or in close proximity to each other. Farley cannot
recall McNally previously bringing game balls to the field prior to the start of a game without
being accompanied by or in close proximity to one or more game officials."

 
Farley set him up!  Get his text messages!

 

[tims4wins]

"Richard Farley, who has been the NFL Security Representative for New England
for approximately twelve years and is present in the Officials Locker Room before and during
every Patriots home game, said that he considers it part of his job description to accompany the
referee to the field and that he is generally in close proximity to McNally and the game balls
when he walks to the field with the referee. According to Farley, he often opens the door to
allow McNally to exit easily with the ball bags, and then McNally, Farley, the referee and the
head linesman will walk to the field together or in close proximity to each other. Farley cannot
recall McNally previously bringing game balls to the field prior to the start of a game without
being accompanied by or in close proximity to one or more game officials."

 
Just so I am clear:
 
What Farley said - taken as gospel
What Anderson said about which gauge he used - useless, wrong, throw it out
 
Just want to make sure I have my facts straight.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

http://www.paulweiss.com/professionals/partners-and-counsel/lorin-l-reisner.aspx
 
Reisner is no associate....LOL

 
I read it that way but if you think about it, maybe he's saying that Reisner is his "associate" aka co-worker, not "Associate"

 

[Kenny F'ing Powers]

Meanwhile:
 
'Deflategate': Sales of Tom Brady merchandise double
 
 
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102671754

 
The fucking NFL just can't lose.
 

 
You mind extrapolating our the Seahawks "disdane" of the Patriots?  We lost the game and while we dont like that fact every Hawks fan I know has stated that the balls didnt help Brady win or lose the Superbowl.

 
Stop being so sensitive. I just rushed out a third team for shits and giggles. Replace "Seahawks" with whatever team you hate (49ers? Lets go with 49ers.) and move along.

 

[Nick Kaufman]

 
The thing is, though, why would anyone have thought this was a big deal before now?  It's not like they were trying to hide bodies and given the reaction to San Diego and Carolina/Minnesota this really doesn't seem like it'd have been viewed as some big time cloak and dagger operation.

 
 
Well, may be that was the joke. I.e. they re doing something fishy, but not really a big of a deal and he's threatening the biggest repercussions for the smallest thing.

 

[Myt1]

I don't see how Ted Wells throwing a public tantrum over the idea that anyone would dare question him is a good look for the NFL.
 
More to the point, Wells has just ensured that he is now seen as a central figure in the appeals process, which is really odd behavior for a lawyer.
 
 
 
I'm not surprised he got defensive, but I'm shocked that he took those sentiments public. 
 
He may be a God in the legal field, but he just made a rookie mistake by making this about him instead of placing the interests of the client first.

Litigators, especially good ones, are really, really shitty clients.

 

[LuckyBen]

 
Just so I am clear:
 
What Farley said - taken as gospel
What Anderson said about which gauge he used - useless, wrong, throw it out
 
Just want to make sure I have my facts straight.

Unless you're Wells.

 

[wibi]

Stop being so sensitive. I just rushed out a third team for shits and giggles. Replace "Seahawks" with whatever team you hate (49ers? Lets go with 49ers.) and move along.

 
I asked a legit question and you got defensive, chill out. 

 

[DJnVa]

 
Just so I am clear:
 
What Farley said - taken as gospel
What Anderson said about which gauge he used - useless, wrong, throw it out
 
Just want to make sure I have my facts straight.

 

Wait, so is he saying that in THIS case McNally didn't walk with them? Then why the fuck did the NFL Security guy not go find him. Isn't that what he's doing there, making sure things go smoothly? Or is this "security" in the sense of "make sure nothing happens to the officials"?

 

[Hendu for Kutch]

Has anyone tried to explain the following:
 
A) If the Patriots had been deflating balls for a long time, why did they fail to do so in the Jets game?  Wouldn't that be the time they'd be most likely to do it?  Doesn't that example seem to actually show that they hadn't been doing it?
 
