#DFG: Canceling the Noise

[riboflav]

Re:King - that's why I added #7. The NFL wants to play the Pats up as cheaters. Everyone loves a good heel and the public attention is maximal in a traditionally slow week.

 
I hear you. I just think that's WWF stuff and Kraft and other owners wouldn't really tolerate a concerted effort to manufacture bogus story lines to this degree. It would make the NFL more of a joke than any sort of real inflation issue.

 

[LuckyBen]

 
It really was a fantastic article.  My favorites:
 

Wow, he really nailed it out of the park with those observations. How can the NFL be such a shitshow...

 

[riboflav]

Lastly, (for tonight), I just cannot get over BB saying a ball may fall to 12.3, or .2 below 12.5. Maybe I'm just trying to grasp at anything but I'm really hoping it's not a coincidence given Mort's claim of 2psi.

 

[pokey_reese]

Post it! I'd love to see it

This would unfortunately require me to finally learn to embed tweets, but how about this:
 
https://twitter.com/SEMiotic5/status/558482283091333121
https://twitter.com/SEMiotic5/status/558482517494210560
https://twitter.com/SEMiotic5/status/558482879726907392
 
Not my finest hour, but days of this coverage wore me down.  This article was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
 
edit: not sure why the last one isn't visible, but at least it's a clickable link?

 

[Jnai]

Someone should print this thread and sell it as a "Definitive Guide to #Ballghazi" on Amazon.

 

[LuckyBen]

This would unfortunately require me to finally learn to embed tweets, but how about this:
 

https://twitter.com/SEMiotic5/status/558482283091333121

https://twitter.com/SEMiotic5/status/558482283091333121

link to tweet
https://twitter.com/SEMiotic5/status/558482517494210560

https://twitter.com/SEMiotic5/status/558482517494210560

link to tweet
https://twitter.com/SEMiotic5/status/558482879726907392
 
Not my finest hour, but days of this coverage wore me down.  This article was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

Nice! I plan on making a Twitter account and trolling every hack writer.

 

[nattysez]

I just re-watched the press conference.  I really don't understand what the national writers, Simmons, etc. are seeing when they say he was plainly lying, not credible, etc.  I found Brady entirely credible.  I guess I'm just a fanboy.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

Doug Kyed has been a fucking godsend for Boston sports media.  Reasonable, intelligent, funny, and personable.  I'm sure he'll get poached if he keeps that up.  When was the last time we had a Patriots beat reporter who was this good -- Reiss?

 
As I posted a few times in this and other threads, a thousand times YES on Kyed. 
 
Impressed by the tone, wit, and the generally well-working bullshit detector that's rarely found elsewhere. 
 
Ben has started on the CHB/Borges route, and has written progressively worse content while increasing the click-bait factor. Disappointed. 

 

[DJnVa]

Ian O'Connor really wrote this:  

The quarterback of the New England Patriots admitted that footballs pumped up to 12.5 pounds per square inch are "a perfect fit for me," yet swore he did not notice a difference in the AFC Championship Game when the balls weighed two pounds lighter
 

 
That's unbelievable.
 
These are the people rushing to judgment. These are the people that think they are smarter than you.

 

[OnWisc]

 
Ensuring no one will see it

Excellent.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

This would unfortunately require me to finally learn to embed tweets, but how about this:
Not my finest hour, but days of this coverage wore me down.  This article was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
 
edit: not sure why the last one isn't visible, but at least it's a clickable link?

 
Got yourself a new follower. IO specializes in trolling Jets fans, and now Pats fans too apparently.

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

Lastly, (for tonight), I just cannot get over BB saying a ball may fall to 12.3, or .2 below 12.5. Maybe I'm just trying to grasp at anything but I'm really hoping it's not a coincidence given Mort's claim of 2psi.

