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500 Days of Deflategate

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It takes a lot for me to write about Deflategate. That’s one of the advantages of just having my own place to write — I blog when I wanna blog, and about what I want to blog. Usually non-football topics build and build until finally I feel the need to vent and then you get things like Is Tom Brady a Deflation Scheme Mastermind?

But otherwise I’m fine to leave the daily lifting of Deflategate nonsense to those who are getting paid to write many, many things per day about the Patriots. If you want to see all things Deflategate that have appeared here on the blog click here.

There have been so many ups and downs with Deflategate and it’s hard to believe that it’s dragged on this long. When I started blogging I never thought I’d have to learn what Amicus Briefs are or the finer points of labor law. This speaks to a bigger point that this whole debacle hasn’t really even been about football (or footballs) for a long time.

What is most fascinating to me are those people out there who checked out after taking every word of the Wells Report as fact. Nothing that’s happened since then has penetrated their Deflategate force field that is impervious to any bit of evidence or possibility that Tom Brady wasn’t behind an elaborate plot to take a small farts worth of air out of footballs.

Those people are usually fans of other teams that have lost numerous times to Brady over the years and the best part is their dismissive tone, often accompanied by a number of lol emojis, as if the only people in the world who still think Brady might be innocent are diehard Patriot fan homers with their heads in the sand.

But who really has their heads in the sand?

The battle lines were drawn clearly once again this week when a number of amicus briefs were filed in support of Brady. These briefs covered everything — from scientists saying the balls weren’t even deflated, to huge unions and a respected arbitrator all saying the process was completely rigged and unfair, to the Patriots themselves siding with their own player over the league in a rare move that brings back memories of Al Davis and the Raiders.

Yes, we’re all sick of Deflategate and there are plenty of Patriots fans who’d just prefer to let Brady sit four games and never have to hear about the whole thing again. But as annoying as it is, as much as I prefer to ignore it all now at least here in this blog space, the ramifications for how this was handled by Roger Goodell and the NFL run far deeper than the Patriots having to play four games without the best quarterback of all time.

The amicus briefs this week finally showed in one concise place how much is at stake here and just how deep the support of Brady runs outside of New England. The list of those who have been on Brady’s side, both in the national media and in legal circles, is long and distinguished. People far smarter in all this stuff continue to hammer the NFL at every turn, how they were simply “handing out their own brand of industrial justice” while rigging the process in their own favor whenever possible.

And that’s why even the most ardent Brady haters need to put aside their football loyalties and realize how corrupt their beloved NFL league office is. They know it deep down inside. Of course they do. This is Roger Goodell. He’s managed to screw up every single discipline issue he’s had to deal with. This time was even worse because they were trying to stay one step ahead on everything so they wouldn’t screw up so badly again.

But the Brady haters? This time they’re on Goodell’s side? They think he did a bang up job with this? Of course they don’t, but they cannot let go of wanting to believe Tom Brady wasn’t better than their team, he was just cheating and the only reason he was so good was that  small farts worth of air he got his cronies to let out of  the football.

The lack of that small fart of air made them magic footballs. Easier to catch. Impossible to fumble. That was the secret of the Patriots success.

 

While the amicus briefs show just how badly Brady was railroaded and how much support he has, it’s no guarantee the court will re-hear the case with all of their judges. The odds seem better now than they did a few weeks ago, but this still might be the end of the line, or the second-to-last stop before taking a final shot with the Supreme Court.

No matter how it ends the Deflategate Truthers will never believe those footballs weren’t deflated. No matter what scientists tell them. No matter how many times an experienced legal mind points out all the terrible and unfair ways the NFL handled the whole thing from the get go.

It just speaks to how willing people are to buy bullshit if it makes them feel better about their worldview. And usually those people have very large internet muscles while they hide behind keyboards and ignore any shred of evidence that might contradict what they want to believe.

 

But one way or another they’ll get theirs, whether it’s another crushing loss to Brady or when the NFL turns it’s inept and vindictive legal eye on their team.

Deflategate has been bad for everyone and is only a sign of things to come unless the NFL is finally held accountable.

Is Tom Brady a Deflation Scheme Mastermind?

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I’m starting to come around on Tom Brady exhausting every available option in pursuit of his innocence in the Deflategate mess. Everyone’s sick of it? So what. Keep it in the news as it slowly convinces more and more of the masses what a massive hose job by the NFL it was. Still, there are plenty of emboldened folks out there convinced Tom Brady was a deflation scheme mastermind. I wonder what that really looks like, because even in trying to take off my Patriots-homer-pom-pom hat as Dan Shaugnessy suggested, I have trouble piecing together how a  Deflation Scheme Scenario would actually work.

These are the deflation scheme points that vex me:

1. Brady specifically directed Jastremski and McNally to secretly deflate the footballs after the refs checked them.

So Brady wanted the balls BELOW 12.5, which of course, was never actually said by anyone, but that’s the core assumption. After he meticulously chooses his gameballs, he’s fine with McNally stopping by a bathroom and haphazardly sticking a pin in all of them. The flatter the better? How low can the PSI before it starts affecting throws? Ever try to throw a flat football? Any benefit of a slightly softer ball will eventually be offset by the inaccuracy it causes.

