MattM

Good piece on Patriot* Derangement Syndrome from Slate: http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2015/05/tom_brady_appeal_new_england_patriots_fans_have_gone_over_the_deep_end_over.html

If true, looks like this whole dance was to let Kraft, not Goodell, save face. Part of me hopes Brady pushes his appeal so we can get him into court and subject to civil discovery.

Kraft and Brady could buy their silence with the change they pull out of their couch (in a relative sense). The only hope to ever find out the real truth here is to get this into court where full discovery rules apply and where there may be the usual out (if the schlubs had a real lawyer look at the Confidentiality Agt--I give that a 50/50) for requirements of law, rule, reg., including subpoena for breaking the NDA. I hope Goodell calls their bluff on this and does let them take it to court. If he does, something tells me Bob Kraft will indeed look the fool if the full truth ever does come out.

Ridiculous--what a message that will send. Discipline is negotiable if you deny it long enough and have enough juice. Pathetic....

What an absolute joke if the NFL reduces the punishment in light of the Pats*' BS attempts at obfuscation. Caught about as red handed as you can expect short of a confession by Tweedledumb and Dumber (especially considering Brady's lack of cooperation and lies), it will only cement Goodell's legacy as Bob Kraft's lap dog. I may honestly be done as a fan if that happens....

Or perhaps he found out during the course of this investigation that he'd been lied to during previous investigations

You mean the side that blamed it all on McNally's diet plan?

Funny how Pats* fans nitpick any little potential inconsistency in the Wells report and argue that any tiny little potential incinsistency shows the whole report is wrong, yet won't apply that same standard to the BS the Pats* are spewing on their ridiculous website. Doesn't work that way, sorry. Most reasonable people agree with Tuel--when you make a ridiculous and obvious lie like the "deflator" point everything else you say gets viewed in light of that. As I just said elsewhere, the idiot who came up with that should be fired and the fact that no one else in Pats* land stopped him speaks volumes about their arrogance and sheer disdain for the intelligence of their audience. To wit, my wife nearly spit out her drink when she read that--we all thought for sure it was from the Onion. I'm really starting to think that all Pats* fans are delusional--there is so much evidence here pointing to their guilt, yet absent a signed confession (not likely, since they're already hiding evidence) they don't believe it. It would really be akin to Bills fans militantly thinking OJ was innocent. Not many (if any) of us here believe that I'd wager. It's really a special kind of idiocy infecting Pats* nation right now.

Whoever it was who was responsible for the spin/lie about calling the guy "the Deflator" because he was trying to lose weight should be fired posthaste and shame on Kraft & Co. for such an obvious load of crap. Makes you really wonder about ANYTHING else that comes out of his mouth.

With a few exceptions, I think most folks here (even those who disagree with each other) play well together in the sandbox

"It was just one team, really, brought before us over and over on suspicion of cheating", unnamed NFL Competition Committee member in 2008 NYT article on the Cheatriots....

So jamming an opposing team's wireless headset is not possible? It's just coincidence that several teams have specifically had this problem at Gillette and nowhere else? In addition, what say you to the reported post-Spygate discovery that the Pats** had an extra frequency above what the League allowed on their headsets? Was that to listen to the radio in between plays? http://nypost.com/2014/10/12/they-are-cheaters-spygate-the-nfl-scandal-that-started-it-all/ Pretty good Spygate summary article from (shudder) the NY Post...,

At least two head coaches made similar claims to the League--Jack Del Rio and Rod Marinelli both complained to the League that their headsets went out at key moments (3rd downs when their offense had crossed midfield) at Gillette. That's been known for years. I keep coming around over and over again to that NYT article from May,2008 in which two members of the NFL Competition Committee told the reporter "It was one team, over and over again, that was brought before us on suspicion of cheating, far more than anyone else"--your New England Patriots** ladies and gentlemen!

Or how about the text where he says that he's going to blow the ball up so big that the only thing going down will be Brady's passer rating? How the heck is there anyone in America (much less newfound Pats* apologists like Mike Florio--he's posted a ton of garbage attempting to exonerate them since this past Saturday, after having previously been more open-minded on the subject) who still believes these obvious liars?

