PATRIOTS’ DYNASTY DOMINATES ‘THE AIR’
By DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015) — Full disclosure: Since 1960, when the team first came into the league, THE PLANET has quaffed the Patriots’ Kool-Aid. We did thus drink through all the dismal early years, those 2-14 masterpieces, and we continue to do it now through a dynasty without equal in parity-driven sports.
THE PLANET is unapologetic and loyalist when it comes to New England Patriots football, or what’s a team for? We’ve long chucked MLB for its pretension and the NBA for its gangsta-ism. The NHL we can still enjoy. Football? It never gets tired, despite how the league front office is trying hard to rob MLB of its patent on administrative stupidity.
Your opinion on “Deflategate” and the Wells Report is an indicator of how you feel about Tom Brady and the Patriots the way a fuel gauge shows a needle somewhere between “E” and “F.” In this case, the needle straddles a space defined by a love or hatred for the National Football League’s most successful team and current dynasty. Hockey had the Montreal Canadiens. Baseball had the New York Yankees. Basketball had the Boston Celtics. Football has the New England Patriots — the teams the others love to hate. To have two of the four “Hated” teams? To have a city/region whose teams have captured nine world titles since 2002 (Patriots 4, Red Sox 3, Bruins 1, Celtics 1)? Titletown USA: Ya gotta love it.
But What’s the Objective View?
But what is the dispassionate view of air pressure and footballs? Let’s look at two. THE PLANET’s personal favorite is from Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers. Here is his Tweet:
No football in the world is going to help you win by 38! Let it go and let Tom be great! On to the 2015 season #7tormsComing
Not much to add there, Kap. By the way, you just picked up a new fan.
A Win for the Ages
Kaepernick makes the essential point: Tiny variations in the pressure of a football did not and could not explain the 45-7 thrashing the Patriots put on the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game, the fourth straight time that Patriots have demolished the Colts and the second straight year in the playoffs.
Football pressure cannot account for the fact that most of New England’s points came in the second half, with officially kissed balls. The win put the Patriots in the Super Bowl, where they won what a league poll determined to be the most exciting game of all time. That was the game in which Malcolm Butler made the most memorable play in league history, his absolutely clutch pickoff of Russell Wilson’s pass from the 1 yard line.
All Brady did in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLIX was again deliver in the clutch. With his team trailing by 10 in the 4th quarter with about nine minutes left, Brady went 13-for-15, 125 yards, and two TDs against the Seattle Seahawks’ much-hyped Greatest Secondary of All Time, the so-called Legion of Boom. This came when the ‘hawks new Brady would be throwing on almost every down. Still they couldn’t stop him. Brady’s performance turned that secondary into the Legion of Doom. It was the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, the only one to overcome a double-digit second-half deficit — all done with properly inflated footballs that were guarded more closely than the crown jewels.
Wells Report: ‘Holes All Over the Place’
Dan Wetzel, YAHOO! Sports football writer, has another “third party” view that accurately sums up the situation:
Brady’s lawyers must love this stuff because it shifts the focus off of the uncomfortable core arguments of the case and onto the fairness of the investigation. They’ll be able to go on and on with this one. There are holes all over the place [in the Wells Report], few of which have anything to do with the basic conclusion.
It might not gain much public sentiment nationally but it’ll rally support in New England that the QB was railroaded.
“FrameGate,” Brady’s father already cleverly called it, even before all the jokes about Tom making his first appearance in the witch trial city of Salem.
Even some who are convinced Brady is guilty will agree that the NFL did a poor job here. So much of this was avoidable by the league. When it comes to these scandals in the future, its independent investigators need to simply dole out the independent facts (not their opinions). This shouldn’t be a judgment call left to a bunch of faceless Manhattan lawyers.
It’s not fair to Brady and the Pats, who are put in a hostile place. It’s not fair to the Indianapolis Colts and the rest of the league that deserve a truth that should be accepted.
The release of the evidence acquired, no matter where it pointed, was all that was needed. … Yet by having Wells overstep acceptable standards, the strong parts are weakened, the water gets muddied and the entire story gets exhausting. It does allow Roger Goodell to hide out in his office, testing the winds of opinion before making a move. Other than for Roger, this isn’t a real good way of doing business.
