The Fallout of ChernoBall
This is still one of the weirdest scandals I have ever seen strike professional sports. It first comes out, we all laugh. Then actual evidence of deflation comes out, and we all overreact about the honor of the sport(myself included). Then it sort of fades away as things start to look like the Pats did nothing wrong and it vanishes as no new evidence comes to light and we all forget because it’s still incredibly stupid. Now, just after the draft (the timing of which does not escape me) we get the Wells report.
The report technically confirms nothing. But it certainly makes it look like Brady had something to do with it. The texts between the two underlings certainly makes it look like Brady demanded the balls be a certain level of deflation. The fact that Brady refused to cooperate and offer his texts/emails and such for investigation certainly makes him look like he’s hiding something. Ultimately the report came to the conclusion that some tampering was going on and Brady likely knew about it. All evidence is circumstantial. For some, it’s enough to condemn the Patriots forever and strip their titles. For most Pats fans, they have no trouble finding excuses to exonerate everything, refusing to even consider that their precious 4 time champion might not actually be Captain America *Gasp*.
Honestly at this point I don’t even care that much anymore. I think he did it. I think ultimately none of it matters. Brady probably cheated, but deflating balls is probably one of the smallest, least consequential ways of cheating I can think of. Yeah, the principle of the thing is bad, but Rodgers already confessed to over-inflating and older QBs have reported preferring certain PSI levels before the rules affected them. I just don’t see it as that big a deal. He didn’t pull a Pete Rose and bet on Football games, or throw games. He didn’t poison other players. He didn’t even spy on practices. He under-inflated a few balls, which might have some positive effects on grip. Something that insignificant probably isn’t going to decide that many games.
We all know how this ends anyway. Brady will get a laughable fine, the amount will be something his wife makes for waking up in the morning. Absolute worst he gets suspended for a game. I was right the very first time this all started, this story is a joke. They aren’t going to vacate any wins or have anything meaningful happen. People who were already convinced the Pats are cheaters get to yell about it some more, and Pats fans get to continue to show people how good they are at mental gymnastics so they can continue to view their team as perfect and special. I’m just tired of balls. Fine Brady and suspend him for a game to set the precedent, and shut up about it. They’re going to win the division next year anyway, we all know it.
However I will thoroughly enjoy calling Brady a cheat just to piss off Pats fans stuck up their own butt. My favorite part of this mess right now are the Patriots fans convinced this was a sting operation or witch hunt to damage the Pats. Get over yourselves. I think the NFL would much, much prefer to not have the controversy surrounding their most recent champion and would rather sweep this under the rug then paint Boston red, come on. I don’t see this as a bountygate, deflated balls aren’t nearly as serious as targeted injury payouts.
Is that a woman with a sword up there?
Lol Obama’s eyes in panel 4
Also, this gives me 1% hope that Miami can win the division this year, provided Brady is Suspended for at least 3 games (which is incredibly doubtful; the Jaguars winning the super bowl is more likely to happen)
Is Obama reading 50 Shades of Grey?
nah man, it’s probably that old classic “50 shades of Mike Smith”
I can’t believe how many times the Patriots organization had to face cheating accusations
I can’t believe how many times the Patriots organization have cheated and gotten caught.
Shameful isn’t it?
I actually spent alot of time reading the report last night. I’ll admit I haven’t made it through all 250 pages, but from what i can tell so far theres no really strong evidence that Tom Brady knew anything. He did complain that the balls in one of the games did suck, and those balls were over inflated. Thats about the extent of his involvement.
So far the only thing i think it proves is that there are 2 idiots that work at the stadium, and Tom Brady is a nice guy who will sign autographs.
As far as not giving up his phone. I wouldnt either if i was married to a supermodel. They used software to recover alot of deleted content from those phones and i wouldn’t want an image or personal conversion with my wife leaking out. The risks definately outweigh the benefit, innocent or not.
“Similarly, although Tom Brady appeared for a requested interview and answered
questions voluntarily, he declined to make available any documents or electronic information
(including text messages and emails) that we requested, even though those requests were limited
to the subject matter of our investigation (such as messages concerning the preparation of game
balls, air pressure of balls, inflation of balls or deflation of balls) and WE OFFERED TO ALLOW BRADY’S COUNSEL TO SCREEN AND CONTROL THE PRODUCTION SO THAT IT WOULD BE LIMITED STRICTLY TO RESPONSIVE MATERIALS AND WOULD NOT INVOLVE OUR TAKING POSSESSION OF BRADY’S TELEPHONE OR OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES.” Excerpt from the Ted Wells report regarding Brady’s cooperation with giving out documents (emphasis added).
that’s what they say, what they do is totally different.
