Patriots being investigated after Colts game (3 Viewers)

[GoBirds]

Whether his whole story is true or not I wonder if the NFL sees this as there chance to go along with it so hopefully it goes away before SB.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

There is no way that Bob Kraft lets Belichick do that presser unless he was 100% convinced that the Pats did nothing wrong. Unless the NFL can find a smoking gun, they owe the Pats a pretty big apology for all of this.

If the NE balls were underinflated while the Indy balls were fully-inflated, that is the proverbial smoking gun. Assuming those reports are true, we know somebody in the organization was cheating. All that's left to be determined is who, how and what should be done about it.

 

[ROCKET]

Isn't the real question how the Colts balls managed to stay inflated? Did they tamper with them to get them to stay inflated?

 

[General Tso]

I'm a few pages late on this part of the discussion, but can we all step back to reality for a second here and be honest with ourselves. Are the people that are claiming we need every last drop of evidence before casting any kind of judgement not amongst the absolute masses that judged people like OJ Simpson and Casey Anthony not only before all the evidence was out, but even after they were acquitted in a court of law? Do you really intend to argue that you think no differently of Aaron Hernandez right now than you did 3 years ago because he hasn't actually been found guilty of anything yet?

Given that, is it really that difficult to imagine most people think more poorly of the Pats when, not only have they not been acquitted of anything yet, but have all likely current evidence pointing against them and have a history of scandal?

I find it absurdly unlikely that every single New England Patriots fan just happens to fall into the extremely tiny minority that refuses to case any kind of judgement on anyone before every last shred of evidence has been found, verified, and then re-verified again. And I'm sure those same people will be just as ready to line up and personally condemn the next politician of the opposing party that is accused of cheating on his wife despite current evidence being only circumstantial stuff that is reported on news outlets. I find it equally as likely that many of those same exact people would be just as loudly screaming "cheaters!" if the circumstances that surrounded the New England Patriots for the last 10 years had instead happened to some other team.

"Innocent until proven guilty" refers only to someone's standing in a court of law. It absolutely does not hold any water in the realm of a person or organization's image and anyone claiming it does is almost certainly a hypocrite and has broken that rule dozens of times in their life.

Except for the fact that there wasn't any good evidence that came out, as me and many others have been saying most of the last two days. No no. This was as clear a case of a witch hunt as I've ever seen on any subject. The Pats were convicted of this when the announcement came out that the were investigating it on Sunday night.

Example - the NFL has been very particular with its words in describing the evidence they had. People in here read that evidence, and those words, differently than they were printed. Statements like "the balls were measured with gauges" was immediately taken as fact that this applied to the pregame balls. Even though there was mounting evidence that the pregame inspection may not have involved using gauges on every ball. Yet this interpretation was put forward as fact in here - over and over and over.

Let's face it. People hate the Pats and they used this as an a excuse to pile on and jump to conclusions. It goes to show you that some groups of people are incapable of being unbiased on certain issues. And the Pats are one of those issues.

 

[Baloney Sandwich]

Everyone has a right to their opinion but at this point the Pats have presented their position. I'm on to the game unless the league wants to provide anothervofficial statement prior to kickoff next Sunday.

 

[ROCKET]

There is no way that Bob Kraft lets Belichick do that presser unless he was 100% convinced that the Pats did nothing wrong. Unless the NFL can find a smoking gun, they owe the Pats a pretty big apology for all of this.

If the NE balls were underinflated while the Indy balls were fully-inflated, that is the proverbial smoking gun. Assuming those reports are true, we know somebody in the organization was cheating. All that's left to be determined is who, how and what should be done about it.

I'll give you credit, you are persistent.

 

[Old Smiley]

In case anyone wants it, here audio of the BB presser.

 

[the moops]

Indy only ran like 4 plays in the first half. Maybe keeping them in a bag surrounded by other balls kept them warm and inflated.

 

[theplayer11]

There is no way that Bob Kraft lets Belichick do that presser unless he was 100% convinced that the Pats did nothing wrong. Unless the NFL can find a smoking gun, they owe the Pats a pretty big apology for all of this.