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Another ‘Coincidence’
The role of the mainstream media and social media in this non-story also is instructive.
Consider the timing of the two major releases about this story. The first we hear about the “pressure of footballs” was the day after the conference championship game, a day that began the dreaded two-week lull before the actual playing of Super Bowl XLIX. It’s a yawning gap that makes both media and the league nervous. There’s only so many Gronk stories and other useless fillers that even the most strident fan can tolerate. “Deflategate” solved that problem.
The second time the story flared up was 103 days later, “coincidentally” after the hoopla died down from the league’s latest overblown spectacle, the NFL Draft (now written with initial caps as the proper noun it is). The timing neatly fills the lull between now and when the NFL camps open this summer. How serendipitous for the league.
The NHL and NBA are in their playoffs, world events bear down upon with urgency, and there are still potholes in Pittsfield. But the naysayers and haters have “Deflategate.” Here’s how it rolls for the Patriots these days.
They can have it. We Patriot fans have a 4th ring and —with regular-season dominance for 14 years, 17 division titles, eight conference championships, and four Super Bowl wins — a confirmed dynasty.
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NOW IF THAT ISN’T ENOUGH, HERE’s ONE MORE THIRD-PARTY VIEW. READ IT IF YOU DARE!
Wells report disregards Anderson’s “best recollection” on a key piece of evidence
Getty ImagesEarlier today, I spent way too much time hunting-and-pecking my way through an item regarding the problems with the two pressure gauges used to measure the Patriotsfootballs at halftime of the AFC title game. I spent so much time focused on the nuances that I didn’t give proper attention to perhaps the most obvious problem of all.To summarize, the NFL had two air pressure gauges available at the game. One had a Wilsonlogo on the back and a long, crooked needle. The other did not have a Wilson logo, and a shorter, straighter needle.The gauge with the logo and the longer needle generated higher measurements of the Patriots footballs at halftime, ranging from 0.3 PSI to 0.45 PSI higher for each of the 11 footballs. If that gauge — the one with the logo and the longer, crooked needle — were used to set the PSI for the balls before the game began, the measurements from that gauge are the right measurements to rely upon at halftime. And those measurements show that there was no tampering, because most of the footballs fell within the 11.52 to 11.32 PSI range for halftime, as predicted by the Ideal Gas Law.Referee Walt Anderson didn’t clearly recall which gauge he used to set the pressure in the Patriots balls at 12.5 PSI before the game. Page 52 of the Wells report reveals that it was Anderson’s “best recollection” that he used before the game the gauge with the logo and the longer, crooked needle. In other words, Anderson recalls using the gauge before the game that, based on the halftime measurements, leads to a finding of no tampering.So how did Ted Wells get around the “best recollection” of Walt Anderson? Wells persuaded Anderson to admit that it’s “certainly possible” he used the other gauge. And the company hired to provide technical support for the Wells report concluded based on a convoluted explanation appearing at pages 116-17 of the report that it is “more probable than not” that Anderson used the other gauge.In other words, the Wells report concludes on this critical point that it’s “more probable than not” that Anderson’s “best recollection” was wrong.
Why should Anderson’s “best recollection” be doubted? He knew that there was a concern about tampering with the footballs. He presumably was paying more careful attention to the process of getting the balls filled with air before the AFC title game than he normally does.
So which gauge did you use, Walt, realizing that there could be a question later about the inflation of the footballs?
“Well, my best recollection is that I used the one with the long, crooked needle.”
Is it possible, Walt, that you used the other gauge that was available? You know, the one that for whatever reason measures the air pressure at 0.3 to 0.45 PSI lower?
“Well, I don’t know about that. . . .”
Isn’t it possible, Walt?
“Well, it’s certainly possible.”
That’s how investigations that start with a predetermined outcome and work backward unfold. (Holy crap, I think I’m beginning to agree with Don Yee.) And that’s why Wells should have concluded based on the scientific evidence that the question of whether tampering occurred in connection with the AFC title game is inconclusive.
Regardless of whether certain executives in the league office wanted the Patriots to be found guilty of cheating or whether Wells personally believed based on the non-scientific evidence that cheating must have happened, something prevented Wells from making a truly objective assessment of the scientific evidence. And a truly objective assessment of the scientific evidence should have led to this conclusion: It’s unclear whether tampering occurred.
