2014 Official NFL Thread

[daydreamer41]

Belichick reportedly never believed Brady's Deflategate story

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/...deflategate-story-new-england-patriots-052215

Robert Kraft's decision not to appeal the New England Patriots' punishment for Deflategate left Tom Brady to fight the harsh discipline on his own.

According to the Boston Herald's Ron Borges, Brady has been on his own throughout the prolonged incident. Borges was a recent guest on CSNNE's "Sports Tonight" and was asked by host Michael Felger if there was a chance Kraft and head coach Bill Belichick thought Brady wasn't being transparent about his role in Deflategate. Borges responded with some pretty eye-opening comments.

"Belichick never believed (Brady's) story, from what I was told," Borges said, via CSNNE.com. "(Belichick) didn't tell it to me, but people who know him (told me).

"Because they all know. Why do you think all those retired quarterbacks, the Troy Aikmans of the world — Troy Aikman is about as nice a guy as I've ever met in football — nobody's backed (Brady). Nobody, not a single guy. Why do you think that is? Because they hate Brady? No. Because they're not stupid. They know nothing's done with those balls that the quarterback doesn't want done."

Actually, a number of QBs did back Brady — including a couple of Hall of Famers.

Here's Belichick's statement from January in response to the initial Deflategate reports: "We all know that quarterbacks, kickers, specialists have certain preferences on footballs. They know a lot more about it than I do. They're a lot more sensitive to it than I am. I hear them comment on it from time to time, but I can tell you and they will tell you that there is never any sympathy whatsoever from me on that subject. Zero.

-We pass judgment on all 32 teams and their QBs.
"Tom's personal preferences on his footballs are something he can talk about in much better detail and information than I could possibly provide."

 

[lgna69xxx]

I guess you do not know any habs fans.

I have never seen so much apologetic whining from one FAN anywhere.

 

[Merlot]

:lol:

And you're correct about the constant whining FAN part also!

What else have you ever done. Your teams have all been losers for so long and all you do is cite what's wrong with other teams.

Now add to your whining your proposal that your team should go out and cheat by throwing games to change it's draft position. :thumb:

No, Merlot, Revis is saying be a man and take the punishment.

You still have no idea what the difference between a fact and an opinion is. All of these people on BOTH SIDES of the issue, whether they are saying Brady did it or he didn't do it are giving opinions. The NFL itself had to use the phrase probably more likely than not because they could not make any clear conclusion. In you case, exactly like you have done in all of your politics over the years, you cherry pick what you want to believe to match up to what you want to have happened then call that predetermined selective bias a fact. It's extreme dishonesty or an incapacity to understand It's the same thing Wells did with the football pressure stats from referee Walt Anderson. Pick stats for the Colts that clear them, pick stats for the patriots that indict them even though there are stats for each team that reverse the impact for both.

You don't want facts you want an execution so you grab at every opinion that fits your only agenda.

:wave:

Merlot

 

[Merlot]

Gentlemen,

From someone who is not a Patriots fan and doesn't have any bias or predetermined outcome. An opinion based on FACTS. That's F-A-C-T-S!

In trying to restore his authority through DeflateGate, Roger Goodell undermined his credibility

By Sally Jenkins Columnist

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...2c8d2c-ffd4-11e4-805c-c3f407e5a9e9_story.html

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell predetermined guilt in DeflateGate; that’s clear now. He has smeared Tom Brady and the New England Patriots without proper evidence or a competent investigation and turned an unimportant misdemeanor into a damaging scandal as part of a personal power play to shore up his flagging authority. In other cases, he just looked inept. In this one, he looks devious.

At the NFL owners meetings in San Francisco on Wednesday night, Goodell as much as admitted that the Wells report is incomplete despite the fact that it took four months, cost millions in legal fees and was supposed to be comprehensive. After all, the league used it to levy historically harsh penalties against Brady and the Patriots, claiming they deflated footballs in the AFC championship game. Nevertheless, Goodell opened the door to walking it back, saying he wants to talk personally to Brady, who has appealed his four-game suspension.

“I look forward to hearing directly from Tom if there is new information or there is information that can be helpful to us in getting this right,” Goodell said.