I was just saying this to my wife. I also wonder whether cheating in a sport that so many wager on might also be seen to be criminal fraud. Flutie clammed up pretty quickly on that it sound like, saying it only once on a radio call in show. It was almost like someone talked to him shortly thereafter.

No time to read the entire thread, but even I must admit that some Pats** fans (Pneumonic comes to mind, at least off the Brady topic) come to talk football and make a decent contribution on both their team and general football issues. Heck, I even agree with WEO on occasion on non-Pats** items! There are others, however (Bill Brasky comes to mind), who must come to troll and add little to nothing to the conversation. I'm not a fan of banning opposing fans--Patsfans.com did that a few years back during Spygate and took it to an extreme. It made them look ridiculous.

Isn't the game at Lucas Oil this year? If so, I'd take that bet--the Pats** won't have any home advantage (and whatever advantages (fair or foul) that entails for them). A rusty Brady might just get his clock cleaned there, but time will tell on that (and even when, if ever, he serves his suspension, as they may try to drag it out to a less meaty part of their schedule). I also wonder who is going to play CB for them, as they just about gutted their CB ranks this offseason. Combine that with losing Wilfork and not really adding much in FA or the draft (although they did draft a big plugger for the middle of the D at 32) and it may be an interesting year in Foxboro.

On the water muddying point, please explain to me how the Pats**' balls deflated at over twice the rate of the Colts' balls. All those giving truck to the "bad gauge" argument seem to gloss right over that, including Florio, as best I can tell.

This ain't a criminal trial, so readonable doubt doesn't apply--preponderance of the evidence. Plenty of evidence here to beat all 3.

I'd noticed the same thing on Sirius--the hosts bending over backward to agree with callers' ridiculous (and often just factually wrong without host correction) assertions that Brady and the Pats** were being witch hunted, ignoring all the contrary evidence like, you know, the texts and the fact that a guy with no legit responsibility for the balls was given a needle, not to mention Brady's refusal to cooperate or the fact in the report that no matter how you measure them the Colts' balls didn't deflate anywhere near the level the Pats** balls did. Florio also seems to go out of his way to ignore that last point. Pretty clearly there's one or more PR firms involved spinning wildly.

Last time I checked teams play with at least two and quite often 3 or 4 CBs, so being down 2 (Browner and Dennard had he been sudpended) of your top 3 or 4 CBs for a quarter of the season would be a large impediment.

That's because I don't think it's ever happened. Not surprising as I suspect he sees himself as bigger than the game.

No, he's saying that Florio's newfound explanation doesn't explain why the Colts' balls didn't suffer anywhere near the same drop no matter how they were measured (using either gauge). Pretty simple if you look at the numbers, so i'm kind of surprised Florio "missed" that. Maybe he received a phone call or two or some other unknown inducement to change his tune, because the flaw in his newfound reasoning is pretty basic and apparent when you look at the data on all 14 balls tested.

I actually found a good number of the comments--more than I'd have guessed--to be reality and not "Pneumonic-like" fan boy-based. Makes sense when a guy who's given a needle and whose job has nothing legit to go with the balls calls himself the "deflator" is texting with a buddy about how Brady likes his balls and is angling for (and getting) TB swag for his efforts. What other conclusion can a reasonable person draw! Maybe there's hope in Beantown after, all.

The Rogers comparisons are a bit overblown (slight pun intended), and not for the obvious reasons that others pointed out, but also because I seem to recall him just joking around about it, so not sure his comments were to be taken seriously. On the Dennard vs Dareus piece, I really don't get your comment--the player's skill level shouldn't factor into punishment at all. Dennard got bupkis from the League for pleading out a DUI and violating probation from an earlier incident, all of which got him a 60 day jail term. So pray tell how it will be fair when Marcell (as expected) gets time off for what amounted to a citation with no jail time? If Dareus gets time off while Dennard skated it will be but one more example of how "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" to quote Orwell's "Animal Farm".