[A]s it relates to the AFC title game, the scientific evidence was resolved not simply by a coin flip, but by a coin flip that Walt Anderson recalls as landing heads, and that someone else decided was actually tails. If discipline is going to be imposed on the Patriots or any individuals, it needs to be based on something other than whatever did or didn’t happen before the AFC title game.
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“Please Mr. Custer, I don’t wanna go.” — Larry Verne, “Please Mr. Custer,” (1960).
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
If letting the air out of footballs would win Superbowls I think someone would have thought about it long before Tom Brady.
And the Colts only scored 7 points and that had nothing to do with the air pressure in the Patriots footballs.
Here is an experiment you can try at home.
Go out and have passing/catching session with another using a regulation ball properly inflated to NFL standards.
Now take a needle and let some air out of the ball. Continue.
See if its easier to throw… easier to catch.
The results of this experiment may reveal much.
Sure Brady is the best quarterback and the New England Patriots are the best team. No one is doubting that. However, if they got there by cheating it ruins the game.
They call me the home run kid, because every time I step up to bat, everyone runs home.
You cannot tell the deference in the PSI of the footballs. Most people would say easier to catch harder to throw footballs under 12.5
DV…I would say the Pittsburgh Steelers would be the football dynasty you compare to the other teams like the Yankees and Canadiens…the most rings…6
Brady would have you believe that he receives the snap and passes the ball paying no attention to the air pressure in the ball and how it grips. However, if the ball was overinflated, you can bet Brady would have stopped the play and the ball boy would’ve had to answer to Brady himself. An overinflated ball would be an avantage only the the kicker.
The man is a proffesional and the football is the tool he uses to earn his living.
The ball was snapped tossed and caught. Not one Patriot team member said a word. The Colt player on the other hand noticed immediately that the ball was too soft upon handling it.
The coach has a history of micro-managing every aspect of the team, its players and the game. Is it reasonable to you that he pays no attention to the air pressure in the balls?
It wasn’t just the one ball that proved to be the smoking gun. When checked I believe 9 of the Pats balls were deflated.
The New England Patriots are my home team. I want to be proud of them. However, its difficult to hold your head high in victory. Yes they would have beaten the Colts anyway. I am also a Colts fan. The thing is a solid victory should be free from accusation.
Dan, I understand your position on seeing this as a non-issue but its not. The football is the center of the game. 100’s of millions of dollars are spent to watch a team move the ball downfield into the end zone. Honesty must prevail to keep the integrity of the game.
I wonder what Dan Bianchi thinks of all this. Perhaps he could weigh in here on the Planet on this important issue.
Please read all the articles on this topic. The colts player stated he didn’t notice the ball was under inflated when he intercepted it…oh,oh I guess softer balls are easier to intercept also. The Colts balls that were measured at halftime were also under the 12.5 PSI. This was a witch hunt from the beginning. The rules, if the officials felt under pressured balls were used, was clearly defined. That being said this makes a mockery out of the NFL/. It should change its name to WWE.
Excellent note, SHIRL
Brady isn’t guilty of cheating but guilty of lying that he didn’t cheat!
Brady has had his footballs deflated for his entire NFL career. Every pass completion he has is tainted.
That is funny. Do you have a intimate knowledge if Tom’s balls through the years. Sincerely Gaylord Perry.
As DV says this phony story brings out the haters or the lovers. Mr Dogood is a hater. Joe is a lover.
Only the unsophisticated and the stupid who must have their stories masticated for them by the “experts” first are falling for this phony story.
So haters go on hating. We are The Patriots. We are the World Champs again. & That’s the part that stick in your throat!
The referee touches the football after every snap,yet they never said they were under inflated. What’s up with that?
Not a lover, no proof of any infractions in the past. I don’t make assumptions.
It is a good thing Brady did not try to pull this shit in Iran. They would have thrown a pair of shoes at him and then cut off his passing hand.
just sayin
The Clinton’s have been getting away with this stuff for decades.
It is probable…… what a broad spectrum of b.s. All the crybabies, feed on the fish. Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are Champions. Go out and beat them on the field.
Jest are trying to do that through the commissioner. He should be dumped and the NFL office should be moved to Canton
Haven’t been on in a while but just had to. Great column DV I’m not a Pats fan. Packers are my team.
