Post#51 » by CrimsonCrew » Tue Jan 27, 2015 11:57 pm
First and foremost, Kraft recently talked about the league needing more than circumstantial evidence to punish the Pats. Frankly, I don't think the league needs to produce any more evidence than that the balls were under-inflated. Teams are responsible for their equipment, and the Pats' equipment was not in compliance with the rules. That in and of itself is enough to mete out some punishment, though perhaps not a very harsh one.
Beyond that, though, we now know that after the balls were approved by the officials, they were taken into an isolated location for a period of time. What's the excuse for that? It's frankly ridiculous to believe that the guy whose one job is to take the balls from the officials to the field couldn't make it without stopping to piss. I'm not willing to say this is conclusive proof that they tampered with the property, but it sure doesn't look good IMO. There's no reasonable explanation for why he can't hold it another three minutes. It would be like the guy in the Brinks truck going to the can after he gets the cash.
Additionally, the statements Belichick and Brady have made are wildly inconsistent.
Brady 1
In prior interviews, Brady has said that he likes balls that are inflated to the lower end, even joking about liking it when Gronk spikes the balls because it forces some air out of them.
Belichick 1
Belichick first says he didn't know anything about the footballs because it isn't an area he's never given any thought. (Incidentally, the guy played center throughout five years of HS and in college, handling the ball on every play, and is known to obsess about anything that could help his team win - he admits during this very press conference to affecting practice balls to make it harder on his players - but he never gave any thought to how the inflation of a ball might affect the players?) However, having looked into it since the story broke, he now knows that they inflate their balls to the 12.5 range, which may result in the balls naturally deflating below the allowable range.
Brady 2
Brady says he checked the footballs before they went to the officials and they were perfect. At this point, the balls are clearly inflated and ready to go, and he didn't want anyone to do anything with them.
Belichick 2
This is where things get really interesting.
First, Belichick says that texture and "feel" are more important than inflation, which is very difficult to determine by touch. That seems to be directly contradicted by Brady's earlier statements about liking a ball that is inflated to the lower end of the range.
Belichick then talks about their manipulation of the balls in creating the desired texture actually increasing the PSI by a pound.
He follows that up by saying it's up to the official to set the PSIs wherever he wants it. That's news to Tom Brady, who apparently believes that the balls are perfect when they leave him and that no one is changing them.
Belichick then gets into climactic changes. That's problematic for a couple reasons, IMO. He starts off by saying if the balls were left in conditions for a period of time.... Well, Belichick of all people knows that cold and wet balls are harder to play with - he makes his players do it in practice to challenge them, after all. The reality is that the balls are not kept out in the elements. They are at the very least put in storage containers, and those storage containers are at the very least dry, and presumably warmer than the outside air (if they aren't actually climate controlled). Any balls that are removed are removed only when they are in play. Furthermore, he comes up with a net change of one pound, which still puts their balls a pound under the limit. He then curiously says he can't tell a one-pound difference in balls - odd as the balls were two pounds under the limit.
I just don't buy it, personally. And I think the bathroom break is pretty damning evidence. I wouldn't want to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, but the NFL standard for this sort of thing is much lower than that.