Good point. Seems a weird thing to say if your understanding is the league is going to say 11 balls were at 10.5. Still grasping a little I think, but at least based on something someone has actually said instead of some of the more esoteric theories floating around out there.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

Following on the heels of the "Mark It Zero" article, here's another that points the finger squarely in the right direction:
 
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-nfls-pre-super-bowl-hypocrisy-is-totally-deflating-2015-01-22?mod=mw_share_twitter
 

Judging by the sports-media takes rounded up by Deadspin, Belichick should either be suspended for the Super Bowl or fired for “toying with the integrity of the game,” and the Patriots (at least according to one Indianapolis writer with absolutely no conflicting interest in this outcome whatsoever) “should be removed from the Super Bowl.”
 
This, folks, is absolute nonsense. First, the self-righteous choir in the press box calls for heads in the same breath that it admits that no amount of inflation would have prevented the Colts from losing that game, never mind by anything less than a 45-7 margin. Second, when the NFL does get around to handing down some discipline, it’ll be for an incident that not only doesn’t appear near the top of the infractions list for this season, but isn’t even the worst blow to the integrity of the sport we’ve seen in this post-season.

 
and this:
 

It’s just a shame that a similar effort should have been expended about two rounds ago. To remind folks of what the NFL wasn’twatching during its Wild Card matchups, we’ll point out that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wasn’t the only VIP that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was entertaining in the days surrounding his team’s matchup with the Detroit Lions. Just days before kickoff, Jones’ son had the NFL’s head of officiating, Dean Blandino, on a Dallas Cowboys party bus. This looked bad enough when referees picked up a penalty flag against the Cowboys for pass interference that led to the Cowboys’ game-winning score in a 24-20 win. It looked even worse when Blandino himself noted that referees missed a holding call against the Cowboys on the same play.
 
Did we get an in-depth league investigation? Did we get increased scrutiny of Blandino, his officials or the Cowboys organization? No. Instead, we got a Cowboys loss the following week featuring another controversial call. Questions about the integrity of league officiating and its implications for the integrity of the game itself were shuffled onto a plane bound for Dallas and never heard again.

 
There's a reason why Mr. Notte writes for the NYT and Esquire, while dregs like O'Connor and others are scratching to catch some air time on national TV.

 

[LogansDad]

 
Following on the heels of the "Mark It Zero" article, here's another that points the finger squarely in the right direction:
 
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-nfls-pre-super-bowl-hypocrisy-is-totally-deflating-2015-01-22?mod=mw_share_twitter
 
 
 
and this:
 
 
 
There's a reason why Mr. Notte writes for the NYT and Esquire, while dregs like O'Connor and others are scratching to catch some air time on national TV.
 

The comments after this article... just... stay away.
 
The article itself was a good read, though... thanks for posting it.

 

[patinorange]

If Mort screwed up the 2lbs psi number and it really is .2 lbs I have to think he would have corrected it by now. Or had it corrected for him.

Wishful thinking.

 

[Kull]

And the Brady verbate for the record:
 
 
4506 Q: Tom, just to confirm, the NFL has not talked to you --
 
4510 As of this morning -- I'm not sure. I'd say that. I'm not sure. They may or may not have. I'm supposed to, you know, talk to my agent after and that may be one of the things that he wants to talk about.

 
 
Regarding the NFL not talking to Brady. Near the end of the press conference he notes that he has a meeting with his agent immediately after, and "that may be one of the things he wants to talk about". It's also interesting that he's meeting with the agent AFTER, not before his Q&A with the press. It doesn't smell like the actions of a guilty individual.

 

[djbayko]

Ian O'Connor really wrote this:  
 
That's unbelievable.
 
These are the people rushing to judgment. These are the people that think they are smarter than you.

 
While this guy is probably an asshole, I really don't think his use of "weight" and "pounds" really means he's thinking of weight.  While you and I think it's strange because we paid attention in science class and think such details are important, he and many other media members are using this wording to describe pressure, probably because everyday people don't normally talk about pressure and therefore don't have the correct verbs and nouns handy in their vocabulary.  I've heard at least 2 media members, when corrected, quickly say "of course I'm talking about pressure when I say "weigh".
 
