#DeflateGate (Court of Appeals Reinstates Suspension)

[D.o.s.]

Fair point.

I'm a die hard Pats fan and I think the Pats certainly did something wrong.

My issue is that this was a minor rule that no one knew (apparently not even the refs) or cared about that was punished as if it was something much worse. The commissioner acted unfairly in the first place and acted even more unfairly during the appeal. All the while spreading lies in the media to make things look worse.

I'm tired of having to hear about how bad of cheaters the Patriots are when the infraction that was committed usually only incurs a small fine.

BTW tp for the response, getting something like that on celticsblog is rare and I kind of don't know what to do.

It's not really that rare when we actually have things to talk about. Offseason makes everyone a little testy.

In general I think the league treats their players and fans like absolute garbage in pretty much every aspect of their careers and I very much enjoy watching this aspect of the NFL be brought to light, especially when it's something mundane like the PSI of a football.

It's sad because they have a product that people love and it seems like at every turn they are doing something to hurt their brand.

Even though the NFL is making a record amount of money I still think they should force Goodell out. In my opinion all of the money being made by the NFL would have still been made without him and I wouldn't feel like I need a cold shower after saying I support the NFL.

I mean this is probably where I out myself and say that I'm not a particularly big football fan at all so I would love to see America's sports attentions focused on, say, leagues like the NBA.

On the other hand, I kind of enjoy having the NFL's target market focused on the NFL, since they tend to be, well, football fans. Present company excluded, of course.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Fair point.

I'm a die hard Pats fan and I think the Pats certainly did something wrong.

My issue is that this was a minor rule that no one knew (apparently not even the refs) or cared about that was punished as if it was something much worse. The commissioner acted unfairly in the first place and acted even more unfairly during the appeal. All the while spreading lies in the media to make things look worse.

I'm tired of having to hear about how bad of cheaters the Patriots are when the infraction that was committed usually only incurs a small fine.

BTW tp for the response, getting something like that on celticsblog is rare and I kind of don't know what to do.

It's not really that rare when we actually have things to talk about. Offseason makes everyone a little testy.

In general I think the league treats their players and fans like absolute garbage in pretty much every aspect of their careers and I very much enjoy watching this aspect of the NFL be brought to light, especially when it's something mundane like the PSI of a football.

It's sad because they have a product that people love and it seems like at every turn they are doing something to hurt their brand.

Even though the NFL is making a record amount of money I still think they should force Goodell out. In my opinion all of the money being made by the NFL would have still been made without him and I wouldn't feel like I need a cold shower after saying I support the NFL.

@Evantime34: Your first post quoted above is precisely how I feel—I'm a Pats fan, but not so biased as to think they're squeaky clean in this, but ultimately this was way overblown and it's basically Goodell's fault. There's even one Jets player at least (Cromartie) saying this is ridiculous.

And just for kicks, Bill Simmons finally chimed in on all this stuff.

[D.o.s.]

I mean if making fun of something like this cost me six figures I'd be pretty p---ed too.

[mef730]

This morning, I got this article about Tom Brady's pool cover in my news feed. Apparently, it was "priceless."

http://www.businessinsider.com/tom-brady-pool-cover-emails-2015-8

My point is, if I'm Tom Brady, I'm not giving my cell phone to the porous NFL. No way I feel like dealing with 8,000 headlines about my pool cover or something equally important once some intern gets hold of the texts and sells them to TMZ.

This thing got away from Goodell. If he had known then what he knows now, he would have fined them $50K for using under-inflated footballs and sent them on their merry way.

Mike

[BballTim]

So right now, I think the only thing that people can reasonably accuse the patriots of is acting guilty in certain circumstances 

Luckily acting guilty doesn't mean you did it.

  You have the possibility that the patriots did something against the rules followed by all that acting guilty though. You can't be overly surprised by the conclusions people are coming to.

I can when the overwhelming evidence shows they didn't do anything

  If it did this thread would be 8-10 pages long at most. Claims of innocence from those guys who are acting guilty doesn't constitute overwhelming evidence, nor do reports that claim it's *likely* that the conclusions of the investigation were incorrect. Combining the two doesn't cut it either.
 

[Rondo2287]

So right now, I think the only thing that people can reasonably accuse the patriots of is acting guilty in certain circumstances 

Luckily acting guilty doesn't mean you did it.

  You have the possibility that the patriots did something against the rules followed by all that acting guilty though. You can't be overly surprised by the conclusions people are coming to.

