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...nothing could make me lean toward rooting for the Sea Hawks, we have this.

Sigh...

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The rumor I heard is that the NFL is going to disqualify the Pats and have a Packers/Seattle rematch. The plan is (and once again this is *just a rumor*) to expand the half time show by 55 minutes, cutting the actual game down to only five minutes. The NFL will spot GB a 20 point lead and see if they can somehow manage to lose again.

Why would an underinflated ball help you?

The  colts kept the underinflated balls they intercepted.

According to what I heard - an under inflated ball is easier to throw and catch in bad weather games.

It's really, really easy to immediately call foul play on Belichick and the Patriots as a whole, but this feels a little too obvious. They know their balls will be handled by the officials and (potentially) the Colts. It just feels like it would be a little too easy to get caught, and even if Belichick would be inclined to cheat, I just can't see him being stupid enough to do something so detectable. Something doesn't add up to me there, and I'm reserving judgement until we get the official declaration from the NFL. I'm sure there is room for some kind of explanation that isn't related to intentional foul play. If the Patriots can't prove their innocence though, they'll likely end up losing draft picks. Fortunately, even members of the Colts admit that deflated balls don't account for 45-7, so this is something that won't affect the Super Bowl in the slightest.

Edit: Kevin Clark tweeted this this morning: "NFL head coaches here at Senior Bowl seem downright offended that people think this deflation stuff is a big deal."

As unpopular as the Patriots are even in the league itself, it's noteworthy that virtually no players or coaches are vilifying them for this. If the people who would know exactly what kind of an impact this would have aren't outraged, what are the odds the average fan is going to have a better informed opinion? I'm starting to get the feeling that the only people who will really make a big fuss about this going forward are hardcore Seahawks fans and hardcore Patriots detractors. In other words, cue Josiah in 3... 2... 1...

haha, @ chris,

I Jerome, not Josiah, am a hardcore Seattle fan.

I don't think deflating the balls themselves is a huge deal. I don't think it made the difference in the colts game. However, I do think it is significant that the pats game balls were rechecked at half and 11 of 12 were found to be deflated while 0 of 12 for the colts were. This takes out any weather as the cause claims that had been circling. Is this incident a huge advantage? Obviously not, but if the pats, or Brady, didn't think it made a differance they wouldn't do it.

Dose it make a difference? Who cares, the point is the patriots organization has deliberately broken a league rule to attempt to gain an advantage. aka cheated. (again)

Also, this report has now started to grow and pull out claims from other teams during the regular season. Could just be salty whiners but I don't think we can say its nothing. If it made a difference in one single pass or catch this season there should be actual consequences.

No need to try to figure out whether the Patriots really cheated or not. The important thing is to come up with a cool name for this.  Right now, the leading contenders seem to be "DeflateGate" and "Ballghazi." As I think adding "Gate" to something lacks a bit in originality--I lean towards "Ballghazi."

What say ye?

deflategate rhymes though

Yes but Ballghazi seems to imply that something of sinister nature happened in a certain country lately. We all know that couldn't have actually be the case.

"Spot the Republican" is really, really easy on these boards.

This literally has nothing to do with football at all. I don't know why you even brought it up.

Quote from: Jmbeers on January 21, 2015, 08:37:04 PM

Yes but Ballghazi seems to imply that something of sinister nature happened in a certain country lately. We all know that couldn't have actually be the case.

"Spot the Republican" is really, really easy on these boards.

it's like spotting a tree in a forest because it's literally the only thing here

Quote from: Alex_Olijar on January 21, 2015, 10:26:02 PM

it's like spotting a tree in a forest because it's literally the only thing here

That's because the vast majority of people are Christian, and thus follow Christian values unlike dirty liberals.

You can't blame Liberals for not being as fully evolved as Conservatives

Every one does this. That's been confirmed by every former player or coach that's been asked, and several current players have talked about it. The only reason this blew up is because it's the Patriots and everybody wants reasons to hate them. move along.