If the NE balls were underinflated while the Indy balls were fully-inflated, that is the proverbial smoking gun. Assuming those reports are true, we know somebody in the organization was cheating. All that's left to be determined is who, how and what should be done about it.

not at all..depends what Colt's balls stated at..and actually is not relevant one bit to the only question that matters and what the NFL has stated they are investigating which is..did the Patriots "deliberately" do anything wrong.

 

[theplayer11]

Isn't the real question how the Colts balls managed to stay inflated? Did they tamper with them to get them to stay inflated?

no, that is not the question at all

 

[General Tso]

I hope some of these knobslobbers are ready to eat some crow: i'm talkng to you Aikman (spending too much time with Joe Buck), Brunell (what rock did he crawl out of), and Chris Mortenson and other sychophants at ESPN, among others.

Honestly, as much as I hate these guys presuming Brady's guilt and broadcasting this on national television without any good evidence, I think if it comes out that there was no wrongdoing each of these guys will probably man up and come out with a public apology.The idiots in here? Not so much. (I'm looking at you Bucky)

 

[Freelove]

You kow how I know Bill is being 100% truthful and that this is all bull####? Because he stood in that podium and got hammered nationally for "spygate" and not once did he downplay the severity of the fines imposed or the process the NFL used. He went up there, owned up to it, got his integrity questioned and weathered the year long ####storm that came along with it. In his mind he obviously thought it was unfair that he was being punished this harshly for inconsequential bull#### that's rampant around the league, but he knew technically he was in the wrong, so he didn't fight it. The fact that he came on so strong today leaves no doubt in my mind the Pats had absolutely nothing to do with this.

Wait, so you offer to dissect the ### of a forum member, AND you are now blatantly fellating Belichick. Dude...get a room...you're getting way too excited.We get it, you think BB is a swell guy. Relax.

No no no. You don't get to convict someone with no real evidence, sully their legacy, rake them and their fans over the coals for a week, and then not expect a big comeuppance when the team comes back and ##### slaps everyone in the face.Relax my ###. You clowns spent all week on this BS. Pats fans are just getting started.

The only thing I want at this point is another SB title. None of this will mean anything to me either way. The only thing I learned from this whole thing is that Terry Bradshaw admitted to breaking the rules back in the day. Like it even mattered as the whole thing is a joke.

Terry specifically said his team didn't do those things. You inferred the tone and subtext you wanted.

 

[General Tso]

There is no way that Bob Kraft lets Belichick do that presser unless he was 100% convinced that the Pats did nothing wrong. Unless the NFL can find a smoking gun, they owe the Pats a pretty big apology for all of this.

If the NE balls were underinflated while the Indy balls were fully-inflated, that is the proverbial smoking gun. Assuming those reports are true, we know somebody in the organization was cheating. All that's left to be determined is who, how and what should be done about it.

And question for you - why isn't it a smoking gun that Indy was tampering with balls and pumping them up?

 

[GoBirds]

Didn't everyone kind of expect the guy accused of cheating to have an excuse for why it wasn't their fault?

 

[IvanKaramazov]

There is no way that Bob Kraft lets Belichick do that presser unless he was 100% convinced that the Pats did nothing wrong. Unless the NFL can find a smoking gun, they owe the Pats a pretty big apology for all of this.

If the NE balls were underinflated while the Indy balls were fully-inflated, that is the proverbial smoking gun. Assuming those reports are true, we know somebody in the organization was cheating. All that's left to be determined is who, how and what should be done about it.

not at all..depends what Colt's balls stated at..and actually is not relevant one bit to the only question that matters and what the NFL has stated they are investigating which is..did the Patriots "deliberately" do anything wrong.

I agree. If it turns out that it was just some weird coincidence or a miracle from God that NE's footballs somehow deflated after passing inspection, then this ends up being much ado about nothing. It's just that nobody has proposed, as far as I've seen, an innocent explanation of how that would have occurred. The evidence points extremely strongly toward a deliberate action by somebody. I doubt it was Belichick, and it certainly wasn't Bob Kraft. But stuff like this usually doesn't happen by accident, and at this point it isn't reasonable, IMO, by blame it God or the deity of your choice.