Stupid, yes ,but in a different way.
 
Edit: Of course, this could just be wishful thinking, and they truly don't understand what is being discussed.  In that case, god help them.

 

[E5 Yaz]

Someone should print this thread and sell it as a "Definitive Guide to #Ballghazi" on Amazon.

 
Whine it for ...

 

[singaporesoxfan]

 
While this guy is probably an asshole, I really don't think his use of "weight" and "pounds" really means he's thinking of weight.  While you and I think it's strange because we paid attention in science class and think such details are important, he and many other media members are using this wording to describe pressure, probably because everyday people don't normally talk about pressure and therefore don't have the correct verbs and nouns handy in their vocabulary.  I've heard at least 2 media members, when corrected, quickly say "of course I'm talking about pressure when I say "weigh".
 
Stupid, yes ,but in a different way.

The NFL rule book itself uses pounds to mean psi. http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/5_2013_Ball.pdf

 

[Kull]

The NFL rule book itself uses pounds to mean psi. http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/5_2013_Ball.pdf

 
Just more idiocy in this massive shit-fest. How can you violate a rule on PSI when the rule doesn't specifically call for "PSI"?

 

[azsoxpatsfan]

2 lb. of air pressure equals about the weight of one dollar bill, and balls 2 lb. of air pressure lighter than legal are only soft enough to squeeze about 1.5% more than a legal ball. So everyone asking "why couldn't brady tell the difference?", it's because it would have been literally impossible to.

 

[OnWisc]

 
While this guy is probably an asshole, I really don't think his use of "weight" and "pounds" really means he's thinking of weight.  While you and I think it's strange because we paid attention in science class and think such details are important, he and many other media members are using this wording to describe pressure, probably because everyday people don't normally talk about pressure and therefore don't have the correct verbs and nouns handy in their vocabulary.  I've heard at least 2 media members, when corrected, quickly say "of course I'm talking about pressure when I say "weigh".
 
Stupid, yes ,but in a different way.

I think he meant exactly what he said. It takes a lot more than lack of a physics degree to fuck up the wording that badly by accident.

They've changed the article anyway. Now reads that he couldn't tell the pressure was "significantly" less.

This guy underscores the fact that the overwhelming majority of the media is best ignored. If I forgot one comma in the footnote of one page of a 80 page pitch book that nobody would ever look at I'd probably face more repercussions than this fucking moron who really thought the ball weighed 2 pounds less.

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

While this guy is probably an asshole, I really don't think his use of "weight" and "pounds" really means he's thinking of weight.  While you and I think it's strange because we paid attention in science class and think such details are important, he and many other media members are using this wording to describe pressure, probably because everyday people don't normally talk about pressure and therefore don't have the correct verbs and nouns handy in their vocabulary.  I've heard at least 2 media members, when corrected, quickly say "of course I'm talking about pressure when I say "weigh".
 
Stupid, yes ,but in a different way.

His whole article is premised on the fact that the ball would be "significantly lighter". That was what the 9th paragraph said before he edited. He's edited it now, but not well. It says "significantly pressure" now.

Look at his headline. His whole article was that the ball got lighter so Brady must be a liar.

 

[FelixMantilla]

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/01/23/deflategate-patriots-super-bowl-xlix/
 

The conclusion: There is little doubt the New England footballs were tampered with by a human.

 

[djbayko]

His whole article is premised on the fact that the ball would be "significantly lighter".

 
Okay, I stand corrected in this case.  He's a moron.
 
However, I was blindly applying a phenomenon that I had seen with other media members.  In those examples, when they were corrected, their responses made it clear that they knew the difference between weight and pressure and were simply taking a conversational shortcut.

 

[soxhop411]

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/01/23/deflategate-patriots-super-bowl-xlix/
 

No they were tampered with by a cyborg.

