#DeflateGate (Court of Appeals Reinstates Suspension)

[Roy H.]

Kraft's statement on NFL
http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4776995/robert-kraft-statement-on-investigation

note the "during the three days they were here." I find it odd that the NFL interviewed 40 people, was actually at the Patriots facility for three days, but now is gone, and haven't contacted Tom Brady.

It baffles my mind that they wouldn't interview Brady.

Maybe they're going to try to whitewash things again, like they did with Ray Rice. 

[littleteapot]

Kraft's statement on NFL
http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4776995/robert-kraft-statement-on-investigation

note the "during the three days they were here." I find it odd that the NFL interviewed 40 people, was actually at the Patriots facility for three days, but now is gone, and haven't contacted Tom Brady.

It baffles my mind that they wouldn't interview Brady.

Maybe they're going to try to whitewash things again, like they did with Ray Rice. 

Are they done interviewing people?

Yeah and everyone says that the NFL is blowing this out of proportion this to get "clicks" but I don't really see why they'd do that. You want people clicking on articles about how entertaining football is and how they should watch it and spend money on it, not that one of the teams playing for the championship is cheating. That would NOT turn me on to a sport.

[D.o.s.]

Correct -- the NFL isn't pushing this. Media outlets who don't want to start Super Bowl coverage until this monday are doing it.

[littleteapot]

Correct -- the NFL isn't pushing this. Media outlets who don't want to start Super Bowl coverage until this monday are doing it.

But the NFL actually stopped a game to check the pressure of a football before the media knew anything was going on, and now they've interviewed 40 people. The media is eating this up, but only in response to what the NFL is doing.

The NFL is clearly trying to give the Colts (and the other non-Patriot teams) the impression that they are doing due diligence on any cheating allegations. Still not sure if they want to find anything or not though.

[kozlodoev]

Correct -- the NFL isn't pushing this. Media outlets who don't want to start Super Bowl coverage until this monday are doing it.

But the NFL actually stopped a game to check the pressure of a football before the media knew anything was going on, and now they've interviewed 40 people. The media is eating this up, but only in response to what the NFL is doing.

The NFL is clearly trying to give the Colts (and the other non-Patriot teams) the impression that they are doing due diligence on any cheating allegations. Still not sure if they want to find anything or not though.

That's not what they did really. They simply swapped out a ball.

[Eja117]

I am pretty happy that basically the group that looks like the bad guys here is clearly the media. They look incompetent, biased, petty, unknowledgable, etc.

They are seriously shooting themselves in the foot here.

[D.o.s.]

Correct -- the NFL isn't pushing this. Media outlets who don't want to start Super Bowl coverage until this monday are doing it.

The NFL is clearly trying to give the fans the impression that they are doing due diligence on any cheating allegations. Still not sure if they want to find anything or not though.

Fixed that for you. 

[littleteapot]

Correct -- the NFL isn't pushing this. Media outlets who don't want to start Super Bowl coverage until this monday are doing it.

The NFL is clearly trying to give the fans the impression that they are doing due diligence on any cheating allegations. Still not sure if they want to find anything or not though.

Fixed that for you. 

Um no, if the colts had complained and they'd just said "who cares shut up" then the only way there is any fan/media uproar is if the colts use the fans and media to leverage the nfl into doing something.

This started before the fans or media knew anything and the only 3 parties who knew anything were the Pats (if they actually were deflating balls), the Colts and the NFL. One of those parties WANTED the fans to know about this. Which one do you think it is?

[Donoghus]

Correct -- the NFL isn't pushing this. Media outlets who don't want to start Super Bowl coverage until this monday are doing it.

The NFL is clearly trying to give the fans the impression that they are doing due diligence on any cheating allegations. Still not sure if they want to find anything or not though.

Fixed that for you. 

Um no, if the colts had complained and they'd just said "who cares shut up" then the only way there is any fan/media uproar is if the colts use the fans and media to leverage the nfl into doing something.

This started before the fans or media knew anything and the only 3 parties who knew anything were the Pats (if they actually were deflating balls), the Colts and the NFL. One of those parties WANTED the fans to know about this. Which one do you think it is?

You could add the Baltimore Ravens to that mix if you believe Jay Glazer's report from earlier this week.

[Eja117]

The Pats are going to need an obscure rule guy going forward whose job it will be to help the staff find things to accuse the other team of.  We think they might have caffein in their gatorade. We think the microphone in the QBs helmet might be too loud. We think they aren't using a regulation tee. Stuff like that.

Never accuse back. Always accuse first.