Now this is the height of disingenuousness. Because we already know the Wells report missed crucial information and didn’t consider important facts. Ted Wells either overlooked or ignored crucial text messages, he used a firm with a reputation for bending science to fit predetermined conclusions and he cherry-picked the memory of an NFL referee. But that’s not all. The Wells report left completely unexamined the fact that the NFL has never once considered the inflation of footballs to be a matter of great integrity or competitive advantage before now.

And this is where Brady can blow the commissioner out of a courtroom. And perhaps out of his job.

League history makes it obvious that Goodell is practicing selective enforcement, purely for his own purpose. The NFL rules simply state that footballs should be inflated within a range of 12.5 to 13.5 pounds per square inch. For nearly a decade it has let each team provide a dozen of its own balls and let quarterbacks choose them according to preference and feel — and to fiddle with the pressure without penalty. Aaron Rodgers has said he tells his equipment guys to over-inflate the ball and see whether the refs catch it.

That the league has never particularly enforced standards is evident in a hilarious section in which the Wells report eats its own tail. According to Wells, in a game between the Patriots and Jets, it was discovered that the refs had inflated the balls to 16 PSI. Brady got upset when he found them hard to handle. That’s how uneven ball inflation in the NFL is and how weak the Wells report is. The only firm evidence that Brady ever had a conversation with anyone about ball pressure comes in this instance, when the ball was wildly over-inflated to 16 PSI — by the league’s own refs.

What’s more, messing with the ball has been treated as a misdemeanor in other cases. In a very cold 2014 game between the Carolina Panthers and Minnesota Vikings, sideline cameras showed some team attendants warming footballs in front of heaters — presumably at the behest of a quarterback. There was no scandal for “tampering.” There was not even an investigation. You know what kind of edict the NFL issued in that case? A reminder. It sent a memo that softening the ball on the sideline by warming it is not allowed.

At a minimum the Wells report is poor work, and the NFL may well have skewed it. Just consider how the report used referee Walt Anderson’s recollections. It accepts Anderson’s account as accurate when it comes to how pressurized the Patriots’ footballs were in pregame. It also accepts Anderson’s account when he said there were two gauges available, one with a logo on it that gave higher readings by almost 0.4.

But when Anderson says he used the gauge that gave the higher PSI measurements, the Wells report suddenly treats Anderson as inaccurate on this point — and no other. For no apparent reason, Wells insists Anderson must have used the other gauge, the one that gave lower readings, which makes the Patriots look guilty.

Ideal Gas Law.

Once you’ve read this part of the Wells report, the words it so often employs — “more probable than not” and “likely” — begin to take on a pernicious tone.

The NFL created its own mischief here. It wrote a rule that says each team can use a dozen of its own balls and left it to the teams to inflate them, without providing any sort of regulation or consistent enforcement. Now, all of a sudden, what a year ago was the subject of a mere memo has become the subject of a months-long million-dollar game of Gotcha. Why?

Don’t tell me it’s because Tom Brady didn’t turn over his cell phone. Wells had all of the phone records and texts between Brady and equipment manager John Jastremski, and there was no communication at all with locker room attendant Jim McNally. The records suggest Brady’s not withholding; he’s just a union man who objects to the precedent of giving his private phone to a commissioner who comes on like J. Edgar Hoover.

And here again, Goodell is practicing selective punishment. Brett Favre didn’t turn his cell over, either, in a far more unpalatable case over sexual harassment in the workplace. Know what Goodell gave him? A $50,000 fine. With no suspension.

The commissioner needed a big case to restore his authority and prestige after a series of judicial embarrassments. Federal judge David Doty reversed him on Adrian Peterson’s suspension. Arbitrator Barbara Jones overturned him (and found him not credible) for suspending Ray Rice twice for the same offense. And former commissioner Paul Tagliabue issued a stunning rebuke in the New Orleans Saints BountyGate case, when he not only reversed player suspensions but found a pattern of “arbitrary” as well “selective, ad hoc or inconsistent” punishments by Goodell.

The guess here is that Goodell’s support and respect among owners was eroded badly after he mishandled each of these cases and turned them into months-long scandals that undermined public trust in the league office. DeflateGate is nothing more than a bid to reconsolidate his power. But it’s an overreach as usual, and whatever Goodell gained in the short term may be his undoing in the long term. There was an initial jolt of gratification that Goodell took the much-loathed Patriots and their owner, Bob Kraft, down a peg. But after it will come a more rational examination of his conduct and the flawed content of the Wells report. And with that, distrust.