 

[Icculus]

How does the reliability of PK's source on this compare to his source on the Ray Rice investigation?

 

[E5 Yaz]

No they were tampered with by a cyborg.

 
You mean that Gronk video was real????

 

[JBill]

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/01/23/deflategate-patriots-super-bowl-xlix/
 

So no resolution until after the Superbowl. So this will just cloud everything from now until the game, and what, the NFL will just continue to keep everyone in the dark about the details of their "investigation" or "review" or whatever the fuck, but will leak to King that rest assured, the Pats will get punished and justice will be served, no question. What a joke.

 

[Al Zarilla]

If you are serious:
Air has a much lower heat capacity than liquid, so it changes temp faster. Its like a battery: batteries with high capacity take longer to charge.

OK. We don't have everyday experiences heating or cooling a volume of air like we do liquids, so it wasn't obvious to me. Football and physics. Who knew we'd be discussing them together at this length. What would Sammy Baugh have said if he were put in Brady's place today? Or Sonny Jurgenson or Bobby Layne? Might have been pretty comical.

 

[genoasalami]

So no resolution until after the Superbowl. So this will just cloud everything from now until the game, and what, the NFL will just continue to keep everyone in the dark about the details of their "investigation" or "review" or whatever the fuck, but will leak to King that rest assured, the Pats will get punished and justice will be served, no question. What a joke.

 
Which may explain why Brady has not spoken to the NFL about it. Let them play the game, finish up the investigation and then dish out the punishment for next season.

 

[Tito's Pullover]

If they're not going to wrap this up in the next week, and they never end up finding any actual evidence of wrongdoing, I'll be pissed if they even fine the Patriots ten cents.

 

[WayBackVazquez]

He has to hold his usual press conference next week. Every question is going to about this nonsense, and he's not going to be able to avoid releasing the findings or explaining why he hasn't.

 

[Boston Brawler]

Eat the largest bag of dicks you can find.

 
 

 
Is the bag inflated?  Are the dicks?

 
 
A company actually just started producing these:
http://www.skdtac.com/skd-bag-of-dicks-p/skd.808.htm
 

 

 

 
Every so often we see new products out there that make us shake our heads and say: "That's as cool as a Bag of Dicks." Well, one evening this past January, several members of Team SKD were talking about such products in an outdoor hot tub during St Louis's worst snow storm in decades (true story. After a spirited round of libations and various shenanigans (including making snow angels in our swim trunks), we decided we would take it upon ourselves to bless this world with an ACTUAL BAG OF DICKS. It dawned on us that each of us had countless buddies in our lives that we would love to order such a product for- delightfully imagining the look of surprise and sheer terror on their faces when they would dump out the contents of said Bag in front of unsuspecting friends and family.

Fast forward 2 weeks, and "No shit, there we were..." at the Adult Video Network convention in Vegas, registered as buyers in the Porn industry's biggest trade show. We were on the hunt to procure thousands of quality prosthetic "members" to make this dream a reality. The laughs kept coming throughout the process- imagine having to explain why we were importing thousands of dildos to the female freight agent we've been dealing with for years, or our accounts payable manager on what it was she was paying for. Good times were being had throughout the process, so we knew we were on the right track! So, without further ado, we proudly introduce to you our latest product that requires no explanation- the SKD Bag of Dicks.
 
If you don't already know exactly who you are going to be buying this for, then you're prolly on this website by accident and it's time to move along. For everyone else, each SKD Bag of Dicks features a top-quality Made in USA camouflaged drawstring satchel that will serve as a great catch-all for knick-knacks and widgets, with a military-issue themed instruction patch on its care and use. Each SKD Bag of Dicks also comes with a large loop fastener field for the integration of your favorite morale patches or name tape. Each SKD Bag of Dicks comes complete with 7 (SEVEN) FDA approved silicone dildos (imported) of different colors and stiffness. All SKD Bag of Dicks sales are final and no refunds are available.