B) The Colts became suspicious of this practice based on the balls in their last meeting.  How is this possible considering ball boys don't travel with the team?  Isn' that the basis for this entire investigation?  And if you tell me they can deflate the ball without their ballboys having possession of them, then why was it even remotely necessary for one to hide in a bathroom to do so?

 

[kartvelo]

 

"Richard Farley, who has been the NFL Security Representative for New England
for approximately twelve years and is present in the Officials Locker Room before and during
every Patriots home game, said that he considers it part of his job description to accompany the
referee to the field and that he is generally in close proximity to McNally and the game balls
when he walks to the field with the referee. According to Farley, he often opens the door to
allow McNally to exit easily with the ball bags, and then McNally, Farley, the referee and the
head linesman will walk to the field together or in close proximity to each other. Farley cannot
recall McNally previously bringing game balls to the field prior to the start of a game without
being accompanied by or in close proximity to one or more game officials."

I wonder if Farley can recall the last time the start of an AFC championship game at Foxboro was delayed 10 minutes and McNally needed to pee.
Also,... why wasn't Farley watching McNally like a hawk?

 

[Myt1]

Ted Wells says initial complaint by Colts before AFC Championship Game wasn't taken seriously. Yet, emails were fwd along, refs notified. Doug Kyed (@DougKyedNESN) [URL="https://twitter.com/DougKyedNESN/status/598193297920765952

https://twitter.com/DougKyedNESN/status/598193297920765952"]May

link to tweet 12, 2015[/url]

WTF are we doing here then?

It's all over the fucking report, too. Anyone saying this simply has no credibility whatsoever, regardless of what needle they're trying to thread.

 

[tims4wins]

It's all over the fucking report, too. Anyone saying this simply has no credibility whatsoever, regardless of what needle they're trying to thread.

 
Yeah if it wasn't taken seriously then why was Kensil on the field?

 

[DJnVa]

I can't get over Wells saying the pressure and gauge didn't matter. Is there something I'm not seeing here?

 

[NortheasternPJ]

It's all over the fucking report, too. Anyone saying this simply has no credibility whatsoever, regardless of what needle they're trying to thread.

 
The only thing I can think of is "No one took it seriously" is the basis for "no one would ever cheat this way" so they didn't believe it until they had evidence.
 
I read it as "no one took it seriously" because the whole thing is a joke

 

[NavaHo]

This one game, the one time the league was kinda sorta paying attention to the inflation levels of the balls, was the one time in his 19 year (or whatever) career Walt Anderson didn't know where the balls went for a period of time before the game started.
 
I'm sorry if this point's been made already, it just struck me.

 

[troparra]

"Richard Farley, who has been the NFL Security Representative for New England
for approximately twelve years and is present in the Officials Locker Room before and during
every Patriots home game, said that he considers it part of his job description to accompany the
referee to the field and that he is generally in close proximity to McNally and the game balls
when he walks to the field with the referee. According to Farley, he often opens the door to
allow McNally to exit easily with the ball bags, and then McNally, Farley, the referee and the
head linesman will walk to the field together or in close proximity to each other. Farley cannot
recall McNally previously bringing game balls to the field prior to the start of a game without
being accompanied by or in close proximity to one or more game officials."

 
So for 12 years, nothing funny happened to the balls?   Interesting.  

 

[ifmanis5]

Wells came off as very thin skinned and defensive. Was illogical throughout. This whole episode is bizarre.

 

[RedOctober3829]

I can't get over Wells saying the pressure and gauge didn't matter. Is there something I'm not seeing here?

It was idiotic to say that since it's in the report that contradicts that statement.  Don Yee is doing cartwheels as we speak.

 

[tims4wins]

 
So for 12 years, nothing funny happened to the balls?   Interesting.  

 
 
Good point

 

[Kenny F'ing Powers]

 
I asked a legit question and you got defensive, chill out. 

 
Wibi. Hey Wibi?
 
I love you.

