#DFG: Canceling the Noise

Is there any level of suspension that you would advise Tom to accept?


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Average Reds

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The entire data collection effort was a transparently fraudulent PR effort by the NFL to reinforce the notion that the ball deflation investigation was about the integrity of the game rather than the paranoia of certain teams/NFL execs. But it was obvious from the beginning that there was a logical inconsistency in punishing the Pats/Brady before gathering actual evidence, and so the NFL (almost certainly guided by legal counsel) adjusted course.

The legal angle here is most important. Without any new evidence surfacing, the NFL became firmer in their assertion that the deflation actually happened and that Brady was the mastermind of the operation rather than just being "generally aware." Given this change in strategy, and on the off chance that the information was ever subject to legal discovery, it would have been untenable to collect and preserve information that almost certainly (if you believe the ideal gas law) would have directly contradicted assertions being made in court.

I do love the magnificence of Goodell re-writing history by pretending that this had been their plan all along. He's really testing the loyalty of a number of media toadies who will now have to make a similar pivot - again - or risk losing access. I mean, this is like the third or fourth time that Peter King has been hung out to dry, which is at least a small reward.
 
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Average Reds

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You are missing the elegance of Goodell's pivot: It wasn't a research study where they collected data, it was a series of spot checks that revealed no violations.

That framing is preposterously at odds with what they promised to do, but it precludes the need to keep records. Which allows them to claim that nothing was destroyed, it just never existed in the first place.
 

Van Everyman

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No, I caught that – there are just several tweets and references in Wetzel's piece to the league destroying or "incinerating" the evidence – and how that was the Pats last, best hope. What seems oddest about the whole thing is that the whole process is very clearly proscribed in the operation manual. Will someone have the stones to ask him about the Referees Report?

Also, King has weighed in:

Goodell says there was no funny business with the air pressure in footballs this season. “There were no violations this year,” commissioner Roger Goodell told Rich Eisen Tuesday. Well, no duh. Who would think, with the league laser-focused on the air pressure in footballs, that some team would actually take a pin and release air from one of them? That’s not what the checks on footballs should have been about—at all. The checks on the footballs should have been done to determine what happens to the air pressure in a football after it has been used for a half, in all kinds of weather. If that’s not what the NFL did this season, then the league either doesn’t want to know the truth about what weather, and general use, does to the air pressure in a football (which is my belief). Or the league made a mistake in what it went after in the spot checks at halftime of selected games this year. The NFL owes the public an accounting of what exactly was found when the measurements were taken throughout the year.
 

twibnotes

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I hope some reporters will ask Goodell what he means by "no violations." Is he alleging that every ball was over 12.5 or has the league begun to acknowledge the Ideal Gas Law? Need to drill down here and push the dopey commish to get specific.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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God I just want to have Wetzel's babies:

What remains is this most likely scenario: that NFL officials, completely unaware of Ideal Gas Law, believed that any New England football that measured below the minimum of 12.5 psi in the AFC title game was proof of orchestrated tampering. Anything in the 11s was proof of a massive conspiracy. In fact it was all a natural act.

Ignorant of science and overwhelmed by confirmation bias, the NFL embarked on an effort to nail the Patriots. Then, via leaks to favored reporters who were as prejudicial as they were false, the league found itself too far out on the limb to climb back as facts came in and theories fell apart.

All it could do is point to random text exchanges and nicknames, and hope the public was too naïve to question it, too scientifically ignorant to comprehend it or too bored to still care.
Boom. Mic drop.
 

Leather

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Peter King is, typically, blissfully obtuse at what the fuck is going on, and interprets Goodell's words in the way that makes it sound like the NFL just forgot what to check for.

King: "gosh darn it, of course nobody is gonna deflate the balls in front of an NFL rep standing right there! Jeez, now we will never know if Brady had those balls deflated!"
 

Leather

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And of course this comes out before the biggest media crush of the Super Bowl and after briefs were due in the Brady case.

Serendipity.
 