 

[Tool]

I hope some of these knobslobbers are ready to eat some crow: i'm talkng to you Aikman (spending too much time with Joe Buck), Brunell (what rock did he crawl out of), and Chris Mortenson and other sychophants at ESPN, among others.

Gotta say, Mort was just reporting.

Maybe, he's still annoying.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

There is no way that Bob Kraft lets Belichick do that presser unless he was 100% convinced that the Pats did nothing wrong. Unless the NFL can find a smoking gun, they owe the Pats a pretty big apology for all of this.

If the NE balls were underinflated while the Indy balls were fully-inflated, that is the proverbial smoking gun. Assuming those reports are true, we know somebody in the organization was cheating. All that's left to be determined is who, how and what should be done about it.

And question for you - why isn't it a smoking gun that Indy was tampering with balls and pumping them up?

I suppose that's possible, but I don't think it's especially likely that a team would break the rules in an attempt to put themselves as a competitive disadvantage.

Again, if that's your explanation of what happened, it makes me much more confident that I'm correct.

 

[bosoxs45]

This story hasn't jumped the shark until we hear from a feminist perspective.

 

[Old Smiley]

Or it could just be that given the wild fluctuations that happen in small objects at low pressure it's a joke to expect to learn a lot just because you've got a tire pressure gauge from Target. I wish Luck played somewhere else, because I like him, and the Colts are a whining joke.

edit: Actually, I've got nothing against any Colt below the ownership level.

 

[ROCKET]

You kow how I know Bill is being 100% truthful and that this is all bull####? Because he stood in that podium and got hammered nationally for "spygate" and not once did he downplay the severity of the fines imposed or the process the NFL used. He went up there, owned up to it, got his integrity questioned and weathered the year long ####storm that came along with it. In his mind he obviously thought it was unfair that he was being punished this harshly for inconsequential bull#### that's rampant around the league, but he knew technically he was in the wrong, so he didn't fight it. The fact that he came on so strong today leaves no doubt in my mind the Pats had absolutely nothing to do with this.

Wait, so you offer to dissect the ### of a forum member, AND you are now blatantly fellating Belichick. Dude...get a room...you're getting way too excited.We get it, you think BB is a swell guy. Relax.

No no no. You don't get to convict someone with no real evidence, sully their legacy, rake them and their fans over the coals for a week, and then not expect a big comeuppance when the team comes back and ##### slaps everyone in the face.Relax my ###. You clowns spent all week on this BS. Pats fans are just getting started.

The only thing I want at this point is another SB title. None of this will mean anything to me either way. The only thing I learned from this whole thing is that Terry Bradshaw admitted to breaking the rules back in the day. Like it even mattered as the whole thing is a joke.

Terry specifically said his team didn't do those things. You inferred the tone and subtext you wanted.

He admitted to it, it's called sarcasm. It's ok, I never cared that they did it and never thought it gave them any advantage. I was just pointing out the hypocritical $heit storm that would no doubt be coming from Steeler fans. Carry on.

 

[theplayer11]

Didn't everyone kind of expect the guy accused of cheating to have an excuse for why it wasn't their fault?

I expected science to sort it out, and it will. Hategaters will continue to be idiots.

 

[Old Smiley]

I hope some of these knobslobbers are ready to eat some crow: i'm talkng to you Aikman (spending too much time with Joe Buck), Brunell (what rock did he crawl out of), and Chris Mortenson and other sychophants at ESPN, among others.

Gotta say, Mort was just reporting.

Maybe, he's still annoying.

Life's so different when you don't watch TV. He seems pretty sane on podcasts.

 

[General Tso]

Didn't everyone kind of expect the guy accused of cheating to have an excuse for why it wasn't their fault?