I wouldn’t let them do it either, go get your own evidence and leave me alone.
and if there were conversations between Brady and the other guys, his conversation would be on THEIR PHONE AS WELL!!! and guess what?? there were no messages from brady on either of their devices. So what difference does it make if they look at his phone or not? none
Um… they did have messages from Brady on their phones. They’re in the report.
Whether there was something on Brady’s phone or whatever is irrelevant. He did not give his full cooperation into the investigation, which is a violation of the league’s rules. He was required to give whatever was asked by the investigators, and he declined to do so. That’s the bottom line. Some people think there was something in his messages. Others think the same way as yourself. In the end, all that really matters is that he broke the rules by not cooperating.
Let me guess what team you are a fan of, Ace.
I mean it seems like Brady has knowledge or involvement. We have no knowledge that Brady told them to deflate the balls under the legal level though. I’m biased though.
I love imagining that Obama has a poster of Sexy Rexy in the oval office.
When some tough national issue come up like Ferguson or gay marriage comes up, Obama stand in front of the poster and asks: “What would you do?”
It would bring clarity to even the most conflicted of leaders.
More to the point, it’s not a poster. Since the lettering changes from frame to frame in relation to the picture, we can extrapolate that Obama actually has a video screen in the Oval Office that shows nothing but a Sexy Rexy feed, 24/7.
Hey, he *is* a Chicago guy.
I don’t trust a guy without a dark side.
Max doesn’t trust Jesus.
Even Jesus once went ballistic and flipped a few tables in a temple once.
Okay, Tony Stark.
Can I just point out something?
That Brady didn’t hand over his texts/emails is nowhere near as important as it appears on first glance. Those are two-way conversations. If there was any electronic communication between Brady/McNally or Brady/Jastremski, it would have shown up in the inbox of the latter.
Yeah, Brady probably lied about having no knowledge, and that’s bad enough to warrant a punishment of some sort. But without establishing a motive, it’s impossible to say whether there was actual ‘cheating’ (i.e trying to take air out beyond the 12.5 PSI threshold) involved.
I agree that a laughable fine will probably be levied, that will have no effect. But change the rule to make both teams use the same ball/balls.
What apparently may be a bigger underbelly story related to this is the claims, true or untrue, that over the last whatever seasons the Pats have had the lowest numbers of fumbles. Again, if true, I could see punishment that have no effect. Again, make both teams use the same balls during the game and the issue goes away.
The only problem I have with the, “It isn’t a big deal” argument, is that there’s a ton of little things that happen during a game that can have a huge effect. I mean, when it comes to really close games, sometimes a dropped pass or a fumble can absolutely turn the game. I agree with people that assert the Pats were better than the Colts and would have won anyways, but do we really think this is the only time that the Patriots may have done this?
Also, I know that everyone is saying that the Patriots won the Super Bowl with regulation balls, which proves that deflation couldn’t possibly matter, but the Super Bowl was played at 70 degrees so there wouldn’t have been as much advantage to gain.
Exactly. If deflated balls didn’t make a difference, they wouldn’t have done it. Anyone who has ever played catch can tell you that a less inflated, softer ball is easier to throw accurately.
Its a league where QB prospects have their hand sizes measured to the 1/8 of an inch. These details matter. They just do.
I know a lot of pats fans, the tinfoil hat brigade is out in full force. Apparently Goodell hates the Pats, organized a sting with the colts, and wants more controversy.
Yet if this happened to Peyton Manning, Pats fans would be gloating so hard.
Google “Sharp Patriots fumble statistics”.
Actually Dave, deflated footballs have a HUGE impact on catching, fumbling, and ball handling.
http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Fumble-Chart-1.png
This has been debunked for months
Actually Sharp has replied to the supposed “debunking”. Even after accounting for all the complaints with the original analysis, the Patriots still have a very obvious fumble advantage. There are at least 5 posts on this at http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com
Fun, remember that time steven ridley fumbled once and didn’t play for 8 weeks despite him being the RB1 and Shane Vereen having a broken wrist? That’s why NE doesn’t have as many fumbles.