Eddie Jurak

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Any chance this works to TBs benefit? Not directly, because this issue has no direct relevance to his appeal. But maybe judges hear about this stuff?
 

joe dokes

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Reiss is correct that:
Goodell's answers still leave several important questions unanswered,

But, IMO, that's in large part on Rich Eisen. Anyone who has has been paying even marginal attention would have immediately realized that the correct response to this:
We're pleased that we haven't had any violations,

is, at a minimum, this:
When you say "no violations," does that mean that no footballs measured at halftime this season were below 12.5psi, regardless of the weather conditions?

Even before the disappearing data issue.
 

GeorgeCostanza

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Which brings up another good point. The league makes a big deal about receiving texts and using cell phones on the sidelines, but they give them freaking tablets. Are they somehow locked down in terms of what online functions they can use or something? They could place bets online during the game if they wanted to :)
Since they are Windows devices, and if they are all connected to a league administered domain, they could use GPO's to lock them down very effectively. This all assume competence in league IT, and if you assume is run the same way the league is then God only knows.

As an aside, my brother works for Brocade and they handle all the networking infrastructure in San Fran's new stadium. It's really impressive what's going on there
 

RIFan

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All the data had to be transmitted electronically, either through email or a web portal. There is no way in hell the data no longer exists. Goodell may just be dumb enough to believe the delete key wipes it away permanently.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

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God I just want to have Wetzel's babies:



Boom. Mic drop.
Unfortunately he's right. Nobody outside of 10% of New England fans care.

Patriots lose picks, Brady is tarnished as a cheater while Manning* gets a push to his legacy this week, and haters get another arrow in the quiver when drunkenly arguing about the Patriots.

Yay.
 

cornwalls@6

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Reiss is correct that:
Goodell's answers still leave several important questions unanswered,

But, IMO, that's in large part on Rich Eisen. Anyone who has has been paying even marginal attention would have immediately realized that the correct response to this:
We're pleased that we haven't had any violations,

is, at a minimum, this:
When you say "no violations," does that mean that no footballs measured at halftime this season were below 12.5psi, regardless of the weather conditions?

Even before the disappearing data issue.

State-run media. I suspect the parameters of the "interview" were well established before it even took place.
 

yecul

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At this point "Integrity of the Game" is the equivalent of "With All Due Respect" as in, the exact opposite.

The converse is true in that they are compromising the integrity of the game by enforcing false punishments (picks) harming the on field product for a singular team in order to save face and in an attempt to leverage more power/control.

And it'll work because it's a game and only internal battles (Kraft) could combat it. There's no higher authority stepping in to get those picks back. At least the Brady punishment will not see the light of day, but that's why the draft pick penalty was so harsh. This outcome was anticipated and the interested parties needed to be satiated.
 

88 MVP

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So the NFL destroyed (or is withholding) evidence that would tend to exonerate the Pats...

It's an NFL Brady violation!!

Legal puns aside, my sense is that Roger long ago won the public relations battle. fans of other teams stopped paying attention a long time ago and don't seem psrticularly interested in the work Florio, Wetzel, and others have done to start calling out the bad science and league hypocrisy.
 

joe dokes

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State-run media. I suspect the parameters of the "interview" were well established before it even took place.
Almost certainly true. And if not, Eisen probably valued his job security more than holding up his end of the questioning without being reminded.
 

soxhop411

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Instead, the objective is to catch more cheaters.

The statements made by Commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday confirmed themessage he sent in October regarding the periodic testing of footballs during games. It’s not about understanding the science, it’s about enforcing the rules.

The disclosure from Goodell, coming three days before his annual pre-Super Bowl press conference, most likely means that there will be no summaries or other data released by the league regarding the 2015 measurements. Instead, by declaring that no violations were detected in 2015, Goodell turned the entire exercise into a pass/fail exam, with all teams passing.