I'd expect that if he or his team were guilty of any wrongdoing he would have responded the same way he did during Spygate, which was to be contrite, remorseful and apologetic. He was not that at all here. He came out swinging, said emphatically he and the team did nothing wrong. My money is on him being right.The ball's in Goodell's court. If he gauge tested the balls pregame, how's the time to come out and show us what they tested at. If he has evidence that Brady and the ball boy tampered with the balls on the sidelines in front of the world, there has to be some video evidence showing this right?

Bottom line - Belichik put his career and his legacy on the line today. Someone is right here and someone is wrong. It's either Belichik or Goodell. One lives and one dies. At this point, seeing what I saw today, my money is all in on Belichik living and Goodell dying.

 

[HellToupee]

je suis Hoodie

 

[ROCKET]

Somewhere in Indy I picture Jim Irsay tearing apart his mansion with a bottle of Jack and pills in hand.

 

[12punch]

Depressed Pats fans: you will enjoy the second half of Bill Simmons' podcast on this. He talks to Joe Bug, who is in full in full on eff you mode. Did my heart good. I hope the Pats are in full on eff you mode in a week and a day.

Why? Nobody other NE homers is going to recognize a SB win as legitimate.

We realize that and are fine with it.

Nobody but NE haters are going to discount a SB win as illegitimate.I'm not a NE fan. If they win, you know damn well everything will be to spec in that game and they will have deserved to win that game.

If the Pats win the Super Bowl, they are legitimate champions

players and fans are just glad we got your stamp of approval

winning the superbowl really doesn't mean anything until the cranks and bitter shut ins acknowledge it

 

[GoBirds]

Didn't everyone kind of expect the guy accused of cheating to have an excuse for why it wasn't their fault?

I expected science to sort it out, and it will. Hategaters will continue to be idiots.

It will be the NFL and if they want to look into it seriously or not.

So after the presser it science all the way huh haha.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Or it could just be that given the wild fluctuations that happen in small objects at low pressure it's a joke to expect to learn a lot just because you've got a tire pressure gauge from Target.

That explanation actually doesn't work either. Let's say for the sake of argument that pressure gauge readings are a little noisy, and there's a random error term associated with each reading. What is the p-value on a test of means when 12 samples of Population A comes in 2 pounds heavier than 11 of 12 samples from Population B?

 

[The General]

Didn't everyone kind of expect the guy accused of cheating to have an excuse for why it wasn't their fault?

Sure. But he laid it out there out there in pretty clear language. We now know exactly where they stand. Did this all in a couple days, before the Super Bowl.

I think the guy is a huge **** but after listening to that I think you got to appreciate how this guy handles business.

I'm guessing the NFL in comparison will #### this all up for weeks. Why everyone thinks Goodell is some marketing genius is beyond me. Guy has the unscrewable pooch. You could put a houseplant in charge of the league and it would do well.

 

[GoBirds]

Didn't everyone kind of expect the guy accused of cheating to have an excuse for why it wasn't their fault?

I'd expect that if he or his team were guilty of any wrongdoing he would have responded the same way he did during Spygate, which was to be contrite, remorseful and apologetic. He was not that at all here. He came out swinging, said emphatically he and the team did nothing wrong. My money is on him being right.The ball's in Goodell's court. If he gauge tested the balls pregame, how's the time to come out and show us what they tested at. If he has evidence that Brady and the ball boy tampered with the balls on the sidelines in front of the world, there has to be some video evidence showing this right?

Bottom line - Belichik put his career and his legacy on the line today. Someone is right here and someone is wrong. It's either Belichik or Goodell. One lives and one dies. At this point, seeing what I saw today, my money is all in on Belichik living and Goodell dying.

Not really comparable as spygate wasn't week before Superbowl I don't believe. Smart for him to try to squash this.

NFL doesn't want to see this continue, if media moves on so will they.

 

[matuski]

This is the #### that is going to make me stop watching football.

NFL is going full blown tard reality TV.

All the sheep buying into this utterly concocted controversy... why not watch Housewives of Beverly Hills and at least see some nice cleavage while you all fret over some drama over the PSI of a football.

Jesus christ.

32 pages later... still this.