MANY Cheers,

Merlot

 

[Joe.t]

I have changed my opinion on Tom Brady after today's press conference where he gave his side of the story, how could I have ever misjudged him.

Tom Brady's side of the story.

 

[Vercingentorix]

Recently Tom Brady and his son Ben were on vacation in Florida. Relaxing on one of Florida's pristine beaches watching the sunset, Ben asks his father, "Dad, what is it like to go undefeated?" Tom answers, "I don't know son, but maybe since we're at the beach we can find some Dolphins. They can answer that for you....." :lol:

 

[Merlot]

Boys,

"Dad, what is it like to go undefeated?"...maybe since we're at the beach we can find some Dolphins. They can answer that for you....." :lol:

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Nov/07/br/br8703169452.html

And the answer would be Don Shula has a legacy of CHEATING! "He was still the coach of the Baltimore Colts at the end of the 1969 season, when then-Miami owner Joe Robbie approached him and signed Shula to a contract. The NFL charged the Dolphins with tampering and awarded their first-round pick to the Colts. Undaunted, Miami reached the Super Bowl in 1971, then rebounded from a loss to the Dallas Cowboys by winning the next two, including the perfect 17-0 campaign." If he did it once he did it again. So in proper perspective it's ***17-0*** TAINTED.

Deal with it,

Merlot

 

[Merlot]

Hello y'all,

This one is for you vercongentorix.

Miami Dolphin Legend Dan Marino Backs Brady.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl...-best-qbs-ever-despite-deflategate/ar-BBkBwBy

By Sam Galanis

Tom Brady has the endorsement of one of the best quarterbacks of all time.

Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino joined WEEI’s “Middays with MFB” on Tuesday to discuss Deflategate. And Marino stuck up for Brady, saying the New England Patriots quarterback being implicated as the reason the team’s footballs were underinflated in the 2014 AFC Championship Game should have no effect on his legacy.

“I’m a big fan of Tom Brady, always have been,” Marino said. “I’ve known him for a lot of years. My perception of him is he’s one of the greatest players at that position to ever play. That is not going to change.”

Marino also said that as a quarterback, he had a lot more important things to worry about than air pressure. But perhaps more interestingly, in Marino’s day — he retired after the 1999 season — he never even realized that the NFL was checking footballs before games.

Deal with it,

Merlot

 

[Vercingentorix]

Question: "Dad, how do you win a Super Bowl without cheating?"
Answer: "I don't know son, we are Patriots fans."

Question: What is Tom brady's favorite letter?
Answer: Sssssssss! (sound of air leaking from a ball)

 

[Doc Holliday]

Question: "Dad, how do you win a Super Bowl without cheating?"
Answer: "I don't know son, we are Patriots fans."

Question: What is Tom brady's favorite letter?
Answer: Sssssssss! (sound of air leaking from a ball)

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Special K]

Question: "Dad, how do you win a Super Bowl without cheating?"
Answer: "I don't know son, we are Patriots fans."

Question: What is Tom brady's favorite letter?
Answer: Sssssssss! (sound of air leaking from a ball)

Is that really the best you can come up with? I've known you long enough and always figured you to be far more clever than this. Lol.

 

[Vercingentorix]

Is that really the best you can come up with? I've known you long enough and always figured you to be far more clever than this. Lol.

Come on, you don't like my new signature box either?

 

[daydreamer41]

Is that really the best you can come up with? I've known you long enough and always figured you to be far more clever than this. Lol.

Come on, K, you're lacking a sense of humor. All of us who aren't ardent NE fans or not NE fans at all thought Vercingentorix's joke was hilarious. :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[Special K]

Come on, you don't like my new signature box either?

I still like your status below your name, but I'm shocked it's still only at 53% and not higher! There's something we can definitely agree on.

 

[lgna69xxx]

Oops, i forgot to vote, put me down for 100%!!!

I still like your status below your name, but I'm shocked it's still only at 53% and not higher!

 

[Vercingentorix]

:thumb:

I still like your status below your name, but I'm shocked it's still only at 53% and not higher! There's something we can definitely agree on.

