NoSaint Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 Jastremski was tasked with conditioning the game balls provided to the Patriots each season. I'm sure he's very aware of how Brady likes his balls to feel and probably could set them up by feel even if a gauge wasn't available. This quote in today's MMQB is pretty telling: Imagine if Derek Jeter were handed a brand-new glove just before the start of every game, says Brady. Baseball players break in their gloves until they feel perfect to them. Its ridiculous to [be forced to] play with new footballs. I can tell you thereve been nights before road games when I have had trouble sleeping because Im thinking about what kind of footballs Ill be throwing the next day. it is- but remember, thats when the opposing team could prep balls for the visiting qb. im guessing that left a pretty wide range of what would be handed to him. and of course thats while advocating for something he wants, so hes bound to say it as strongly as he can.
Lurker Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 it is- but remember, thats when the opposing team could prep balls for the visiting qb. im guessing that left a pretty wide range of what would be handed to him. and of course thats while advocating for something he wants, so hes bound to say it as strongly as he can. The Pats equipment managers have been able to prep the balls since 2006. Jastremski, a full-time employee for 14 years, is listed in the media guide as one of the team’s three equipment assistants under head equipment manager, Dave Schoenfeld (he began working for the Pats in 1994 as a part-time ball boy--the same role McNally has now). Since the equipment staff is a team of just four, it's highly probable he travels to away games and had the motive, opportunity and experience to make sure Brady's balls were set up exactly how he wanted them. All the back-and-fourth texts from neddledee and neddledum suggest Brady was a real prick about how the balls were "conditioned" so there's no way I can see Tom being uncomfortable with his equipment 8-plus games a year since 2006...
dave mcbride Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 As per the King piece, I was unaware of these two episodes. How are they in any way substantively different than the Pats episode? "As Mike Reiss of ESPN Boston pointed out Sunday, there have been two recent violations regarding fair play with footballs. One happened last November, when TV cameras at the Minnesota-Carolina game in frigid Minneapolis caught footballs being warmed up by sideline heaters. That’s a rules violation, but the teams were simply warned not to do it again. In 2012, the Chargers were found to be using towels with stickum on the sidelines, presumably for players to be able to grip the footballs better." As much as I dislike the Pats, I'm coming around to the belief that there are double standards at work here.
Lurker Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 As per the King piece, I was unaware of these two episodes. How are they in any way substantively different than the Pats episode? "As Mike Reiss of ESPN Boston pointed out Sunday, there have been two recent violations regarding fair play with footballs. One happened last November, when TV cameras at the Minnesota-Carolina game in frigid Minneapolis caught footballs being warmed up by sideline heaters. That’s a rules violation, but the teams were simply warned not to do it again. In 2012, the Chargers were found to be using towels with stickum on the sidelines, presumably for players to be able to grip the footballs better." As much as I dislike the Pats, I'm coming around to the belief that there are double standards at work here. Yeah, I was unaware of that as well and it does help the Pats cause. Where the difference lies, however, is in Brady not cooperating with the investigation. That will be the basis for any suspension, IMO, rather than the balls themselves...
NoSaint Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 there's no way I can see Tom being uncomfortable with his equipment 8-plus games a year since 2006... [/color][/font][/size] my point on the quote was that it predated the change, so they were being handed shiny new balls inflated to the max and who knows what teams may have done to make them less desirable. in the grand scheme of "uncomfortable with equipment" thats a much wider gap than 11.5 vs 12.5, realistically, and even then i do not think he was actually losing sleep. and to the other point -- why not have the same guy do it home and road if there was opportunity to keep the circle tighter? they just werent smart enough to realize more people create more problems in a coverup? Where the difference lies, however, is in Brady not cooperating with the investigation. That will be the basis for any suspension, IMO, rather than the balls themselves... it would be amusing if thats how it played out. and it very well might.
dave mcbride Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 Yeah, I was unaware of that as well and it does help the Pats cause. Where the difference lies, however, is in Brady not cooperating with the investigation. That will be the basis for any suspension, IMO, rather than the balls themselves... Fair point, but unlike the Pats these other teams were caught red-handed on camera. Big difference.
Lurker Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 my point on the quote was that it predated the change, so they were being handed shiny new balls inflated to the max and who knows what teams may have done to make them less desirable. in the grand scheme of "uncomfortable with equipment" thats a much wider gap than 11.5 vs 12.5, realistically, and even then i do not think he was actually losing sleep. and to the other point -- why not have the same guy do it home and road if there was opportunity to keep the circle tighter? they just werent smart enough to realize more people create more problems in a coverup? it would be amusing if thats how it played out. and it very well might. Yeah, but how likely is it that Brady's attitude toward ball prep has changed since 2006? If anything, he's probably more anal now than he was back then--since he knows he has the absolute ability to set them up how he likes them every week. As to the number of people involved, it really would be the same guys--Jastremski, who probably stated the deal and his more recent protege McNally. That's a tight circle--and obviously McNally was the weak link. When it may have been just Jastremski, it was an even tighter circle... Fair point, but unlike the Pats these other teams were caught red-handed on camera. Big difference. But the league also didn't have to spend seven figures to produce a 243 page report on those teams--who admitted they did it and cooperated with the NFL
Wayne Cubed Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 As per the King piece, I was unaware of these two episodes. How are they in any way substantively different than the Pats episode? "As Mike Reiss of ESPN Boston pointed out Sunday, there have been two recent violations regarding fair play with footballs. One happened last November, when TV cameras at the Minnesota-Carolina game in frigid Minneapolis caught footballs being warmed up by sideline heaters. That’s a rules violation, but the teams were simply warned not to do it again. In 2012, the Chargers were found to be using towels with stickum on the sidelines, presumably for players to be able to grip the footballs better." As much as I dislike the Pats, I'm coming around to the belief that there are double standards at work here. As pointed out previously: The Chargers were not violating any rules. They weren't using stickum, they were using adhesive towels which at the time were not against the rules to use. The reason they were punished was because a referee asked to talk to one of the ball boys and he ignored that ref and refused to talk to him. The Chargers as a team were fined $25,000 for not cooperating with an official. It had very little to do with the towels. Those towels have since been banned.