After the way the Seahawks beat us in the NFC champinship game I was hoping for a New England win in SB 49 just the way it happened, a crusher.
If this would have happened to Aaron Rogers (or Romo, Peyton, Brees or any other of the elite qbs) i would say the same thing, just play football. This fake controvsersy is to media driven..Pat fans you have a great one in Brady, every other team in football would covet him.
DV have you seen this story:Deflategate: What did Tom Brady know?
Dan Eaton, law professor at San Diego State University
6 Hours Ago
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Most of the attention on the NFL report on “deflategate,” about the New England Patriots’ use of under-pressurized footballs in the AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts in January, has been trained on the answer to a question that has a historically familiar ring to it: What did the quarterback know and when did he know it?
The answer the report gives is: “[I]t is more probable than not that Tom Brady (the quarterback for the Patriots) was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities” of Patriots locker-room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski “involving the release of air from Patriots game balls.”
Read MoreNFL report; Tom Brady knew about deflated balls
That conclusion is not nearly enough to warrant disciplining Brady for the deflation of the footballs or to taint his legacy as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, a four-time Super Bowl winner and three-time Super Bowl MVP.
Getty Images
Tom Brady of the New England Patriotsagainst the Indianapolis Colts at Gillette Stadium on January 18, 2015 in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
That concedes the validity of the report’s thoroughly investigated and substantiated factual findings. The report was carefully drafted, reading in places like a good true-life mystery. So why are no disciplinary or reputational consequences appropriate for Brady?
It is important to focus on what the accusatory sentence doesn’t say. The sentence does not say that Brady knew that McNally deflated the footballs below the minimum pressure of 12.5 pounds per square inch. It says that Brady probably was aware of the inappropriate conduct. That is more than maybe, but far from absolute certainty.
The sentence also does not say that Brady specifically knew about McNally deflating the footballs below the minimum pressure in what the report acknowledges was an unusual setting: a locked single-toilet bathroom after officials had inspected the balls, but before the balls were brought onto the field. The most investigators could say was that Brady was “at least generally aware” of “the inappropriate activities” of McNally and Jastremski. The investigators also imply that Brady expressed his approval of such activities by giving the self-described “deflator,” McNally, autographed gear in the locker room around the time Brady was selecting game balls for the January 10, 2015 divisional playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens, eight days before the Colts game.
Read MoreBrady’s ‘Deflategate’ blowback is likely to be limited
Brady’s probable general awareness and approval of “inappropriate activities” is not equivalent to Brady’s direct participation in the specific scheme that was the subject of the report. There is no finding that Brady broke the rules, ordered that the rules be broken, helped to plan the bizarrely executed deed, or rewarded the rules violation after the fact.
Where is the basis for punishment in all of that? How does that merit an asterisk on this quarterback for this game, this championship, this career?
It must be added that that Brady gained no evident competitive advantage from the use of the deflated balls in the Patriots’ 45-7 win over the Colts. In footnote 73 of the report, the investigators note they were not asked to investigate or evaluate the competitive impact of the deflated balls. They nevertheless add that, in the first half, when the balls were under-inflated, Brady completed barely half of his passes (11/21) for one touchdown. In the second half, when the balls were re-inflated, Brady completed over 85 percent of his passes (12/14) for two touchdowns.
In matters ethical, means and intent matter regardless of the consequences of an act. Knute Rockne: “Win or lose, do it fairly.” The cheater is subject to censure even if his methods do not have the intended effect. But the report does not support a conclusion that Brady was in on the means or shared the intent to break the rules the day of the AFC Championship game.
Read More16 percent of retired NFL players go bankrupt: Study
I am no card-carrying member of Patriots nation — quite the opposite. I wanted Seattle to beat New England in the Super Bowl. I am a native New Yorker who is old enough to have happy early childhood memories of Joe Namath’s fulfilled promise of a Jets victory in Super Bowl III. And I still like the Jets, though my allegiance is now shared with the San Diego Chargers.
This is a matter of allegiance to the principle of fairness, not allegiance to a particular team or player. This goes beyond one quarterback, one game, even one sport. It is unfair to punish any athlete in any sport for his probable general awareness of a rules violation he did not commit, did not plan, did not reward, and that did not at the end of the day help him win. Let the guilty parties, but only the guilty parties, be punished. Tom Brady is not one of them.