 

[RedOctober3829]

"Richard Farley, who has been the NFL Security Representative for New England
for approximately twelve years and is present in the Officials Locker Room before and during
every Patriots home game, said that he considers it part of his job description to accompany the
referee to the field and that he is generally in close proximity to McNally and the game balls
when he walks to the field with the referee. According to Farley, he often opens the door to
allow McNally to exit easily with the ball bags, and then McNally, Farley, the referee and the
head linesman will walk to the field together or in close proximity to each other. Farley cannot
recall McNally previously bringing game balls to the field prior to the start of a game without
being accompanied by or in close proximity to one or more game officials."

Is this in the report?

 

[Ralphwiggum]

That was so fucking strange, and so dumb.  Now I am starting to think that it is possible that Florio's version of events (that it was McNally who refused to be interviewed, not that the Pats refused to grant the request, and that they offered to do it by phone) might actually be true.  It would be no less strange than:
 
1.  The "from the bottom of my heart" answer which is not the answer a truly impartial fact finder would give to a question like that.
2.  The statement that he would check "guilty" if he were on a jury. The report doesn't even go that far (unless he's saying he's guilty of being generally aware, but I took that as saying he believes Brady was guilty of being complicit in the deflation).
3.  The answer about the gauges.
4.  The answer about the Colts complaints not being taken seriously.

 

[cshea]

My favorite part is Wells admitting the league didn't take the original complaint seriously. Suddenly, after gauging (actual gauge does not matter!) which way the wind was blowing the day after the AFCCG, it's serious enough to warrant a multi-million dollar investigation culminating in the harsher punishment levied against a franchise in league history? Amazing how we got from A to B here.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

It'll make the preseason interesting to say the least. They're going to start Garoppolo in the regular season. This is a golden opportunity to find out if he's real or not. There's no way they bring in a veteran to actually play unless he folds completely or gets hurt. 
 
If the 4 game suspension holds, which I don't think it will and will be reduced to 2, the interesting thing to me is what they're going to do in the preseason. You can't leave Brady on the shelf for 9 weeks (4 preseason games where he plays a bit like normal, 4 games and bye) and put him in there in week 6, but at the same time you need to give Garoppolo as many snaps as possible since he's going to be the starting QB and has never really played in the NFL.

 

[Joshv02]

 
So for 12 years, nothing funny happened to the balls?   Interesting.  

The report says that Bird usually had access to the balls in the locker room while alone, implying that is where he normally deflated them.  This time he wasn't alone so he took a potty break.
 
Which of course makes no sense (normally he sits in a room everyone has access to and deflates with impunity!), and of course makes less sense since after the Jets Oct 16 2014 (home) game everyone thought the balls were at 16 PSIG (he just forgot to do his job that day, clearly angering Brady).  But, well, there you go.
 
What the report does do, however, is list 2 or 3 other people who say that Bird went out to the field on his own fairly often; but then it dismissed them for no real reason other than to say "I believe these other people more."

 

[dynomite]

From a season-long perspective I could care less. It will be interesting to see how Garoppolo plays and how the team adjusts if Brady ends up missing games, but to be honest after watching the 2008 Patriots and Matt Cassel I'm just not that nervous about what we'll see. They'll still be pretty good.

Hell, the 2014 and 2012 Patriots started 2-2 even WITH Brady.

September football games often don't matter all that much to a team as good as the Patriots. As long as they don't start 0-4 I don't think it will matter much.

 

[Saints Rest]

I think that any advice to Kraft (on a serious level) must begin with his objective:

1. Is it to overturn the suspension?  If so, then it's all about supporting Brady's appeal process but the NFLPA might have this covered.
2. Is it to overturn the loss of draft picks (I'm not even going to bother with the fine as it's pretty much pocket change to this organization)?  Does Kraft/the team have any recourse here within the NFL?  If not, does that mean federal court?  As I posted yesterday: what recourse does the team have though any channels?
3. Is it to try to remove the tarnish on the Kraft name, the Belichick name, the Brady name, the Patriot brand?  This will almost certainly be the hardest thing to do.  Clinton avoided impeachment, but he will never escape the Lewinsky fiasco on his reputation/place in history.
4. Or is it to find revenge in its most basic form?  No positive return, just good-old fashioned blood-lust?  This is probably the avenue that most Patriot fans would want.  It's almost surely the approach with the easiest tactics as many have already outlined above.  But ultimately, it would be, as the saying goes, a dish served cold, and ultimately unlikely to be satisfying in a long-term sense as it does nothing about the first three items.