 

[PhD]

So BB and the gang went back to the scene of the crime to shift the perspective of the evidence. So basic. Not even believable in the best of Hollywood scripts.

Seriously though, they came off better when they were saying it's not a big deal. Now they just seem to be a little too defensive as if they are trying vehemently to end the conversation that is getting dangerously close to something really really bad.

There are many arguments against their pseudoscience.

 

[nxmehta]

Isn't the real question how the Colts balls managed to stay inflated? Did they tamper with them to get them to stay inflated?

 

[General Tso]

There is no way that Bob Kraft lets Belichick do that presser unless he was 100% convinced that the Pats did nothing wrong. Unless the NFL can find a smoking gun, they owe the Pats a pretty big apology for all of this.

If the NE balls were underinflated while the Indy balls were fully-inflated, that is the proverbial smoking gun. Assuming those reports are true, we know somebody in the organization was cheating. All that's left to be determined is who, how and what should be done about it.

And question for you - why isn't it a smoking gun that Indy was tampering with balls and pumping them up?

I suppose that's possible, but I don't think it's especially likely that a team would break the rules in an attempt to put themselves as a competitive disadvantage.

Again, if that's your explanation of what happened, it makes me much more confident that I'm correct.

You are wrong on so man levels. First off, Luck likes the balls overinflated. So it's quite possible (actually likely at this point) that one of the following occurred:1. Indy's balls were submitted pregame at 13.5. During the game the delayed to 12.5.

2. Indy could have filled their balls with cold air.

3. Most likely - Indy submitted their balls slightly over inflated (like Aaron Rodgers does) and the refs never inspected with gauges pregame.

Bottom line - the Pats were accused of tampering with balls after the pregame inspection. The NFL needs to prove this happened. If it did happen, I have no doubt that someone captured it on video. The balls were given to the Pats 10 minutes before kickoff. So tampering would have had to o cur on the sidelines, in front of everyone, with the NFL apparently watching.

 

[ROCKET]

The best part of the whole thing for me was when BB shoved the spygate question back up the reporters ###. Yeah there were 80K people there watching the guy's signals and we taped them just like everyone else did at the time. We were caught and never did it again. BB foccin rules.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Having watched that, honestly, I think I'm siding with the Patriots on this one.

Me too -- with the exception that I don't believe they weren't aware of what was happening to the PSI and am not ready to rule out that "the process" was more about temporarily increasing the PSI than it was about "getting the feel" right. And obviously we're taking BB's word that "the process" only added one temporary PSI.But if there's nothing else to it, it'll be really hard to prove shenanigans and I'm not sure what the NFL can do except say cut it out.

I'll still say they should just simply require the teams to be held accountable for being compliant at all times during the game regardless of temperature.

sounds like Bill was saying that they hand the balls to the refs and "request" it at a certain psi. If that is the case are you saying alll the teams need to recheck them after the refs did them?

 

[randall146]

I love that he stated multiple times that you can replicate the experiment and encouraged everyone to go do it.

I think General is the man for the job

Except it doesn't account for the control set of the Colts footballs showing no such changes.

Pretty simple explanation. The Colts inflate the ball to 13.5 pregame. It drops 1 psi due to atmospheric changes and they are still within range.

Actually, based on Bill's description and assuming all teams have a situation where the ball is worked and artificially inflated to some degree, you should expect the Colts' balls to not be in compliance either. Unless you're saying the Patriots way of working in the balls does something no other team's the Colts process does didn't do that day.

 

[Run It Up]

So BB and the gang went back to the scene of the crime to shift the perspective of the evidence. So basic. Not even believable in the best of Hollywood scripts.

Seriously though, they came off better when they were saying it's not a big deal. Now they just seem to be a little too defensive as if they are trying vehemently to end the conversation that is getting dangerously close to something really really bad.

There are many arguments against their pseudoscience.

Such as?

 

[Joe Summer]

so they basically roughed the balls up (likely using a dryer or other tumbling machine) and that heated the air inside. So how exactly is that different from inflating with hot air. From my perspective, they were playing with a 10.5 psi ball which is illegal.