Commentary by Dan Eaton, a partner with the San Diego law firm of Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek where his practice focuses on defending and advising employers. He also is a professor at the San Diego State University College of Business Administration where he teaches classes in business ethics and employment law. Follow him on Twitter @DanEatonlaw.
And this one–As the NFL world awaits the league’s punishment decision for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots following the Ted Wells report on Deflategate, Saints fans should be reminded that their team also had a quarterback who let the air out of footballs prior to every game.
Turns out the Saints, along with just about every other NFL team, aren’t necessarily squeaky clean when it comes to their own Deflategate. Former Saints quarterback Jeff Blake, who was with the team from 2000 to 2001, admitted back in January on Nashville’s 104.5 The Zone that he instructed ball boys to take air out of the balls every game he played.
“I’m just going to let the cat of the bag, every team does it, every game, it has been since I played. Cause when you take the balls out of the bag, they are rock hard. And you can’t feel the ball as well. It’s too hard.
“Everybody puts the pin in and takes just enough air out of the ball that you can feel it a little better. But it’s not the point to where it’s flat. So I don’t know what the big deal is. It’s not something that’s not been done for 20 years.”
“Well, I would say (to a ball boy), ‘Take a little bit of air out of it. It’s a little bit hard,'” Blake said. “And then he’d take a little bit out and I’d squeeze it and I’d be like, ‘OK, it’s perfect.’ That’s it.”
So maybe we should put the pitchforks down before getting on our soapbox and burning Tom Brady and the Patriots at the stake.
Brady should do time in San Quentin? Work release on weekends.
Put him in the same place as Hernandez. There he can practice on a tight end
Brady suspended 4 games…Patriots fined $1 million…forfeit 1st round pick 2016 and 4th round pick 2017
Kaboommm!!!
So who is the Patriots backup quarterback anyway? We are going to find out.
I would suggest that the league start making footballs with permanent seals. No air inlets. Maybe shrink wrap them so that outlaws like Mr Brady cannot bring pro football to its knees ever again.
It’s been just awful…..awful
You would think the Pats would have learned their lesson about cheating last time when they got caught taping other teams . Once a cheat always a cheat.
They never beat the Raiders to start this journey,years ago.
Brady just got suspended for 4 games and the Pats lost their 1st round draft pick in 2016. Brady let his team down by not admitting in January that he deflated the balls. He lied about it and the league hammered him. His first game back next fall will be in Indianapolis.
My first Patriots game was in Fenway Park where I saw the Boston Patriots (remember them?) play the Houston Oilers. It is a wonderful memory. My last Pats game was in 2013 when the Pats beat the Saints in Gillette. It was a good game but now all I can think about is that the Babe Parilli/Jim Nance Patriots were guys who didn’t need to deflate footballs or videotape opponents to win. These were the guys I loved.
All those guys from that era were using other things to keep their systems running that would be considered illegal in today’s WWE
brady maybe throughout is carrer gained a competitive advantage simply because he couldn’t grip a football and throw a football because his hand or grip was not good enough. by deflating the ball he was able to grip and throw a lot better.
Yeah, he really struggled in the 2nd half of the AFC championship and the super bowl.
That’s right, haters, hate! You reveal your jealousy of excellence!! Ask your self who is the reigning S.B. Champion? Could it be … New England!
Haters hate…..as if Pats fans love the rest of the NFL
Gee Whiz: get a grip! Has nothing to do with hate. That’s just the childish saying of the day. The Pats cheat and that is just a fact. More than once to boot. And I can’t help but wonder what they got away with and didn’t get caught
Hate Paul hate. 4 Rings. Enjoy it!
Figures that the Pats are from Massachusetts and they cheat…so does everybody else in the state. If people stopped treating politics like their favorite sports team, this country might actually have a chance at surviving, but as it stands………
PAT
All is correct here except that The Patriots cheat. They don’t cheat. They just win!
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000492185/article/tom-brady-suspended-4-games-plans-to-appeal
Tough break Tom terrific
I agree that Brady should enter San Quentin, with work release on weekends.
Here is another analogy; Two go fishing, one uses a night crawler the other a mothball. Question? Who do you think is going to catch the fish? I rest my case.