It’s not surprising, given that a comprehensive study would have clarified the extent of the league’s failure regarding #DeflateGate, where the league blended troubling text messages generated well before the Colts-Patriots AFC title game with numbers that constituted, without consideration of the Ideal Gas Law, evidence of tampering into a conclusion that it was more likely than not that cheating happened that day. Full analysis of the PSI reading of all balls during all of the 333 preseason, regular-season, and postseason 2015 games quite possibly would have led to the conclusion that Ted Wells and company showed have reached in May: That the evidence as to whether the Patriots tampered with the footballs prior to the AFC title game is inconclusive at best.

So instead of trying to better understand how and why #DeflateGate went off the rails, the league set up an effort to check from time to time whether footballs remained within the approved range of 12.5 to 13.5 PSI. Surely, there were occasions when the balls strayed beyond those limits, especially when the Seahawks and Vikings played in arctic conditions last month. What formulas were used to determine whether the footballs were naturally or unnaturally deflated? And would those formulas, if applied to the outdoor conditions during the Colts-Patriots AFC title game, have resulted in expected PSI measurements comparable to the actual measurements generated that day by either or both of the two pressure gauges used?

Basically, the league found a way to create the impression that it has created a system for checking footballs without creating evidence that could have exonerated the Patriots, or at worst shown that Wells and his investigators failed to parlay their multi-million-dollar fee into a cracking of the case.

A full and complete analysis of the footballs in 2015 may have helped the league get to the truth. Which may have prompted the league to restore New England’s draft-pick penalty and rescind its fine. Which could be the main reason why the NFL opted not to learn everything there was to learn about PSI behavior during the 2015 season
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/02/02/nfl-blows-chance-to-fully-understand-football-air-pressure/
 

Strike4

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It would be great if a SOSH lawyer could weigh in on the chances, risks and rewards of an NFL employee leaking any measurements that were taken, to the press...
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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"No violations" tells any of us left who care everything we need to know (and already knew). Everyone knows that if the data had shown balls stay where inflated, then it would have been released. So, the non-response tells us exactly what we knew, and the added piece of information is that now we know the NFL knows it too. It's no longer a crazy conspiracy theory to think the NFL is simply appealing to baser instincts within the organization that had a bone to pick with Brady and the Pats, and is now forging ahead punishing a club and tarnishing the legacy of a star player to cover up those baser instincts. Yes, we all knew or at least suspected that before, but now there's pretty much no doubt. The one thing I do wonder is whether the clubs have the data. Whether there are actually other owners who know Kraft got fucked. They probably don't give a shit either.

KFP is right that we're the only ones left caring. And it's going to be doubly difficult to swallow if the second circuit reverses Berman and Brady has to sit 4 games next year for bullshit. But, to me personally, this is an important final chapter. Sports matter to people for weird reasons, and there is so much stuff built up behind why we care. Fans of other teams won't know or care (at least until it happens to their team just like we didn't really care that Bounty-gate was bullshit until it happened to us). But I know. And that's good enough to close this chapter for me.
 

LogansDad

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At this point I would believe a propganda video from ISIS, narrated by Lynn Johnston, stating that 9-11 never actually happened, before I would belive a word that came out of Roger Goodell's mouth. What a fucking crock. I love watching Tom Brady play, but I can't wait until he retires so i can wipe my hands of this filthy fucking organization.
 

Average Reds

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State-run media. I suspect the parameters of the "interview" were well established before it even took place.
Damn straight.

Rich Eisen was employee #1 at the NFL Network back in 2003 and his podcast is owned by the NFL. I believe it's written into his contract that if he asks Roger Goodell a question that might provide insight into ... well ... anything, he will be executed.

What amazes me is that for all the criticism that Goodell received yesterday and today, no one appears to be picking up on the fact that he used an NFL-owned platform to disseminate his propaganda.
 

