The Patriots deflated footballs Sunday night.

I hope Belichick has more tricks up his sleeve. In due time, history, the NFL, fans, and the Internet will all pass judgement on Deflate-gate and the penalties will reflect that. For now, the key task for Belichick is to make sure the Seahawks lose, even if it involves a cheat.


I think SportsScience should do a piece on football doctoring. Baseball too for that matter. I'm curious if it's possible for multiple in-game adjustments on the ball. Do most teams (still) play with the footballs and the Patriots' ballboys were just bad at covering their tracks?






Begin conspiracy theories
At the end of the day, I'm sure there are tons of tricks every team uses. But I do wonder:
- The swirling winds of Candlestick. Did the 49ers' kickers ever have the ball doctored a bit for key kicks? I know we missed some too.
- I think during the Young/Rice era, we were a fairly decent bad weather team. Any tricks on our part?
- Seattle's miraculous runs.
- Either they are the only team that doesn't doctor the ball or they have their own tricks too keep the ball a bit pumped up and slick.
- Russell Wilson has large hands for a QB (10.25''), so grip should not be as much an issue for him.
- In the NFCCG, the ball looked like a hot potato deflecting off hands. Wilson also has his patented lob, which does get some decent hang time.
- The ball also seemed to float a bit on the Bostick on-side kick and Clinton-Dix pass coverage failure. Either they choked or they expected the ball to fall faster/slower.
- In cheat theory, having a slicker ball in Seattle makes sense. It's more humid, the stadium is loud, and the defense is fast. The chances for chaos increase.
- Beast mode was dancing while they were still down two scores. I know he might have some screws loose, but maybe he knew that the ballboys had everything under control.
- I can't think of any more conspiracy theories, so I'll just end this with:



End conspiracy theories

Well at least nothing will happen to New England before the Super Bowl. Unless of course the officials take it out on NE and that will just burn my ass. If the Hags win this game it will be a nationwide troll job. I can't honestly say I feel good about the Pats taking care of them. Its already a troll job after last week, those Hag witches auctioned off Pete Carroll's soul to a group of demons.

Man. Belicheck. You got to wonder about this guy

Originally posted by vaden:
Ban Belicheat for at least two years and revoke ALL their 2015 draft picks. I don't care that they won 45-7 or if they won 992-0, cheating is totally unacceptable and it really should void the victory, but it would be too ridiculous to have the Colts in the SB, so there should instead be massive punishment doled out for the future, especially since this is Belicheat's second offense.

Concur. And while what the Saints did was bad it wasnt cheating and didnt alter the product on the field. Cheating is the worst thing you can do in sports with billions and billions of dollars at stake and the reputation of the game on the line. Heck Sterling only made comments and didnt alter the product on the court one bit and lost his team

Originally posted by Canadian9erfan:
This is the best case senario.

The Patriots win the super bowl. They have a big parade and party for a week. Then the NFL comes down and does the following.
a. Takes SUper bowl win away
b. Fines Pats money and draft picks
c. Puts an **** on the other 3 Pats Super Bowls due to spygate
d. Brady and Belichuk are left out of the Hall of Fame due to constant cheating

A. Then it would go to the seahawks

D. Yup, they are doing it to Bonds and all he did was lie

Originally posted by senseimatt:
Teams do this all the time. How does this change Blount steamrolling them?

It doesn't change that. But they can be a great team and 'bend the rules' too. Not mutually exclusive of one another.

Doubt the story holds any weight, they have 12 balls to look at, and the refs already pulled one of them at half time, it's not like they don't have the evidence to give the public a already quick response

Originally posted by SundayTicket:
Doubt the story holds any weight, they have 12 balls to look at, and the refs already pulled one of them at half time, it's not like they don't have the evidence to give the public a already quick response

Is confirmed. They have now checked all of the 12 games balls and 11 of them were under-deflated by 2 psi.

If only we would've known about this trick all those years with Alex and his little hands....

Not so fast...the NFL's investigating it...nothing final yet. Aaron Rodgers is complaining about the officials deflating balls...so the allegations against the Pats may not be true. Don't believe everything you read!

https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/F88574A33C1169707607255105536_25073c8c403.5.1.603159623105043478.mp4?versionId=bsynXfKty7dxLvLOw7Mrlmk74x_F8E6h

Originally posted by Canadian9erfan:
This is the best case senario.

The Patriots win the super bowl. They have a big parade and party for a week. Then the NFL comes down and does the following.
a. Takes SUper bowl win away
b. Fines Pats money and draft picks
c. Puts an **** on the other 3 Pats Super Bowls due to spygate
d. Brady and Belichuk are left out of the Hall of Fame due to constant cheating

just burn down the stadium while you are at it

like i already posted. this would be Brady's call, and his call only. QBs use the balls during a game that they use to practice with. So unless Brady was practicing with deflated balls during the week, I doubt anybody else in the Pats organization would have the balls deflated before talking to Brady and getting his approval, since he's the only QB using those balls and actually throwing them lol.

who cares...seattle violates humanity every single second by their very existence

/thread

mike freeman ‏@mikefreemanNFL

Mark Brunell said not only do deflated footballs make a huge difference, Brady easily would know if football was deflated.