This story keeps getting better and better for seeing people scramble like roaches in the light, for anything BUT the obvious explanation.
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick today said "climatic conditions" may have been to blame for the footballs that were under-inflated Sunday for the AFC Championship game, and said the team had not tried to tamper with them.
Ummm..It's climate now? Of course, something about their 12th football was real special, right? It stood up and defeated those mighty climate forces to keep ITS air. Oh..wait..wasn't that the one someone said they used for their own kick? Go figure....
----
I broke down in boredom for awhile last night and caught some of Fox's cable news coverage on this. I didn't much buy their 'CIA Interrogator' analysis, for the former CIA officer they brought into it ...but during that segment, they raised one dandy of a point I feel like a rube for having missed.
The quarterback stated in his press conference that he couldn't tell the difference between 11lbs and 14 lbs of pressure, and it was the last thing he'd said, so what many took away and remembered. I did too, so to thy ownself and all that.....
What I'd missed for a stand out was how he made the 'couldn't tell the difference' comment just AFTER stating he was particular and specific about his game balls being at 12.5 psi, and how he'd found that to be the perfect inflation level.
Errr... (shakes head) ...uhh... I see. (The story quoted below also ends with his 2011 statement about how much he loved underinflated balls after a hard spike would cause the condition...but ...he couldn't tell the difference..right?)
Oh...and there seems to be a mystery here?
"While the evidence thus far supports the conclusion that footballs that were under-inflated were used by the Patriots in the first half, the footballs were properly inflated for the second half and confirmed at the conclusion of the game to have remained properly inflated," the league said in a statement
So... only 11 of 12 balls were under-inflated, and then, only for half of the game. Climate? Why did the balls in the 2nd half show no change after a whopping 2lbs of change came to only ONE teams set for just one half of the game, and then, all but just ONE of those?
being thorough, I went to double check a bit and confirm those suspicions...
League sources have confirmed that the footballs were properly inspected and approved by referee Walt Anderson 2 hours and 15 minutes before kickoff, before they were returned to each team.
ESPN Sports Radio 810 in Kansas City reported that the Patriots' footballs were tested at the half, reinflated at that time when they were found to be low, then put back in play for the second half, and then tested again after the game. The report did not reveal the results of the test following the game. All of the balls the Colts used met standards, according to the report.
In timeline, the first quoted article is the most recent. The quote above came at the start of the week. What hadn't been confirmed then was the status at the end of the game. Now we know the balls were found to be in good order after the second half.
That's some weird climate impact, to try and take the coach's statement with more than smirks and chuckles. Only one team's "Ball bag" impacted, and only 11 of 24 balls, and only during the first half of the game ...and ..and...B.S.!
By now you are well aware of the term "more probable than not" and that in the case of deflate-gate, two New England Patriots employees you've never heard of were probably at fault and quarterback Tom Brady knew about it ... more probable than not, of course.
Investigator Ted Wells' report, which took more than three months to put together, runs 243 pages. Don't have time to read it? That's OK, we did, and we found 10 not-so-obvious items that are worth noting:
Some people, mostly those from the Northeast, have tried to poke holes in Ted Wells' report on deflate-gate that said two equipment personnel from the New England Patriots probably conspired to deflate footballs and quarterback Tom Brady probably knew about it.
Brady's agent went on the offensive on Thursday, wondering why the NFL decided to perform a "sting operation" instead of informing the Patriots of a potential issue. He said that part "taints the entire report."
Part of the report was that the Indianapolis Colts informed the league the day before the AFC championship game of their concerns over the air pressure in the Patriots' game balls. Colts equipment manager Sean Sullivan told the NFL it was "well known around the league" that the Patriots would deflate footballs with a needle after the officials inspected them before the game.
Yet, the game went on as normal until Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson intercepted a Brady pass and the Colts could inspect the ball on the sideline. They found it was under the minimum air pressure of 12.5 psi stipulated in the rules. That set the NFL in motion.
The defense they use does add to the mound of suspicion
The conclusion in the NFL's "Investigative Report Concerning Footballs Used During the AFC Championship Game on January 18, 2015" is damning for Tom Brady, very damning.
"Based on the evidence, it also is our view that it is more probable than not that Tom Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of [two New England employees] involving the release of air from Patriots game balls," the Ted Wells Report reads.
In other words: we're positive he cheated but we can't quite prove it.
For Brady, as much as he will be raked over the coals following the release of this report and be doubted by many forever, it actually could've been worse. The Wells Report is an opinion. While it's an opinion based on some strong evidence, some of the other evidence is a reach, more than enough for Brady to argue his innocence if/when he addresses it.
He has a real defense here (which is different than being innocent) even if most of the members of the Court of Public Opinion have immediately ruled against him.
Well, the guy who prefers others make his balls soft, is going to pay a price for that.
Tom Brady will be the highest-profile player ever suspended in the 96-year history of the NFL.
Roger Goodell’s decision is expected to be announced next week, and it is no longer a matter of if the NFL commissioner will suspend Brady, but for how long he will suspend him.