Deflated Footballs? - Ballgate posts go here - NSFW

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thomas144 said:
lol. no, I meant my fluvus (engineering slang for whatcha-ma-callit).
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Phew, I thought we were going to have to hire Wells to find out why you were still stuck in the 70"s :LOL:
 
Thank goodness Wells wasn't on the Warren Commission. It would have taken decades.
 
Mike Reiss today. Good questions.

If these questions aren't answered in Wells report, it will have been waste of time

Mike Reiss, ESPN New England Patriots reporter

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- It has been 103 days since the NFL appointed attorney Ted Wells to investigate the New England Patriots' underinflated footballs from the AFC Championship Game, and word is that Wells has reached the red zone.

In an appearance on ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike” program from the NFL draft, commissioner Roger Goodell said Wells has concluded the investigation phase and is now writing. The report, similar to the 148-page Wells’ report on the Miami Dolphins' bullying scandal from the 2013 season, is expected to be lengthy.

In preparation for its release, these are the areas that should be decisively addressed; otherwise, it will have been a waste of time and resources:

Answering two main questions. At the Super Bowl, Goodell said the investigation would focus on two areas: 1) Why were some footballs used in the AFC Championship Game that were not in compliance with the rules? 2) Was that a result of deliberate action? These two questions should be answered on Page 1 of the Wells report, with the finer-point details to follow.

Specifics on PSI levels. When the story initially broke, it was reported that the NFL found 11 of the Patriots’ 12 game balls were inflated significantly below the NFL’s requirements. What were those exact levels? Along those lines, is it instead true that “just one was two [PSI] under [and] many of them were just a few ticks under the minimum?" This information should be on Page 1 of the Wells report because it hits at the heart of context.

Specifics on how balls were tested before the game. NFL Vice President of Officiating Dean Blandino said at the Super Bowl that referee Walt Anderson “gauged” all footballs before the game. Specifics on this process are crucial. Did Anderson use a pump? Was it a hand test? We already know the exact PSI of each football was not documented upon inspection, and without knowing the exact starting point, it makes it difficult to compare Patriots footballs to Colts footballs from that day.

Footballs after pregame check. After Anderson approved the footballs, where did those footballs go? Who was monitoring them? The Foxsports.com report that a game-day employee brought the footballs into the bathroom for about 90 seconds raised suspicions, with the report calling him a "strong person of interest." What happened in those 90 seconds and who is this "strong person of interest?"

Specifics on how balls were tested at halftime and historical context. Patriots footballs were tested at halftime of the AFC Championship Game and that is when the league determined underinflated footballs were used. Who conducted that test and how was it conducted? Is any air pressure released from a football when tested? Has the league ever tested footballs at halftime of a game before? At the Super Bowl, Goodell said he was unaware of whether the league had ever tested air pressure of football at halftime of a game, and any historical context along those lines is notable.

Role of science. In an unforgettable January news conference, Bill Belichick cited science as a reason a properly inflated football could lose air pressure due to variables such as weather and temperature. What do experts tapped by Wells say about that?

More on Mike K€nsil. NFL Vice President of Game Operations Mike K€nsil was at the AFC Championship Game and directly involved with the investigation. K€nsil and members of the Patriots organization have had some testy exchanges behind the scenes over the years, with some around the team previously questioning if K€nsil had an anti-Patriots agenda. With more than 100 days to investigate, any potential bias from K€nsil should be covered by the Wells report.

Role of game-day employee dismissed by NFL. ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter reported that a game-day employee hired by the NFL to collect footballs for charity handed an ineligible ball to an official to put into play during the AFC Championship Game. That game-day employee has since been fired. How is this related, if at all, to the issue of underinflated footballs being used in the first half?

Colts’ role. The Washington Post previously detailed how Bob Kravitz, the Indianapolis-based reporter who broke the story, got the initial tip via this text message: “Call me now..Very important!!!!” If it is determined that Kravitz was tipped off by the Colts, which led to a media firestorm that reflected poorly on the league and the Patriots, will there be any NFL discipline as it relates to the league’s integrity of the game policy? Colts general manager Ryan Grigson previously mentioned he had privately expressed concern to the NFL about underinflated footballs before the AFC Championship Game.

NFL’s handling of investigation. Patriots owner Robert Kraft expressed outrage at the Super Bowl because of media leaks he felt came from the NFL office, saying he expected an apology if the league couldn’t “definitively determine that [the Patriots] tampered with the air pressure on the footballs.” At the March owners meetings, Goodell said, “If there was anything that we as a league did incorrectly, we’ll know about it in that report.” We’ll be curious what type of spotlight the Wells report puts on the NFL in this regard.
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Way to go, Mike.

All of your questions assume nothing and real answers will show exactly what happened.

Cheers, BostonTim
 
Florio today:

#DeflateGate investigation still lingers

Posted by Mike Florio on May 6, 2015, 8:48 AM EDT
Wells
Getty Images
The encore for Ted Wells officially has run longer than his debut.