I can when the overwhelming evidence shows they didn't do anything

  If it did this thread would be 8-10 pages long at most. Claims of innocence from those guys who are acting guilty doesn't constitute overwhelming evidence, nor do reports that claim it's *likely* that the conclusions of the investigation were incorrect. Combining the two doesn't cut it either.

I don't agree.  There are a lot of jealous fans out there that will jump on the pats despite the evidence

[BballTim]

So right now, I think the only thing that people can reasonably accuse the patriots of is acting guilty in certain circumstances 

Luckily acting guilty doesn't mean you did it.

  You have the possibility that the patriots did something against the rules followed by all that acting guilty though. You can't be overly surprised by the conclusions people are coming to.

I can when the overwhelming evidence shows they didn't do anything

  If it did this thread would be 8-10 pages long at most. Claims of innocence from those guys who are acting guilty doesn't constitute overwhelming evidence, nor do reports that claim it's *likely* that the conclusions of the investigation were incorrect. Combining the two doesn't cut it either.

I don't agree.  There are a lot of jealous fans out there that will jump on the pats despite the evidence

   And, apparently, plenty who will defend them equally strongly. But neither side would come close to this long of a thread if the evidence was strongly tilted in one direction or the other.

[D.o.s.]

I feel like we've all been posting on CB long enough to know that that is not necessarily the case.

[tarheelsxxiii]

I hope, for his sake, that Mark Brunell is just an naturally emotional person.

[mef730]

I'm just curious, when are they going to start investigating Jerry Rice and what will his penalty be?

Mike

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

So right now, I think the only thing that people can reasonably accuse the patriots of is acting guilty in certain circumstances 

Luckily acting guilty doesn't mean you did it.

  You have the possibility that the patriots did something against the rules followed by all that acting guilty though. You can't be overly surprised by the conclusions people are coming to.

I can when the overwhelming evidence shows they didn't do anything

  If it did this thread would be 8-10 pages long at most. Claims of innocence from those guys who are acting guilty doesn't constitute overwhelming evidence, nor do reports that claim it's *likely* that the conclusions of the investigation were incorrect. Combining the two doesn't cut it either.

Concerning the bolded section, I think that's a matter of individual perception. Yahoo's Dan Wetzel wrote what I think is a really good piece addressing this issue.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I'm just curious, when are they going to start investigating Jerry Rice and what will his penalty be?

Mike

Perhaps an asterisk next to his records is appropriate?

[Vermont Green]

  If it did this thread would be 8-10 pages long at most. Claims of innocence from those guys who are acting guilty doesn't constitute overwhelming evidence, nor do reports that claim it's *likely* that the conclusions of the investigation were incorrect. Combining the two doesn't cut it either.

Concerning the bolded section, I think that's a matter of individual perception. Yahoo's Dan Wetzel wrote what I think is a really good piece addressing this issue.

I  think this Yahoo article is great.  Even better than the one in the Washington Post yesterday.

The credibility of the NFL is heading down the toilet.  It seems the more real truthful detail that come out (vs. the false and misleading information that has flowed out of the NFL formally and through leaks), the worse the NFL looks.

The story is staying the same for the Pats/Brady.   There is a text from months ago where a locker room attendant lackey referred to himself as the deflator.  This occurred likely after Brady made a big fuss about his game day footballs being  over inflated to 16 psig for the Jets game.  Then this lackey went to the bathroom on his way to the field with the balls.  Then Brady got a new phone.  Nothing is changing around this.

The NFL?  They thought the balls were deflated by 2 psi so they leaked this out.  Ooops, forgot about the Ideal Gas Law.  Then Goodell made up testimony and attributed it to Brady to make him look bad.  Ooops, the transcript got released and an important lie in a formally issued document is exposed.  Then it was Brady didn't cooperate so he must be guilty.  Uh oh, the Washington Post reports that Wells said Brady "totally cooperated"......

People keep coming back to the concept that the Pats "behavior" is indicative of someone who is guilty.  Unfortunately for the NFL, every time they site or leak an example of that behavior, it turns out to be exaggerated our outright false.  But even that isn't the point.  The point is; if the Pats behavior makes some people think the Pats are "acting guilty" (whatever that means), what does the NFL behavior reflect? 

[Jon]

Andy Benoit had a pretty good article on SI/MMQB saying Goodell likely should be fired for the mess he's made.

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/08/06/roger-goodell-nfl-deflategate-dez-bryant-fight-chip-kelly

[BballTim]

I'm just curious, when are they going to start investigating Jerry Rice and what will his penalty be?

Mike

  Probably depends on whether or not he throws his phone in the microwave before he heads out to be interviewed.