Because Kraft is BFF's with the commish AND is on several important NFL commitees, I would be surprised if anything comes of this. Kraft has too much juice and the Commish doesn't have the balls to go against Kraft. MAYBE a $10 fine or docked a 7th rd. pick at most.
If you really think that, then why follow the Jets? If you think the game is played with such a stacked deck in favor of the Pats then why bother wasting your time? Why should fans of any of the 31 other teams waste their time if the Pats get to cheat without consequence because their owner is connected?
There's nothing against any team 'adjusting' the footballs within the psi guidelines before inspection, otherwise there wouldn't be psi guidelines and the teams would never have possession of the footballs. Where the Pats are getting in trouble is threefold: 1) The strong belief/circumstantial evidence the Pats did tamper with the balls AFTER inspection in the AFCCG 2) The fact that tampering dropped the balls below illegal levels 3) Lack of cooperation with the investigation
Agreed, except the evidence is beyond a circumstantial. I think given the investigators didn't have subpoena power but did recover the texts between the equipment managers and with Brady that supported evidence of tampering is strong enough. And with the Pats lack of cooperation the only conclusion is they broke the rules.
They've been caught once for spygate. Belichek took a bullet for the team along with them being docked a DP. Now we can believe that they've been behaving ever since OR, we can believe they've been "bending" the rules and getting caught that one time was a fluke. Kraft usually gets what he wants kinda like Jerry Jones. There does seem to be two levels of owners. You have the Jerry Jones class, then the Bob Kraft class, then there's everybody else. There are "Brady Rules". I'm pretty sure there are other "rules" that aren't annotated in the NFL charter too. No, I'm not comfortable with Kraft being such great pals with the commish. It smells even if there's nothing there, its still inappropiate. I also believe it does give cover to his team and in particular, his golden boy QB. That's why I doubt if any punishment will be severe enough to change the Patriots behavior. They will continue doing what they've always done. Winning by any means necessary.
Well, the league has a chance to change your perception. I hope they take it. Because if your correct the logical conclusion for the other 31 teams is to cheat in kind. Maybe get a 2nd tier LB to pash rush Brady and helmet to helmet him. Or break his leg. Basically take him out. See where this leads?
Perhaps going to such extremes isn't really necessary. How about allowing Brady to get hit without the required yellow flag/roughing penalty that seems to follow. How about both teams using the same football during the games. Can you imagine if guys like Harvey could doctor his private set of baseballs before games?
Perhaps going to such extremes isn't really necessary. How about allowing Brady to get hit without the required yellow flag/roughing penalty that seems to follow. How about both teams using the same football during the games. Can you imagine if guys like Harvey could doctor his private set of baseballs before games?
Tell that to the Ravens defense, or the Broncos defense, or Rex Ryan for that matter. You think those guys dont want to knock Brady out of the game even if he is the clean golden boy? What about now that they know he cheated them out of a title or a job? Agreed that the NFL needs to make the rule change to get the teams out of managing ball pressure.
It makes no difference if there is no proof that he asked for the balls to be deflated below 12.5. He orchestrated tampering with game balls after the refs checked them and put their stamp on them. The Vikings put them in front of a heater, but they did that on the sidelines in front of everyone. This is sneaking around with needles. 8 games. Anything less is a slap on the wrist.
I predict that Troy Vincent gives Brady a slight slap on the wrist. Maybe a game suspension and a small fine. The only real damage to Brady is to his reputation, which outside of Pat fans is now shit.
No chance that's all he gets. He gets more than that just for not cooperating, forget what he gets for deflating the balls.
I think the NFL wants this whole thing to go away. Troy Vincent, Goodell, Kraft, and Brady all have reasons to try to calm this whole thing down. So if the league goes easy on Brady he takes the slap on the wrist and the Media has very little to go on. There will be some backlash but this is not like the Ray Rice situation and will never rise to that type of public outrage. At the end of the day Brady just got a guy to soften his balls, a minor offense.
Covering up, denying, lying, paying off ball boys, knowingly and willfully damaging the integrity of the game. A plot where, after the balls are tested by officials Pats personnel used an inflation needle to let air out bc shady can't grip a professional football. All this with statistical anomalys indicating the outlier of Patriots player's fumbles compared to the rest of the league. Deemed minimal advantage to some, while significant advantage at least to shady.
I get it, The Pats will do whatever they can to win. Cheating is a means to an ends for them but the league wants nothing to do with this. When was the last time you heard of the NFL announcing findings to an incident and not announcing the penalty? They did that to measure the reaction of the public. Very unusual for them. I think it is because they want this to go away.
It was more than just a strong belief. they found them guilty. and you can add more bullets to this. 4) dishonesty on Brady's part for flat out lying both before and during the investigative process 5) there was a pattern of systematic football doctoring going on throughout the year, and was not limited to the AFCCG. 6) Brady directly had pressured team employees to circumvent the rules for him, and compensated them with merchandise for their part 7) repeat offenses. in 2004, the Patriots organization was warned about using illegal footballs in a Jets game. no penalty. In 2007, they were found guilty of spygate, and were given another stern warning to go along with a light penalty. the warnings are over. the Patriots organization has created a culture of cheating, and that has not changed with past warnings or penalties. They can no longer be allowed to conduct themselves above the rules which apply to 31 other teams. In order for the bullshit to finally stop, they've got to hammer either Kraft or Belichick, along with Brady.
Look, we didn't expect even this in a report so you have to give Roger a little credit this time. The report did say that Kraft had no known complicity. Of course he's the straw that stirs the drink in the NEP org. He's shown by the way they operate he has no problem with cheating. They think it's a legit part of business. I'd love to see him get audited.