Any who, why is that Boston guy “Hart” With an “R”. I’m suing you for inaccuracies right now.
darrius heyward-bey dropped 30 passes for the Raiders and Colts and then got sat/cut. That’s why Oakland/Indy doesn’t have as many drops.
The Sharp fumble stuff has been debunked by people who actually know how to do this kind of stuff, e.g.
http://drewfustin.com/fumbles/
and he links to a bunch of other people as well. For some reason that didn’t get the headlines, go figure.
“I think the NFL would much, much prefer to not have the controversy surrounding their most recent champion and would rather sweep this under the rug then paint Boston red, come on.”
Then why didn’t they go to the Pats before the game and say “look, people are complaining about the balls. Cut that shit out, cuz we are going to check.” Then the whole thing would never have happened.
My prediction is Brady gets suspended for 2 games, evidence or not, fair or not, because Goodell thinks he is perceived by the public as being Kraft’s lackey, so he can’t appear to go easy. And a $250,000 team fine. No lost draft picks.
I doubt the NFL punishes Brady for 2 games, because the inevitable Ray Rice comparisons murdered them last year and will just get worse here. I think he gets 1 game so Goodell doesn’t look “soft”, but also not “out for revenge” as Pats fans seem to think he is.
Well, the NFL did change that whole policy and suspended Rice indefinitely when the video leaked, so those comparisons don’t really have as much ground to work with anymore.
They shouldn’t, but they will. Every suspension Goodell makes is going to get compared to that Ray Rice thing, it’s going to bite him in the ass for the rest of his tenure, fair or not. The NFL completely messed up that whole situation and they are gonna pay for it for years.
That’s a terrible article. He calls using a 5 year average “cherry picking”, when it is in fact the exact opposite. The larger sample size reduces variance, and fumbling is a high variance event. His suggestion that using a 2 year average is more fair is, frankly, ludicrous.
Well, that explains why Brady was so uncomfortable at that conference a few months back. Ordering the balls deflated was one thing, but lying to the sports world about it? That’s just wrong. As a Jets fan, my only sliver of respect for Brady (based purely on his career stat line) has been lost by this. He’s a liar and whiny douche.
Now I can laugh at my Pats fan friends and they have nothing to (legitimately) argue against me with.
If he’d come out and admitted to ordering the code red, what do you think the media reaction would’ve been?
NYDN: “Admitted Cheating Monster To Play In Super Bowl”
You see that unruly mob crying for Brady’s blood right now? It would’ve been several orders of magnitude bigger if he’d done that. National media figures were already calling for the Pats to forfeit the Super Bowl before Ted Wells even put on his investigatin’ glasses. And knowing what a weak-willed piece of shit Goodell is, he would’ve listened.
Adam Schefter said that deflating footballs is considered “less than a misdemeanor, like rolling through a stop sign.” Too bad the vox populi is too dumb to understand that. Lying about it was bad, but it’s not like there was anything to be gained by telling the truth. He likely did exactly what his lawyers told him to do.
As for his reputation, well it’s now being dragged through the mud because of one small group’s subjective opinion that was rendered based on an incomplete set of facts. And yes, the Wells report is 100% subjective. Any honest reading of it would lead to such a conclusion. Nobody should have to suffer such a indignity.
Oh, and fuck the Jets. I hope they suck forever.
Okay, first off, it’s Tawm Fuckin’ Brady, not Tahm. And the “Cahnt” thing doesn’t even make sense. If anything, a Boston “Can’t” is probably closer to “Kayn’t”. Get it right, yo.
Second off, I doubt he gets suspended, that would be an awkward and terrible way to start the season. “Welcome to the season opener, hosted by the defending champion New England Patriots!… Unfortunately the MVP isn’t here today, because ball pressure. Huh.”
And no, I don’t think he NFL is “Out to get” the Patriots. I don’t think they have anything against them, and to say otherwise is unreasonable. But i DO think it’s reasonable they’re buckling under pressure from the media like they have again and again and again.
Brady will be suspended and The Jags Factory Of Sadness is coming because Dante Fowler just tore up his knee
I love how every time Boston shows up in the comic, its on fire.
I’m making sure this one is making the rounds after Brady was suspended today