 

[Marciano490]

I'll wait till the winter camo bag of dicks comes out.  I hear the dicks in that bag are slightly more manageable.

 

[Peak Oil Can Boyd]

If everything King writes about the balls is true -- and he's doubling down with "I am told reliably" -- I'm back to being pretty freaked out.  He does make the distinction that the halftime balls were checked with the pressure gauge, but doesn't say that about the pre-game inspection.  Wishful thinking.

 

[Hoya81]

"All 24 footballs were checked by pressure gauge after the game. All 24 checked at the correct pressure—which is one of the last pieces of the puzzle the league needed to determine with certainty that something fishy happened with the Patriots footballs, because the Colts’ balls stayed correctly inflated for the nearly four hours. There had been reports quoting atmospheric experts that cold weather could deflate footballs. But if the Patriots’ balls were all low, and the Colts’ balls all legit, that quashes that theorem."

So they managed to let air out and let air in without anyone noticing?

 

[Nick Kaufman]

Look, we should all calm a bit down here and try to look at it how it looks from an outsider's perspective. We should also be cognizant that our fandom gives us all the incentive to engage in motivated reasoning and act like lawyers for the Pats who ignore uncomfortable evidence and focus on other pieces that might not prove what we don't want them to prove. 

I still think that even we accept the worse, the underlying crime is as light as they come and the sanctimony surrounding it is breathtaking. But we still make an effort to be more calm and objective about this.

 

[soxfaninyankeeland]

 
So they managed to let air out and let air in without anyone noticing?

If you can't figure this out after 100 pages, then I am not helping you.

 

[djbayko]

"All 24 footballs were checked by pressure gauge after the game. All 24 checked at the correct pressure—which is one of the last pieces of the puzzle the league needed to determine with certainty that something fishy happened with the Patriots footballs, because the Colts’ balls stayed correctly inflated for the nearly four hours. There had been reports quoting atmospheric experts that cold weather could deflate footballs. But if the Patriots’ balls were all low, and the Colts’ balls all legit, that quashes that theorem."

So they managed to let air out and let air in without anyone noticing?

 
I think he's assuming the reader understands that the NE game balls were switched out for the backups at halftime.  If this is true, then it is concerning:

• IND balls at half = fine
• IND balls at end = fine
• NE balls at half = deflated
• NE (backup) balls at end = fine

This in and of itself doesn't prove any wrongdoing on the Patriot's part, but it doesn't look good.
 
Dammit, I wish we weren't all speculating based on incomplete info from sometimes conflicting leaks.  So frustrating.  I'm inclined to not believe much of anything until the complete story comes out from an official source.

 

[Boston Brawler]

So King says this:

 
The conclusion: There is little doubt the New England footballs were tampered with by a human.

 
Then two paragraphs later, he says this:

 
That’s why I believe it’s important to draw no conclusions, until significant evidence has been unearthed.

 
 
Sweet.

 

[riboflav]

I don't understand the point in having the Super Bowl if king is right.

 

[SumnerH]

• 
  All 24 footballs were checked by pressure gauge at halftime. I am told either 11 or 12 of New England’s footballs (ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported it was 11, and I hear it could have been all 12) had at least two pounds less pressure in them. All 12 Indianapolis footballs were at the prescribed level.
• All 24 footballs were checked by pressure gauge after the game. All 24 checked at the correct pressure—which is one of the last pieces of the puzzle the league needed to determine with certainty that something fishy happened with the Patriots footballs, because the Colts’ balls stayed correctly inflated for the nearly four hours. There had been reports quoting atmospheric experts that cold weather could deflate footballs. But if the Patriots’ balls were all low, and the Colts’ balls all legit, that quashes that theorem.

He's right about the Colts' balls making the temperature theory unlikely. If they filled their balls outside, they should be showing up at higher pressure now that they're inside. Having them sit in front of a sideline heater could theoretically account for it, but a) the league might notice that (see Vikings/Panthers) and b) I don't know that an outdoor heater would be uniform enough to keep all the balls at consistent pressures. There's also the problem that 2 PSI seems like too much for temperature to account for (1.5 PSI seems about the outside that's theoretically possible, barring the balls being originally filled in the sauna or something).