Just because the ball was at 10.5 psi, that doesn't mean that the Patriots were doing anything illegal. The rules only state that it's illegal to cause the ball to be underinflated; as far as I know the rules do not state that it's illegal to merely play with a ball that is underinflated.

 

[ROCKET]

So BB and the gang went back to the scene of the crime to shift the perspective of the evidence. So basic. Not even believable in the best of Hollywood scripts.

Seriously though, they came off better when they were saying it's not a big deal. Now they just seem to be a little too defensive as if they are trying vehemently to end the conversation that is getting dangerously close to something really really bad.

There are many arguments against their pseudoscience.

Kind of hard to argue with a PHD when it comes to science.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Didn't everyone kind of expect the guy accused of cheating to have an excuse for why it wasn't their fault?

I'd expect that if he or his team were guilty of any wrongdoing he would have responded the same way he did during Spygate, which was to be contrite, remorseful and apologetic.

Did he do that before any punishment was handed down? Asking seriously as I don't really remember.

I still think this thing could go either way, and at this point I'll just wait and see what the investigation brings. Arguing back and forth about it accomplishes nothing. We'll see what happens.

 

[NE_REVIVAL]

Or it could just be that given the wild fluctuations that happen in small objects at low pressure it's a joke to expect to learn a lot just because you've got a tire pressure gauge from Target.

That explanation actually doesn't work either. Let's say for the sake of argument that pressure gauge readings are a little noisy, and there's a random error term associated with each reading. What is the p-value on a test of means when 12 samples of Population A comes in 2 pounds heavier than 11 of 12 samples from Population B?

Again if you are certain that Population A and population B started at the same baseline you might have something; if they didn't you don't have squat.

 

[NE_REVIVAL]

The best part of the whole thing for me was when BB shoved the spygate question back up the reporters ###. Yeah there were 80K people there watching the guy's signals and we taped them just like everyone else did at the time. We were caught and never did it again. BB foccin rules.

 

[General Tso]

Didn't everyone kind of expect the guy accused of cheating to have an excuse for why it wasn't their fault?

I expected science to sort it out, and it will. Hategaters will continue to be idiots.

It will be the NFL and if they want to look into it seriously or not.

So after the presser it science all the way huh haha.

LOL! So now you are preparing the excuse that the NFL didn't look into it seriously? Oh that is rich. This has become front page news in Tuvalo for crying out loud. The NFL has hired every lawyer from Dewy Cheetem and Howe to investigate this, including a team of scientists and forensics experts. This has become the most publicized investigation since OJ.The Pats haters are pretty damn pathetic. Just when it starts looking bad for their case they jump ship and start preparing the excuse that if the Pats get off it's because the NFL didn't try hard enough. Waiting for the other conspiracy theories to emerge. next will be that the NFL had to let them off because it was the Superbowl.

 

[Niles Standish]

There is no way that Bob Kraft lets Belichick do that presser unless he was 100% convinced that the Pats did nothing wrong. Unless the NFL can find a smoking gun, they owe the Pats a pretty big apology for all of this.

If the NE balls were underinflated while the Indy balls were fully-inflated, that is the proverbial smoking gun. Assuming those reports are true, we know somebody in the organization was cheating. All that's left to be determined is who, how and what should be done about it.

And question for you - why isn't it a smoking gun that Indy was tampering with balls and pumping them up?

I suppose that's possible, but I don't think it's especially likely that a team would break the rules in an attempt to put themselves as a competitive disadvantage.

Again, if that's your explanation of what happened, it makes me much more confident that I'm correct.

Aaron Rodgers would argue that over inflating is an advantage. Luck might agree since he's huge.

 

[shader]

Wow they did just what I wanted them to. They did the science and threw the whole thing back in the NFLs face. The only thing left is to ask the Colts why their balls didn't deflate.

A big screw you to the NFL, and well deserved. Hopefully this will shut everyone up, as it should. Based on what I've read, footballs deflate when you go outside in cooler air, end of story.