Bleedred

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We (SOSH collectively as a board) think of this issue more thoughtfully than all others. It makes sense, because we're all lunatics, obsessed with the injustice befallen the NE Patriots and Tom Brady, plus, guys like Wet
"No violations" tells any of us left who care everything we need to know (and already knew). Everyone knows that if the data had shown balls stay where inflated, then it would have been released. So, the non-response tells us exactly what we knew, and the added piece of information is that now we know the NFL knows it too. It's no longer a crazy conspiracy theory to think the NFL is simply appealing to baser instincts within the organization that had a bone to pick with Brady and the Pats, and is now forging ahead punishing a club and tarnishing the legacy of a star player to cover up those baser instincts. Yes, we all knew or at least suspected that before, but now there's pretty much no doubt. The one thing I do wonder is whether the clubs have the data. Whether there are actually other owners who know Kraft got fucked. They probably don't give a shit either.

KFP is right that we're the only ones left caring. And it's going to be doubly difficult to swallow if the second circuit reverses Berman and Brady has to sit 4 games next year for bullshit. But, to me personally, this is an important final chapter. Sports matter to people for weird reasons, and there is so much stuff built up behind why we care. Fans of other teams won't know or care (at least until it happens to their team just like we didn't really care that Bounty-gate was bullshit until it happened to us). But I know. And that's good enough to close this chapter for me.
But exponent concluded that the Ideal Gas Law couldn't explain away all of the variance between the underinflation found with the Patriots' footballs and the the expected underinflation per the IGL. There are literally dozens of third party, disinterested parties that have debunked the Wells Report and Exponent's science, but isn't this what Goodell and his fellow monkeys would say in response to that?
 

Average Reds

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We (SOSH collectively as a board) think of this issue more thoughtfully than all others. It makes sense, because we're all lunatics, obsessed with the injustice befallen the NE Patriots and Tom Brady, plus, guys like Wet


But exponent concluded that the Ideal Gas Law couldn't explain away all of the variance between the underinflation found with the Patriots' footballs and the the expected underinflation per the IGL. There are literally dozens of third party, disinterested parties that have debunked the Wells Report and Exponent's science, but isn't this what Goodell and his fellow monkeys would say in response to that?
Of course this is what Goodell and his minions will say, but it's important to note that Exponent did not conclude what you are saying in the boded section.

Exponent concluded that if you took Walt Anderson's word as being 100% accurate about pregame pressure readings and then disregarded his recollection about which gauge he used to test the balls (and supported their contention that Anderson was confused by doctoring a photo of the two gauges) then some of the balls would fall slightly outside of the variation one would expect under the Ideal Gas Law.

As they do every single time they are hired, Exponent delivered a report that backed it's client's position. Quelle surprise.
 
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soxhop411

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Adam Schefter
ESPN’s Adam Schefter checked in with Dennis & Callahan with Minihane on Wednesday morning to discuss Roger Goodell’s comments to the media about Deflategate. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

While addressing the media on Tuesday, Goodell announced that he would not be releasing the PSI data the league had previously claimed to be collecting. He said that the league only conducted “spot checks” and that no violations were found. This has left Patriots fans outraged, wondering if that data could have helped prove Tom Brady‘s innocence.

“I’ll say this, if the numbers came out and supported the league’s contention, I’m just guessing here, we probably would have heard more about that … but that didn’t happen,” Schefter said, adding: “The league has been, I think, inconsistent. In this particular case, the league made up the rules as they went along.”

Around this time last year, deflated footballs seemed to be of the utmost importance to Goodell and the NFL. Now, it seems the league has changed its tune.

“The league made a huge deal out of the Patriots’ footballs, but then this year I think it probably got a little bit more educated on the topic, more educated than it was at that particular time,” Schefter said. “I think that reflected that it was more along the lines of what people in New England thought and not along the lines of what people across the rest of the league might have thought.”


Unless the NFL wins its appeal of Judge Berman’s ruling on Deflategate, Tom Brady will have made it through this whole fiasco without missing a game. Patriots fans now have shifted their attention to the first- and fifth-round draft picks that were taken away by the league.

If they uphold the decision from Judge Berman, then New England is going to be angry, and have a right to be angry. But the fact of the matter is, that’s not going to change. The league will never give in on that point. The league docked the Patriots a penalty based on the evidence that it believed it had, and it’s never going to go back on that, as much as the people there don’t like it,” Schefter said. “I would be shocked if the league ever went back and returned that compensation. that would be such an admission on the league’s part that it botched the case.”