As usual I was roundly criticized for my views on Obama several years ago by the vast majority of posters here. It was this very board that registered a positive vote for him in an informal poll. As usual I was one of those screaming in the desert of public opinion only to be proven out at this late date.

As to the 53% it's interesting that the pollsters "mix" of the voting sample got skewed as the polls went against BO. It had something to do with the government intimidation from the justice department of the pollsters about 6 months before the re-election. Some stories began to creep out only to be expunged and then never discussed again. They'll be those that will call me crazy, that will scream that I don't know what I'm talking about. But time has usually proven the vast majority of my claims and information as it will this bit eventually.

Now back to our criticism of Tommy Terrific.....You'll note that not much has been written about his appeal. It's going to be annouced, right around July 3rd ( the league's version of a Friday document dump) that the league and TT have come to a compromise "for the good of the game". Brady will miss the first two games and be heard whining :violin::deadhorse: about it for the next few months after that. I'm sad, as the Fin's routing of the Pats for the AFC East Crown will be tainted. But count me as glued to my armchair watching Suh/Wake/Phillips and Vernon taking up residence in Tom Terrific's backfield when he plays them later in the year.....:thumb:

 

[Merlot]

"And look at what you are doing with Brady. You are denying he ever tampered with the footballs, which how the NFL did NOT rule. You are the one who is writing page after page defending Brady on her. So who is the hypocrite, Merlot? It's not me." - DD41

Your syntax in red is poor.

This is about football DD. Why do you constantly refer to Brady to skew the subject of A-Rod in a baseball thread? Why can't you stand up on a subject with out running somewhere else for excuses? So the subject of Brady belongs in this football thread.

On that subject, at this point I absolutely doubt Brady ever asked anyone to set the pressure below league rule limits based on the evidence as such, very circumstantial, loosely implied at best, very poor in general. I believe he definitely told at least one of the guys he preferred the pressure be set at the lower limit of 12.5 psi, (as Brady said) and I believe these guys who say they hate Brady were very sloppy in doing so, which is proven by the recorded fact that at worse some balls were at the rules limit, some very close to the rules limit, some were significantly below it.

If you actually read the report with decent English skills and a mindset to take what was said by Wells without your predisposed hatred of Brady and yearning for anything that implies his guilt, no part of the report says Brady actually did anything. The report says "Tom Brady likely knew of 'inappropriate activities," by someone else...Ted Wells, found that "it is more probable than not" that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was "at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities" None of those phrases says Brady tampered with the balls. Wells chose to use the more implicating one of two sets of measurements going against what the referee he based his information on told him, and Wells made an assessment where the best he could come up with was "PROBABLY" and "MORE LIKELY THAN NOT" which means slightly more than 50%.

Anyone with decent English comprehension knows that choice of phrasing means no more than...I THINK Brady was involved. Period! Its an OPINION by someone who tried to make a decision and could not be sure. That's all anyone except Brady and the two guys can do is have an opinion because no one else was there and the Wells Report certainly showed by inconclusive wording "PROBABLY" and "MORE LIKELY THAN NOT" that all they could say.

For anyone on either side to speak in absolute terms is still taking an OPINION and trying to go much further than what the Wells Report could say. If you claim the Wells report found Brady guilty you are right. If you claim the Wells Report proved Brady is guilty you are LYING YOUR ASS OFF. Wells made a decision, a marginal one, giving an opinion the same as you and me, nothing more. My defense of Brady comes over 14 years of reading miles of reports and quotes...hearing him speak live almost every Monday morning...14 years of investigative writing on his character by sports analysts across the country...and everything we know about his work ethic. To act like I or anyone has less right than you to have an opinion is POMPOUS, ARROGANT, CLOSED-MINDED EGOTISM.

Get over yourself, :thumb:

Merlot

 

[Merlot]

Guys,

Patriots release LB Brandon Spikes

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/13035812/brandon-spikes-released-new-england-patriots

The New England Patriots have released linebacker Brandon Spikes on Monday morning after his damaged car was found abandoned on I-495 in Foxborough a day earlier.

Shortly before 3:30 a.m. ET Sunday, police responded to a report of a 2011 Mercedes Maybach in the median strip. Police said they were notified by a representative of the OnStar on-board navigation system that the driver reported hitting a deer.

When police arrived at the car, the driver was not present. Police said they did not find a deer in the area.