And if any of you pats haters still think he is covering something up, you are going to be sorely disappointed. If the Pats knew they had been cheating, there is no way they would go through all of this, as the potential for extreme embarrassment would be outrageous.

In the end, the Pats were the victims here. Awesome job Belicheck. I think I've just become a Pats fan for life.

 

[mbuehner]

so they basically roughed the balls up (likely using a dryer or other tumbling machine) and that heated the air inside. So how exactly is that different from inflating with hot air. From my perspective, they were playing with a 10.5 psi ball which is illegal.

Just because the ball was at 10.5 psi, that doesn't mean that the Patriots were doing anything illegal. The rules only state that it's illegal to cause the ball to be underinflated; as far as I know the rules do not state that it's illegal to merely play with a ball that is underinflated.

Every football game played at 30dF and below has a ball at 10.5psi or lower. Thats a lot of cheating un NFL history.

 

[Run It Up]

Video of the press conference

Transcript including Q&A courtesy of /u/vgman20 of /r/patriots:

Spoiler

"How we doing?"

I want to take this opportunity to share information

I spent a significant amount of time this weekend learning what I could about letters, air gauges, stitches, ball preparation, etc.

Trying to be as helpful as I can and share what I learned. Having coached for several years, growing up in a football family, being around this game the entire life, it's clear I don't know very much about this area. I've learned a lot more, exponentially more, than I have ever known.

There have been questions raised, and I believe now, 100%, that I have personally, and we as an organization, has followed every rule to the letter, and on behalf of the organization, we have to say something

I've talked to and gathered a lot of information from staff, talked to other people familiar with this subject in other organizations, and we have performed an internal study of the process and there are other things we can do, but i have enough info to share with you

based on the events of today, this is the time to do it, it's impromptu but w/e

first of all, the process

as Tom said, the most important part of the ball for the QB is the feel of the ball, exterior. It's critical and easily identifiable. You can tell how broken in it is, etc. Easy to identify. That's the essence of the prep. We prepare the balls over time, use them in practice, that process continues right up until balls are given to officials. Thats when theyre finalized

In that process, I've handled dozens of balls over the past week the texture is very easy to identify. The pressure is a whole different story

It's much more difficult to feel or identify. So the focus of our prep is based on feel and texture. Tom went into that and he's the one who can go through it in more detail than I can

We simulated a gameday situation in terms of prep of footballs and where the balls were at various times of the day, and our preparation process for the footballs is what we do, can't speak for other teams, and that process raises the PSI approximately 1 pound. (psi, i assume). The process of creating the feel they want elevates the PSI approximately 1 PSI, based on what our study showed, doing what we would do for a game.

When the balls are delivered to the locker room for the refs, we asked them to bring them down to 12.5. That's what we did in the study, but we don't know what the refs do with them. That's done in a controlled climate. Prepared in our locker room, delivered to official's locker room, which is also controlled environment. When the balls go outside into the elements, that's where the footballs are played with, and thats where the measurements would be different then what they are in a controlled environment, and thats what we found. When the footballs were on the field for an extended period of time and adjusted to temp and reached equilibrium, they were down approximately 1.5 psi.*

When we brought them back in after and retested them in a controlled environment, those measurements rose approximately 0.5 PSI. The net of 1.5 back to a half is about 1 PSI.

Now, we all know air pressure is a function of atmospheric conditions. If there's activity in the ball relative to the rubbing process, that explains why, when we gave them to the officials, if they put them at 12.5 psi, once it reached equilibrium state, it was closer to 11.5. Those were our measurements, we can't speak to what happened on that day. We don't touch them after the officials have them

it's similar to when your car says check tire pressure when its been out and cold

the atmospheric conditions relative to the ball is critical

At no time were any of our footballs prepared anywhere other than the locker room. never in a heated room or heated condition. that has absolutely never taken place to anyone's knowledge. didn't happen.

when you measure a football, there are a number of different issues that come up. Gauges (different types, accuracy, etc.), all footballs are different.

Each ball has it's own characteristics. It's an animal skin, it's a bladder, it's stitching, and each has it's own unique characteristics. When you do the same thing to different balls, there will be variance.