[footey]

The fun continues:

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/23/nfl-issues-statement-on-deflategate-investigation/

So they've interviewed 40 people and neither of them was named Tom Brady. Can't say I'm impressed.

I was, however, hoping to see more about the specific levels of (under)inflation.

The best part is in the comments, where someone does the math.

What does it say about the collective iq of the American public, spending two weeks threshing over what could be explained with 5 minutes of arithmetic?

P = nRT/V
 The change in pressure is thus proportional to the change in temperature,
 The 75 degree locker room has an absolute temperature of 297o K
 The 40 degree playing field has an absolute temperature of 283o K
The change in temperature of 14o K will thus cause a drop in pressure of 14/297 = 4.7%.
 To translate this into a pressure change we must recall that football pressure is measured in gauge pressure, relative to the atmospheric pressure of 15 psi. So the absolute pressure within a football pumped to 13 psi is 13 +15 = 28psi absolute. The 4.7% drop applied to the absolute pressure gives a drop of 1.32 psi. Thus, the pressure within the football at game time will be only 13 -1.32 = 11.68 psi and thus well below regulation gauge pressure of 12.5-13.5psi. If they were just at 12.5psi to start they would be down by 1.3psi to 11.2psi by game time. And of course, a little pressure is lost every time you stick a needle in to check the pressure. Some guy on TV did this calculation but I think he forgot about absolute pressure vs gauge pressure and underestimated it.
 It thus seems highly likely that the Patriots equipment manager checked all 12 balls in a warm locker room and they lost pressure merely by cooling off on the field. In addition, the cold rain would have accelerated the heat transfer out of the balls. Finally, if the indoor inflation air was very humid, there would be an additional loss of pressure due to water vapor condensation on the inside of the bladder as the temperature of the football dropped.

TP, that was very informative.

Where did you get that quote?  Seems like this is the most logical explanation of what happened. 

[LooseCannon]

Sort of feels like the league wants to avoid having to make a ruling before the Super Bowl.

[TheFlex]

Correct -- the NFL isn't pushing this. Media outlets who don't want to start Super Bowl coverage until this monday are doing it.

The NFL is clearly trying to give the fans the impression that they are doing due diligence on any cheating allegations. Still not sure if they want to find anything or not though.

Fixed that for you. 

Um no, if the colts had complained and they'd just said "who cares shut up" then the only way there is any fan/media uproar is if the colts use the fans and media to leverage the nfl into doing something.

This started before the fans or media knew anything and the only 3 parties who knew anything were the Pats (if they actually were deflating balls), the Colts and the NFL. One of those parties WANTED the fans to know about this. Which one do you think it is?

You could add the Baltimore Ravens to that mix if you believe Jay Glazer's report from earlier this week.

As a Ravens fan I've followed their reaction closely. This was the latest bit of news:

Canty disputed a CBS Sports report that the Ravens believe the kicking balls used in the Ravens' Jan. 10 playoff loss at New England were underinflated, and coach John Harbaugh said Wednesday that the Ravens "didn't notice anything" about the condition of Patriots' footballs used in that same game.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12210318/chris-canty-baltimore-ravens-says-new-england-patriots-habitual-line-steppers

[Donoghus]

Correct -- the NFL isn't pushing this. Media outlets who don't want to start Super Bowl coverage until this monday are doing it.

The NFL is clearly trying to give the fans the impression that they are doing due diligence on any cheating allegations. Still not sure if they want to find anything or not though.

Fixed that for you. 

Um no, if the colts had complained and they'd just said "who cares shut up" then the only way there is any fan/media uproar is if the colts use the fans and media to leverage the nfl into doing something.

This started before the fans or media knew anything and the only 3 parties who knew anything were the Pats (if they actually were deflating balls), the Colts and the NFL. One of those parties WANTED the fans to know about this. Which one do you think it is?

You could add the Baltimore Ravens to that mix if you believe Jay Glazer's report from earlier this week.

As a Ravens fan I've followed their reaction closely. This was the latest bit of news:

Canty disputed a CBS Sports report that the Ravens believe the kicking balls used in the Ravens' Jan. 10 playoff loss at New England were underinflated, and coach John Harbaugh said Wednesday that the Ravens "didn't notice anything" about the condition of Patriots' footballs used in that same game.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12210318/chris-canty-baltimore-ravens-says-new-england-patriots-habitual-line-steppers

Canty is disputing the CBS report.  I'm talking about Jay Glazer (Fox Sports) who reported that the Ravens tipped off the Colts. 

[kozlodoev]

In a nutshell, no-one really wants to own up to pointing a finger, do they?