TheFunPolice Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 I don't see a suspension coming. If you've noticed, the tide has changed dramatically in media since about yesterday afternoon. This morning on Sirius NFL Radio it was all about the league botching everything and not really having enough hard evidence to levy discipline. Just last week it was pretty much a non-stop "Brady is a cheater" parade of callers and hosts. Now it sounds a lot like preemptive PR and damage control if/when the league does nothing to punish Brady in a meaningful way. At the same time, you have Florio and PFT going from prosecutor to defense attorney seemingly overnight. Friday and most of the weekend it was "Brady is guilty..suspension coming..." Now it's "Well, the league really botched this thing..." There will be no suspension.
eball Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 I don't see a suspension coming. If you've noticed, the tide has changed dramatically in media since about yesterday afternoon. This morning on Sirius NFL Radio it was all about the league botching everything and not really having enough hard evidence to levy discipline. Just last week it was pretty much a non-stop "Brady is a cheater" parade of callers and hosts. Now it sounds a lot like preemptive PR and damage control if/when the league does nothing to punish Brady in a meaningful way. At the same time, you have Florio and PFT going from prosecutor to defense attorney seemingly overnight. Friday and most of the weekend it was "Brady is guilty..suspension coming..." Now it's "Well, the league really botched this thing..." There will be no suspension. Care to wager on that?
TheFunPolice Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 Care to wager on that? Only a fool would bet on what Goodell will do when it comes to discipline.
eball Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 Only a fool would bet on what Goodell will do when it comes to discipline. Which is why I was hoping you'd wager. As for the "turning tide" this is just the usual ebb and flow of the news cycle. Bottom line -- Brady* made an absolute mess of things for himself with his ridiculous pre-Super Bowl press conferences and his refusal to cooperate (beyond one interview) with the Wells investigation. That's what this boils down to.
LabattBlue Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 I don't care how long current practices have been going on for, if the NFL wanted to put a stop to this nonsense, all footballs would only be handled by LEAGUE personnel(not team personnel) on game days. None of this, these are your footballs, inflate/deflate them as you please, scuff them up, etc...
YoloinOhio Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 @mikerodak: If Tom Brady is suspended, @fboutsiders projects the Dolphins to be the AFC Easts top dogs: http://t.co/5WZjALgV3T
Lurker Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 @mikerodak: If Tom Brady is suspended, @fboutsiders projects the Dolphins to be the AFC Easts top dogs: http://t.co/5WZjALgV3T He's more probably than not going by who has the best QB not named Brady...
MattM Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 I don't see a suspension coming. If you've noticed, the tide has changed dramatically in media since about yesterday afternoon. This morning on Sirius NFL Radio it was all about the league botching everything and not really having enough hard evidence to levy discipline. Just last week it was pretty much a non-stop "Brady is a cheater" parade of callers and hosts. Now it sounds a lot like preemptive PR and damage control if/when the league does nothing to punish Brady in a meaningful way. At the same time, you have Florio and PFT going from prosecutor to defense attorney seemingly overnight. Friday and most of the weekend it was "Brady is guilty..suspension coming..." Now it's "Well, the league really botched this thing..." There will be no suspension. 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.
BuffaloHokie13 Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 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. Yeah, one of the callers asserted that Brady gave the investigators 1 day with his phone as long as a rep was in the room with them. Pretty sure that's not at all what happened, but the hosts agreed and even went as far as saying it was a 'Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story' situation...
BillsFan-4-Ever Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 @mikerodak: If Tom Brady is suspended, @fboutsiders projects the Dolphins to be the AFC Easts top dogs: http://t.co/5WZjALgV3T you beat me to it
TheFunPolice Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 (edited) A sudden "shift" in the fundamental logic and drift of the league operated radio station, with a corresponding shift in tone from the biggest football gossip site out there, is never a coincidence, IMO. This is a clear effort to shift the momentum of the story to a point where the league can come out and levy a very insignificant fine and most fans will be conditioned to accept it. The only other explanation that I can think of is that everyone's minds changed 180 degrees pretty much overnight, all at the same time. Edited May 11, 2015 by TheFunPolice
Lurker Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 Pretty clearly there's one or more PR firms involved spinning wildly. Well, it's the media consultant playbook as well. Since it's a near certainty that Brady's going to get suspended, media-types can now gravitate toward the "devils advocate" position in order to have something new to say...
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