Footballs do not get measured during the game. We have no way of knowing, til we did the study, that this has taken place. When we give them to the officials, they put them to what they put them at, let's say 12.5, the air pressure from then to the rest of the game, we have no knowledge of. It's never been a concern. the concern is the pressure.

We had our QBs look at a number of footballs. They were unable to differentiate a 1 PSI difference in those footballs. They were unable to do it. On a 2 PSI difference, there was some differentiation, but not consistent. They could pick out some of them, but not all of their guesses were right. I can't tell the difference if there's 1 PSI or 0.5 PSI in any footballs.

Anyone who has seen us practice knows me make it harder to handle the ball. players train in conditions some people would say you shouldn't drive in. They're a mentally and physically tough team that works hard and has met every challenge I put in front of them. I know that because I work them every day. Best team in the AFC, beat 2 good teams in the playoffs, best team in the postseason. That's what this team is. I'm proud of this team.

I just want to show you what I've learned. I'm embarrassed to say how much time i've put into this vs. super bowl prep. i'm not a scientist or an expert in measurements, just telling you what i know. Not Mona Lisa Vito of the football world.

At no time was there any intent, WHATSOEVER, to compromise the integrity of the game. We feel we followed to letter of the rules in procedures, regulations, and every game we played in as it relates to this matter

We try and do everything right, we err on the side of caution. it's been this way for years. Anything that's close, we stay away from the line. In this case, we did everything as we could do it. We welcome the league's investigation, there are a number of things to be looked into, but that's not this conversation.

This is the end of this subject for me for a long time, ok? we have a huge game, and that's where this focus is going to go. I've spent more than enough time on this and im happy to share all that i've learned over this week. The matter is very complex, we're not landing a guy on the moon but there are a lot of things that are hard to get a handle on.

Alright, i'll take a couple questions then moving on

Q: Did NFL share...

A: talk to the NFL

Q: you don't know if they documented the pressure at various..

A: Tom, we could talk about this for 2 hrs. If you want to ask the league about what they do, ask the league. I'm just saying what I've learned. That's all I can say, I'm not a scientist nor a league official

Q: Do you feel after this work, you'll be exonerated

A: I just told you what I think

Q: usually this is spent on gameplanning

A: I have spent time game planning

Q: Do you think time's been compromised from gameplanning?

A: It has to be done

Q: it's a combo of atmospheric pressures and trusting the officials inflated the balls to 12.5 is that correct?

A; you can take the atmospheric conditions out of it. If there taken in the same conditions, they should be the same. If you expose them to elements, they'll be different. That's not the issue. Depending on where/how balls were measured, that's a whole different discussion. The prep caused the ball to be artificially high when it was set to the regulation level, then reached it's equilibrium at some point during the game, which was below what was set. anyone who wants to do the experiment, go ahead

Q: You try and err on the side of caution. You were pushing the envelope on video taping, has that changed?

A: The guy's giving signals in front of 80k people, we filmed that like a lot of other people were at the time. 80k people saw the guy, everyone saw us. It was wrong, we were disciplined for it, that's it. We're not going to do that again. We always will err on the side of caution.

Q: did you have any "science people" help with your investigation

A: we talked to a lot of people

Q: How much time spent?

A: didn't log it

Q: are you relieved by what you found?

A: on thursday i said i didn't have answers. We went through everything, im confident in what i've told you.

Q: so is that a yes?

A: i did what i did. I'm not using those adjectives

Q: Do you know what made the pressure rise?

A: You rub it to get to the texture, etc. (Bill's getting really pissed here). Does that stimulate something inside the ball to raise PSI, i would say yes

Q: based on research, what will you do differently

A: that's another whole area here. its a very important question

he finished here

 

[ROCKET]

Win or lose at the SB I don't think I've ever been prouder than today of our coach and to be a Pats fan. We have been truly blessed to have this guy.

 

[mbuehner]

One starts to wonder if, knowing full well before the game started they were going to challenge the inflation of the balls, what the Colts could have done to ensure their balls were perfect at halftime.