Would Robert Kraft consider taking action against the league to get these picks back?

“First of all, if the Patriots had been [in the Super Bowl], I don’t think that’s what he would have said, I don’t think that’s what he would do. If it were, I think we would have heard about it by now, it’s just opposite of the way that he’s acted,” Schefter said. “Has he shown any signs that that is going to be the case, or that would happen? No. So I don’t know why his tune would change now.”
http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports/newengland/football/patriots/2016/02/03/adam-schefter-on-dc-the-league-made-up-the-rules-as-they-went-along-regarding-checking-footballs/
 

JimD

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Once again, Bob Kraft screwed up by trusting Roger Goodell. He should have been pushing behind the scenes from week 1 to ensure that the data was being properly collected and would be available.

Alternately, Brady's legal team should have contracted with a reputable firm to measure the air pressure outside of NFL stadiums during various games of the 2015 season - definitely all NE games as well as other ones particularly in cold-weather cities.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

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Once again, Bob Kraft screwed up by trusting Roger Goodell. He should have been pushing behind the scenes from week 1 to ensure that the data was being properly collected and would be available.

Alternately, Brady's legal team should have contracted with a reputable firm to measure the air pressure outside of NFL stadiums during various games of the 2015 season - definitely all NE games as well as other ones particularly in cold-weather cities.
Kraft was weak, but he didn't fuck the Patriots. Goodell did. Don't divert or misplace your anger. Kraft made a mistake and gambled that he was making the best choice for his team. He got fucked for it, but that's on the NFL.
 

AB in DC

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Better result than what I expected, which was bad data provided without context that "proved" that the Patriots had cheated. This just makes the league look like incompetent idiots.
Yeah, this is where I am, too. It's pretty clear to everyone paying attention that the League would have released the data if it had looked bad for the Patriots. So the focus is again on Goodell and his cronies rather than on the Patriots supposed rule-breaking. That's a good thing.
 

PC Drunken Friar

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Once again, Bob Kraft screwed up by trusting Roger Goodell. He should have been pushing behind the scenes from week 1 to ensure that the data was being properly collected and would be available.

Alternately, Brady's legal team should have contracted with a reputable firm to measure the air pressure outside of NFL stadiums during various games of the 2015 season - definitely all NE games as well as other ones particularly in cold-weather cities.
Kraft may have screwed up to us, but I don't really think he cares at this point. Going all Scorched Earth on Goodell might put Kraft's position with the other owners in jeopardy. Kraft, no doubt, thinks he is the smartest man in the room and his goal is to make money. He feels he needs to be on all of those committees for a reason. I wish it weren't the case, but I think it is.
 

soxhop411

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Kraft may have screwed up to us, but I don't really think he cares at this point. Going all Scorched Earth on Goodell might put Kraft's position with the other owners in jeopardy. Kraft, no doubt, thinks he is the smartest man in the room and his goal is to make money. He feels he needs to be on all of those committees for a reason. I wish it weren't the case, but I think it is.
see the Raiders for an example of how a team is treated after going scorched earth (IE LA)
 

PedroKsBambino

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Peter King is, typically, blissfully obtuse at what the fuck is going on, and interprets Goodell's words in the way that makes it sound like the NFL just forgot what to check for.

King: "gosh darn it, of course nobody is gonna deflate the balls in front of an NFL rep standing right there! Jeez, now we will never know if Brady had those balls deflated!"
I think you may have stopped reading the King excerpt too soon (understandable given King's general track record). Even he eventually says his belief is that the NFL wasn't trying to understand what the truth was.
 

troparra

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As usual, Dan Wetzel nails it:

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl-s-missing-data-on-air-pressure-is-another-black-eye-in-deflate-gate-saga-025852568.html

Here's how it was written as an "update" to the NFL's operation manual back in August 2015:

"At designated games, selected at random, the game balls used in the first half will be collected by the KBC [kicking-ball coordinator] at halftime, and the League's Security Representative will escort the KBC with the footballs to the Officials' Locker room. During halftime, each game ball for both teams will be inspected in the locker room by designated members of the officiating and security crews, and the PSI results will be measured and recorded. Once measured, those game balls will then be secured and removed from play.