As noted by NFL Media’s Albert Breer, the Wells-led investigation into the #DeflateGate scandal has now consumed more time than the investigation conducted by Wells regarding the Dolphins bullying scandal. In Miami, Wells’ work was done in 100 days; his latest project is at 103 days and counting.

While the two situations have many differences, the Dolphins scandal required interviews of many people and a review of thousands of text messages, followed by an effort to harmonize conflicts in the information provided by witnesses and to explore and explain other incidents that emerged as Wells examined the allegations that resulted in former Dolphins tackle Jonathan Martin leaving the team abruptly in late October 2013. The question of whether the Patriots deliberately deflated footballs used during the AFC championship game against the Colts would seem on the surface to entail a far less complex set of facts and a far more narrow universe of potential witnesses and evidence.

In fairness to Wells, the NFL emphasized upon hiring him that there would be no timetable on his work. But did anyone expect that his work would last into May?

Commissioner Roger Goodell has repeatedly said that the report from Wells is coming soon. It’s unclear whether the NFL will release the report publicly before Goodell determines the penalties, if any, that will be imposed as a result of the findings.

Regardless, the ultimate bad-news dump comes in 16 days: The Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. The only thing keeping the report from being released then could be the league’s sensitivity to the perception that it tries to bury bad news into the final hours of the work week.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/06/deflategate-investigation-still-lingers/
 
Florio today:

#DeflateGate investigation still lingers

Posted by Mike Florio on May 6, 2015, 8:48 AM EDT
Wells
Getty Images
The encore for Ted Wells officially has run longer than his debut.

As noted by NFL Media’s Albert Breer, the Wells-led investigation into the #DeflateGate scandal has now consumed more time than the investigation conducted by Wells regarding the Dolphins bullying scandal. In Miami, Wells’ work was done in 100 days; his latest project is at 103 days and counting.

While the two situations have many differences, the Dolphins scandal required interviews of many people and a review of thousands of text messages, followed by an effort to harmonize conflicts in the information provided by witnesses and to explore and explain other incidents that emerged as Wells examined the allegations that resulted in former Dolphins tackle Jonathan Martin leaving the team abruptly in late October 2013. The question of whether the Patriots deliberately deflated footballs used during the AFC championship game against the Colts would seem on the surface to entail a far less complex set of facts and a far more narrow universe of potential witnesses and evidence.

In fairness to Wells, the NFL emphasized upon hiring him that there would be no timetable on his work. But did anyone expect that his work would last into May?

Commissioner Roger Goodell has repeatedly said that the report from Wells is coming soon. It’s unclear whether the NFL will release the report publicly before Goodell determines the penalties, if any, that will be imposed as a result of the findings.

Regardless, the ultimate bad-news dump comes in 16 days: The Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. The only thing keeping the report from being released then could be the league’s sensitivity to the perception that it tries to bury bad news into the final hours of the work week.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/06/deflategate-investigation-still-lingers/
 
Colts' role. The Washington Post previously detailed how Bob Kravitz, the Indianapolis-based reporter who broke the story, got the initial tip via this text message: “Call me now..Very important!!!!” If it is determined that Kravitz was tipped off by the Colts, which led to a media firestorm that reflected poorly on the league and the Patriots, will there be any NFL discipline as it relates to the league’s integrity of the game policy? Colts general manager Ryan Grigson previously mentioned he had privately expressed concern to the NFL about underinflated footballs before the AFC Championship Game.
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I don't understand this.

Even if someone in the Colts did tell Kravitz this, how is telling a reporter factual information reason for discipline? Is Reiss positing that if Kravitz never broke the story the NFL was investigating the Pats that no one would have broken it?
 
Jaric said:
I don't understand this.

Even if someone in the Colts did tell Kravitz this, how is telling a reporter factual information reason for discipline? Is Reiss positing that if Kravitz never broke the story the NFL was investigating the Pats that no one would have broken it?
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If it's factual information and there's nothing wrong with telling it to a reporter, why keep your name anonymous?
 
And you must have missed the media shitstorm the Patriots and their fans endured because of that leak. It wasn't a "nothing is for sure yet, but some of the balls may not have been in accordance with NFL standards" type of leak/story. It was a conviction of guilt by everyone, shit stirring from Indiacrapolis, a question of integrity and character, all this while nobody really knew anything that was going on. The "unnamed sources" and their leaks (whether they're true or false) were a huge driving force in the Patriots witchhunt. If the Colts were some of those sources, it should be grounds for discipline.
 
Jaric said:
I don't understand this.

Even if someone in the Colts did tell Kravitz this, how is telling a reporter factual information reason for discipline? Is Reiss positing that if Kravitz never broke the story the NFL was investigating the Pats that no one would have broken it?
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Believe it or not, lots of companies have policies about who can communicate what to the media, about things related to the company, (and the policies make no distinction about whether the information you provide is true, or not).
 
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