In addition, Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio said a short time later that police responded to a report of a 2009 Nissan Murano, also on I-495 in the same area as the abandoned car registered to Spikes, whose occupants reported that they had been rear-ended by another vehicle they did not see.

All three occupants of that vehicle -- a 51-year-old man, a 32-year-old woman, and a 12-year-old boy, all of Billerica, Massachusetts -- were transported to an area hospital for examination and treatment.

Police have not filed charges, but are investigating both incidents, including who was driving the Mercedes Maybach and what car struck the Murano. Procopio said the investigation will seek to determine whether there is any connection between the reported incidents. No connection has yet been definitively established.

The Patriots re-signed Spikes, who played for them from 2010 to 2013, last month. The move was a surprise considering how Spikes' time with the team ended and some of his critical remarks about the franchise on social media.

Spikes' departure from New England in 2014 included some fireworks as he was placed on season-ending injured reserve in the playoffs and questioned the team's decision to do so.

ESPN NFL Insider Chris Mortensen had reported that the Patriots and Spikes mutually agreed to the IR designation as opposed to an outright release after the linebacker was late to a team meeting that week. That essentially ended any chance Spikes would return in 2014, with Spikes saying he was happy to move on to "somewhere you're wanted."

After signing a one-year deal with the Buffalo Bills in 2014, he tweeted some shots at the Patriots, including "4 years a slave" to refer to his first four seasons in the NFL with New England.

After returning to the Patriots in May, Spikes said, "We can clearly see that me and 'The Hoodie' kissed and made up," Spikes said of coach Bill Belichick. "I'm here, that's in the past, and I'm moving on."

Spikes' past with the Patriots also included the NFL investigating a compromising video of him with a woman that was posted on the Internet, as well as a four-game suspension at the end of that year for violating the NFL's performance-enhancing substances policy.

This is unsurprising. Brandon Spikes has been involved in stupid troublesome act before, but now it appears he has left the scene of an accident the position of two vehicles and the timing indicates he may have caused. Why anyone would run off if it was only an accident shows a thoughtless lack of responsibility he has display at other times. Whether some other influence was involved is speculation but it would partially explain leaving the scene. Whatever happened he was crazy to run from it because it shows intent to deceive. Too bad. He's a talented defender on the field. Other teams will want him if they want to endure the risks.

What a shame,

Merlot

 

[Vercingentorix]

"And look at what you are doing with Brady. You are denying he ever tampered with the footballs, which how the NFL did NOT rule. You are the one who is writing page after page defending Brady on her. So who is the hypocrite, Merlot? It's not me." - DD41


USELESS GARBAGE IN BETWEEN

by sports analysts across the country...and everything we know about his work ethic. To act like I or anyone has less right than you to have an opinion is POMPOUS, ARROGANT, CLOSED-MINDED EGOTISM.

Get over yourself, :thumb:

Merlot

Me thinks, just like Brady, that you protest too much. You obviously have little sense of humor on this matter. The fact is that whether Brady did it or not, he's handled the matter so poorly that it calls his judgment into question. Like it or not, he's not been open with the public. These are facts that will follow him for at least a little while.

Why not have a sense of humor about it as I exhibited during the whole Dolphin's debacle. For the record, I still think Philbin is a bum and Tannehill has proven nothing more than barely adequete. Although no one in the NFL can say that the front office of the Fins is not operating with incredible skill.

 

[Merlot]

You obviously have little sense of humor on this matter.

Not on this subject, but you've provide plenty anyway.

Me thinks, just like Brady, that you protest too much.

Has absolutely nothing to do with being right or wrong. If it meant being wrong you'd be politically guilty enough to be serving several lifetimes sir 53%.

The fact is that whether Brady did it or not, he's handled the matter so poorly that it calls his judgment into question.

This is nonsense. Nothing he could have said would have changed what you and the other haters have said above. Fact is he shouldn't have said anything at all. He should have had a closed discussion with Goodell, lawyers present, then if necessary a closed hearing in court. Saying anything has only given an opportunity to cry for all those who only want to hear him say he did something...and that's all you and they will accept.

These are facts that will follow him for at least a little while.

Your own greatest team quarterback Dan Marino says it changes nothing about how great Brady IS. Go complain to him and watch him show a sense of humor by laughing in your face. :lol:

Now that's funny,

Merlot