"For these randomly selected games only, the back-up footballs will be used for each team during the second half. Approximately three minutes prior to kickoff, the KBC along with a designated Game Official will bring the back-up set of game balls to the on-field replay station to be distributed to each club's Ball Crew.

"At the end of any randomly selected game, the KBC will return the footballs to the Officials' Locker Room where all game balls from each team will be inspected and the results will be recorded."

That's quite a lot of procedure for a simple "spot check."

Most notably, however, is this:

"All game ball information will be recorded on the Referee's Report, which must be submitted to the League office by noon on the day following the game," the operations update reads.
There is lots of detail in the procedure, including superfluous stuff like, "approximately three minutes prior to kickoff, the KBC with a designated game official will bring the back-up set of game balls to the on-field replay station..."

But the results are completely devoid of detail: "No violations". It's as if this whole thing was designed and run by Exponent.
 

PedroKsBambino

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It would be great if a SOSH lawyer could weigh in on the chances, risks and rewards of an NFL employee leaking any measurements that were taken, to the press...
Well, they'd be fired. There's a scintilla of a chance that an NFL employee with a conscience drops a dime because they believe in honesty and fairness. And there's a scintilla of a chance that some Pats-fan employee does it...well, actually, for the same reason but with more passion, I guess. Beyond that, good luck getting it.

A question was asked about electronic evidence of the testing. I think NFL may have anticipated that, and such records really may not exist. If they do exist, I suspect NFL has a doc retention policy which will eliminate them (to degree they can be) relatively soon, and some may already have been. And even if someone wanted to subpoena them I struggle with the legal theory that would get you there---Kraft could probably sue on an antitrust theory and get a litigation hold on everything in NFL central, but he's not doing that. Even the SoSH-famous Brady libel claim wouldn't necessarily generate a hold for those emails (after the fact, hard to construct a theory where they are probative of actual malice). Not sure who would have standing and a legal theory to get there. Others may have ideas.

Ultimately, we have the knowledge we were right all along, and pretty much every thinking writer and NFL fan agrees with that now. Those who do not see it yet will not be convinced, and we just have to accept that.
 

ifmanis5

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Florio gets to the key to #DFG here:
A full and complete analysis of the footballs in 2015 may have helped the league get to the truth. Which may have prompted the league to restore New England’s draft-pick penalty and rescind its fine. Which could be the main reason why the NFL opted not to learn everything there was to learn about PSI behavior during the 2015 season
Roger & the NFL essentially framed the Pats either by ignorance or vengeance or both and it was in everyone's best interest to pile on the Pats and parrot the league in the subsequent shitstorm. Now that evidence has been collected, buried and denied it's in most of the same people's interest to go along with the cover up and to hell with the actual data or the lessons learned. As long as the Pats get their deserved comeuppance most fans, the league and the media who need the league to make money will be fine. This has always been about aligned interests and not integrity, yet it seems like only the folks who follow this thread understand that.
 

geoduck no quahog

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Just to be clear, "No Violations" to me assumes that the 2015/16 NFL agrees with Science...created Ideal Gas Law graphs relating temperature to pressure, measured footballs at a given halftime temp. and found they all fell within the predicted pressure if they had started between 12.5 and 13.5 at room temperature prior to the game. It's the only way to explain that statement (obviously the Minnesota footballs would have had to be below 12.5 unless they were over-inflated pre-game).
 

PedroKsBambino

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Thinking more about it, one way I can imagine we might get more insight in the future is a referee. They may have gotten some guidance on what PSI levels to expect and how to deal with a level under 12.5 (since we can expect by the season the league office understood the ideal gas law and by november or december it impacted balls in a measurable, material way in some stadiums). If so, the next time one is fired or there's a strike or contract dispute there's a small chance one of them drops info anonymously to a reporter.