My advice would be to go hard on item 3, with a hope that collateral damage from that approach offers some elements in the way of #4.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

My favorite part is Wells admitting the league didn't take the original complaint seriously. Suddenly, after gauging (actual gauge does not matter!) which way the wind was blowing the day after the AFCCG, it's serious enough to warrant a multi-million dollar investigation culminating in the harsher punishment levied against a franchise in league history? Amazing how we got from A to B here.

 
What's a bigger blow to the integrity of the game? The fact that the NFL can't afford cameras at the goal line or they lit $2-5 million dollars on fire with this?

 

[Otis Foster]

The Colts must be psyched that nobody in the league office took their complaints seriously.  

 
OK, so you kick it down the line to some assistant junior vice-president in waiting to call BB, tell him to play it straight and then listen to BB blister him for 30 minutes for relying on unfounded rumor. You don't do nothing, or you wind up where theya re now.
 
It's not totally implausible that they left it to the refs rather than engage in a ripping contest with BB, and we all paid the price for that.

 

[kartvelo]

The report says that Bird usually had access to the balls in the locker room while alone, implying that is where he normally deflated them.  This time he wasn't alone so he took a potty break.
 
Which of course makes no sense (normally he sits in a room everyone has access to and deflates with impunity!), and of course makes less sense since after the Jets Oct 16 2014 (home) game everyone thought the balls were at 16 PSIG (he just forgot to do his job that day, clearly angering Brady).  But, well, there you go.
 
What the report does do, however, is list 2 or 3 other people who say that Bird went out to the field on his own fairly often; but then it dismissed them for no real reason other than to say "I believe these other people more."

And the only people who say he didn't ever go out to the field alone are the people who might (conceivably) be considered negligent in their jobs if he did.
 
That is, the only people who said he never went out to the field alone are also the only people with any incentive to lie and say so. Others mentioned in the report said it happened about half the time.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

 
Which of course makes no sense (normally he sits in a room everyone has access to and deflates with impunity!), and of course makes less sense since after the Jets Oct 16 2014 (home) game everyone thought the balls were at 16 PSIG (he just forgot to do his job that day, clearly angering Brady).  But, well, there you go.
 

 
You forget that the Patriots won that game only because they cheated. The Official told one of the Pats to not line up correctly, who then moved, in order to avoid an illegal formation on the D about being over the center. 

 

[RedOctober3829]

 
What's a bigger blow to the integrity of the game? The fact that the NFL can't afford cameras at the goal line or they lit $2-5 million dollars on fire with this?

Nope.  A bigger blow is that the NFL knowingly let seemingly illegal footballs to be played with in the AFC Championship Game yet didn't take it seriously after being warned about it.  The grandstanding of integrity of the game after the fact is mind-numbingly hypocritical.

 

[Reverend]

Can anybody find a link to the NFL's Integrity of the Game Policy? I can't actually find one.
 
I did learn, however, that the Broncos were fined $50k a couple of years ago for illegally taking an opponent's practice, a.k.a. the thing people think the Patriots did, which surprised me.

 

[Dan Murfman]

Can anybody find a link to the NFL's Integrity of the Game Policy? I can't actually find one.
 
I did learn, however, that the Broncos were fined $50k a couple of years ago for illegally taking an opponent's practice, a.k.a. the thing people think the Patriots did, which surprised me.

Yeah but who was the head coach at the time?

 

[Saints Rest]

It'll make the preseason interesting to say the least. They're going to start Garoppolo in the regular season. This is a golden opportunity to find out if he's real or not. There's no way they bring in a veteran to actually play unless he folds completely or gets hurt. 
 