But the new "fact" herein makes the temperature theory more likely, rather than quashing it. I'd been thinking that if the balls were retested after the game that would rule out the temperature idea, because if it were true then they should return to their original pressure once they were moved back inside (to room temperature).

This indicates they did exactly that. So that correlates well with the temperature hypothesis, while making the human intervention hypothesis much, much trickier than it was: we now have to believe that after the league took possession of the balls at halftime, someone managed to go fill them up and gauge them back to the original pressure without being noticed. That seems dubious.

At this point no theory seems to fit the "facts". Which probably means that some of those facts are wrong. We need the NFL report.

 

[ivanvamp]

"All 24 footballs were checked by pressure gauge after the game. All 24 checked at the correct pressurewhich is one of the last pieces of the puzzle the league needed to determine with certainty that something fishy happened with the Patriots footballs, because the Colts balls stayed correctly inflated for the nearly four hours. There had been reports quoting atmospheric experts that cold weather could deflate footballs. But if the Patriots balls were all low, and the Colts balls all legit, that quashes that theorem."

So they managed to let air out and let air in without anyone noticing?

Of course it's entirely possible that the Colts' footballs were overinflated (and nobody cared), and during the game when the cold air naturally deflated them some, they fell within legal limits. So the fact that their footballs tested fine at the end of the game means precisely.... Nothing.

 

[SumnerH]

Of course it's entirely possible that the Colts' footballs were overinflated (and nobody cared), and during the game when the cold air naturally deflated them some, they fell within legal limits. So the fact that their footballs tested fine at the end of the game means precisely.... Nothing.

But if the NE balls were at correct PSI testing, that indicates post-game testing was inside; the Colts balls should be back to overinflated. Even if nobody cared about that pre-game, you'd have to think it'd be noticed once people were actually paying attention to the PSI.

 

[riboflav]

Anyone want to take a stab at Goodell's podium speech if the Patriots win?

 

[Mloaf71]

 
I think he's assuming the reader understands that the NE game balls were switched out for the backups at halftime.  If this is true, then it is concerning:

• IND balls at half = fine
• IND balls at end = fine
• NE balls at half = deflated
• NE (backup) balls at end = fine

This in and of itself doesn't prove any wrongdoing on the Patriot's part, but it doesn't look good.
 
Dammit, I wish we weren't all speculating based on incomplete info from sometimes conflicting leaks.  So frustrating.  I'm inclined to not believe much of anything until the complete story comes out from an official source.

 
No one has ever said the Indy balls didn't change pressure.  They were still in the acceptable range.  So if Luck inflates his to 13.5 an they lose 1 PSI he is at 12.5 and he is OK.  If Brady starts at 12.5 and loses 1 he is not OK.
 
Someone in the media needs to find what the Colts balls STARTED and ENDED at.

 

[TheoShmeo]

I don't understand the point in having the Super Bowl if king is right.

Good thing that King is almost never right.  Play on.

 

[amlothi]

 
No one has ever said the Indy balls didn't change pressure.  They were still in the acceptable range.  So if Luck inflates his to 13.5 an they lose 1 PSI he is at 12.5 and he is OK.  If Brady starts at 12.5 and loses 1 he is not OK.
 
Someone in the media needs to find what the Colts balls STARTED and ENDED at.

Where in the rule book does it say that it's illegal for balls to fall out of range during a game due to natural forces/Gronk spikes?

 

[NortheasternPJ]

I like how King does not state they used a pressure gauge before the game but does state they did at half time. The thought that the Pats have been supplying underinflated balls and no one really checks them with a gauge is still the most likely in my opinion. Especially with these mixed crews in the Playoffs.

https://twitter.com/sharksofvegas/status/558482256227217408