This will change nothing about public perception, or the Pats draft pick. But those of us around this thread will appreciate it, should that happen.
 

TheoShmeo

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Florio gets to the key to #DFG here:

Roger & the NFL essentially framed the Pats either by ignorance or vengeance or both and it was in everyone's best interest to pile on the Pats and parrot the league in the subsequent shitstorm. Now that evidence has been collected, buried and denied it's in most of the same people's interest to go along with the cover up and to hell with the actual data or the lessons learned. As long as the Pats get their deserved comeuppance most fans, the league and the media who need the league to make money will be fine. This has always been about aligned interests and not integrity, yet it seems like only the folks who follow this thread understand that.
It's not just this thread. Dan Wetzel, Sally Jenkins, Mike Reiss, Mike Florio, Tom E. Curren, Peter King (for the most part) and Michael Hurley all seem to get it. I'm probably missing a few others.

It gives me some small measure of comfort that voices inside and outside NE have cracked the code.

What should, and will never happen, here is that the NFL should rescind the penalties and drop the appeal. Short of that, the only small satisfaction I can take out of this is that there are a select number of journalists -- and none employed by the Globe -- who have seen the light and called the NFL out.
 

bankshot1

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I'm not a big proponent of political grandstanding, BUT why couldn't the Congress person representing Foxborough (or any Mass or New England rep Dem or Rep-make it bipartisan) write a letter to the NFL under the general heading consttiuents services, and request that the NFL release the psi #s and referee game reports,and further clarify the findings, in order to erase the erroneous sentiment created that 1) the Patriots illegally deflated the AFCCG footballs and 2) provide relief to the millions of Patriot fans from the stigma attached to false accusations of Deflategate.

You know pull an Arlen Spector.

And make the NFL jump a little.
 

E5 Yaz

polka king
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I'm not a big proponent of political grandstanding, BUT why couldn't the Congress person representing Foxborough (or any Mass or New England rep Dem or Rep-make it bipartisan) write a letter to the NFL under the general heading consttiuents services, and request that the NFL release the psi #s and referee game reports,and further clarify the findings, in order to erase the erroneous sentiment created that 1) the Patriots illegally deflated the AFCCG footballs and 2) provide relief to the millions of Patriot fans from the stigma attached to false accusations of Deflategate.

You know pull an Arlen Spector.

And make the NFL jump a little.
Because when he did that, they gave him brain cancer.
 

koufax32

He'll cry if he wants to...
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Dec 8, 2006
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I'm not a big proponent of political grandstanding, BUT why couldn't the Congress person representing Foxborough (or any Mass or New England rep Dem or Rep-make it bipartisan) write a letter to the NFL under the general heading consttiuents services, and request that the NFL release the psi #s and referee game reports,and further clarify the findings, in order to erase the erroneous sentiment created that 1) the Patriots illegally deflated the AFCCG footballs and 2) provide relief to the millions of Patriot fans from the stigma attached to false accusations of Deflategate.

You know pull an Arlen Spector.

And make the NFL jump a little.
Because the real numbers will never ever see the light of day. If any #'s came out they'd be falsified to fit a narrative. People would then look at those numbers, determine they're wrong and don't completely agree with the IGL, and start calling foul. The NFL would then ignore it because they can.
There is no such thing as a "gotcha" moment for an organization who doesn't care if they get gotted.
 

bankshot1

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Because the real numbers will never ever see the light of day.

Its not worth it for the NFL to falsify #s, and "lie" in a larger public questioning of its results. After all its science, and science works all the time. If the #s show the IGL is largely responsible for cold weather deflation, they should let the #s say so. And if that then further casts doubt on Deflategate, then they too should admit that is a possibility they had not considered a year ago.

But if the NFL wants to blow off a Congress person's request for information, they could. But this is the body that may one day decide if Draft King etal is gambling or not, and what regulations or laws should be adhered to by those doing business with gambling enterprises that do business cross state borders.