If the 4 game suspension holds, which I don't think it will and will be reduced to 2, the interesting thing to me is what they're going to do in the preseason. You can't leave Brady on the shelf for 9 weeks (4 preseason games where he plays a bit like normal, 4 games and bye) and put him in there in week 6, but at the same time you need to give Garoppolo as many snaps as possible since he's going to be the starting QB and has never really played in the NFL.

Has a starting QB ever been suspended for 4 games?  Does this suspension, include the preseason?  I would think not, as Browner's didn't, but that was for a different issue and one which was called for in the CBA.  

I guess you would have to treat it as though Brady is the backup.  Give him a few series in each game, but most of the work with the 1's would have to be with JG. Then Brady, in essence, goes to the clipboard for 4 games.  
 
Can Brady practice with the team during the suspension?  Can he use the facilities?

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Nope.  A bigger blow is that the NFL knowingly let seemingly illegal footballs to be played with in the AFC Championship Game yet didn't take it seriously after being warned about it.  The grandstanding of integrity of the game after the fact is mind-numbingly hypocritical.

 
Sorry there's just too many of these to keep up with. Next thing you're going to tell me is that the NFL put weeks of an NFL season at risk by putting in replacement officials because they were being cheap!

 

[RetractableRoof]

https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/598192722873225218 
link to tweet 
 
So Ms Reisner, that little 8 pound baby they are rushing into surgery.  They need its weight in order to properly administer anesthetic.  Do you want them to use the scale with the broken needle that tends to register a little higher or should they use the other scale?  It doesn't change the science, right?  Would your answer change if it were YOUR child???

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Yeah but who was the head coach at the time?

 
And the Patriots Oline coach's kid was the videographer correct?

 

[djbayko]

This one game, the one time the league was kinda sorta paying attention to the inflation levels of the balls, was the one time in his 19 year (or whatever) career Walt Anderson didn't know where the balls went for a period of time before the game started.
 
I'm sorry if this point's been made already, it just struck me.

It's funny. Your exact word for word post can have two completely different meanings depending on the tone used and words stressed when speaking it out loud.

Perhaps it's evidence of cheating because Walt has never seen it before.

Or maybe it's not evidence of anything because Walt *only* noticed it due to the pre game alert / sting / whatever you want to call it. It could have happened before, but he never took mental note of it because it wasn't important.

 

[Morning Woodhead]

Can anybody find a link to the NFL's Integrity of the Game Policy? I can't actually find one.
 
I did learn, however, that the Broncos were fined $50k a couple of years ago for illegally taking an opponent's practice, a.k.a. the thing people think the Patriots did, which surprised me.

 
McDaniels was behind that, so naturally it was the Patriots fault.

 

[swingin val]

Is this in the report?

Page 61

Also this...

Numerous game officials, including those assigned to the AFC Championship
Game, told us that McNally generally does not remove the game balls from the Officials Locker
Room without express permission or without being accompanied by one or more game officials.
Walt Anderson said that in his experience, McNally has not removed, and is not permitted to
remove, the game balls from the Officials Locker Room without his permission. Anderson also
said that if McNally had asked to take the footballs to the field before he was ready to leave, he
would have told McNally to wait. Anderson has always denied requests by ball boys and locker
62
room attendants in other stadiums to take the game balls out before he was ready to go to the
field.
33

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Has a starting QB ever been suspended for 4 games?  Does this suspension, include the preseason?  I would think not, as Browner's didn't, but that was for a different issue and one which was called for in the CBA.  
I guess you would have to treat it as though Brady is the backup.  Give him a few series in each game, but most of the work with the 1's would have to be with JG. Then Brady, in essence, goes to the clipboard for 4 games.  
 
Can Brady practice with the team during the suspension?  Can he use the facilities?

 
It does not include the preseason, which is why i hope the Patriots raise the banner in the first preseason game at home. 
 
If you treat Brady as he was the backup, then he'd play the entire first game, the entire last game and half (at least) of the middle two . 
 
You also don't play your #1 "skill players" (sorry to those who object to that term). It'd drastically change the entire offense in the preseason.