Even if you buy the entirety of the Wells Report, and specifically the Exponent study, as fact, do you know how much air McNally let out of the balls in that bathroom? .4%  How is it even possible to let that little amount of air out, much less necessary?

And why of all games would anyone want flat footballs in a cold, rainy 2014 AFC Championship game? Secretly deflating the Colts balls, I’d get. But your own? Flatter footballs in the cold and rain? That makes no sense to me and if anything, I’d imagine Brady would want to kill McNally if he really did what the NFL surmises. That’s why it’s no wonder Brady played better with balls that were re-inflated.

Wouldn’t it have been even more fun if they re-measured the balls at the end of the game and holy shit, they’re below 12.5 again!!! How did the Patriots do it!?!?!

2.  Texts from McNally: calling self the Deflator, saying he’s not going to ESPN yet, “stress getting them done”, etc.

There’s no way around these texts and they’re the core evidence sited by any Low Information Deflategator, Michael Felger, Shaugnessy and all the rest of ’em. Without these texts there’s nothing to build any case at all.

But here’s the thing(s) they all want to ignore:

McNally Deflate TextJastremski’s texts to his fiancee, “Panda”, that said the balls were supposed to be at 13 PSI after the November 2014 Jets game? Why would he have any reason to lie about it to her? And clearly this was a big deal, and seemingly a novel problem from him to share it with his beloved Panda. If there was a Deflation scheme, this would’ve been a problem yes, but entirely McNally’s fault and probably somewhat expected if he failed to get the air out of them.

Or what about McNally’s text to Jastremski during the 2014 Packers game? McNally was in New Hampshire, texting Jastremski on the Green Bay sidelines to “deflate and give somebody that jkt”.

This at least signals to me that “deflate” was a slang term to them. Not saying I totally buy the Patriots’ explanation it was a weight loss thing, but they are using it in a ball busting way. And as anyone who has ever texted knows, it’s often a cavalcade of inside jokes, ball busting and slang.

You can’t accept the some texts as the foundation of your argument and then simply ignore the rest that contradict it, or at least provide a little more context.

The asking for swag and threats to blow the footballs up like “balloons” don’t really bother me. Anyone who’s ever been around a pro sports team knows shits getting signed and given away constantly, especially to part-time employees who aren’t getting paid shit. And as mundane as it seems, Jastremski and McNally’s entire professional relationship was about footballs. So yes, that’s what they joked about even if McNally was technically employed to assist the referees.

Let’s also remember this is absolutely everything Ted Wells could drum up. Just a few vague text messages that came months apart. If there was truly a living-breathing Deflation Scheme afoot I’d think there’d be more than there this. Especially after the November 2014 Jets game that McNally would have had to have screwed up by failing to Deflate.

3. Timeline?

I still don’t understand what the NFL’s time line is. All the texts and testimony about the Patriots and PSI go only back to the November 2014 Jets game. The “deflator” text came in May 2014. So on one hand the Wells Report is saying plans went into place in the fall, but are also implying that something “deflate-y” was going on before that as well.

But we’re not sure that Brady et al even knew what the exact PSI rules were prior to November 2014. From all the text messages and testimony that Jets game was significant and the first time Brady and Jastremski actually discussed PSI numbers.

So we’re to believe that Brady was just telling McNally: “Make sure they’re pretty flat? How flat? I don’t know, just stick that fucking needle in them and hold it there, a-one, a-two and then we’re good. You can have unlimited Uggs and autographs.” That’s what went down?

And again, Brady’s supposed to totally trust Jim McNally, the gameday employee, to execute this plan with his carefully selected balls? That’s what the Deflation Scheme-ists believe? It does seem exciting and sinister but I can’t not see the holes in it.

 

What if Jastremski ordered the code red?

This is a scenario where I can almost buy a Deflation scheme: Jastremski telling McNally to make sure the balls were never too over-inflated, even if he has to let a little air out of them with a secret needle. McNally gets favored nation status with the Brady swag and they make sure Tom never knows the gameday employee is messing with his precious game balls.

Jastremski knows Tom likes them a little flatter and knows the refs often mess with them so he employs McNally to apply any means necessary, especially if the ref puts air into them during his review. They start at 12.5, then McNally makes sure they at least stay there, maybe get even lower. Every (home) game. (McNally doesn’t work on the road)

So this Code Red scenario doesn’t matchup with Jastremski’s 13 PSI Panda text, but it takes Brady out of the equation and at least makes the other texts matchup. But it also makes the November 2014 Jets game solely a major fuck up by McNally, by failure to deflate after the ref’s over-inflate. Seems like that kind of mess up would certainly be worthy of some “WTF Bird, U didnt dflt!” texts, but there were none of those.

So yeah, this theory doesn’t exactly work either.

Jastremski ordering the code red is as close as I can get to believing the Deflation Scheme theory. I just can’t buy that Brady knew and trusted McNally to actually deflate footballs every (home) game, no matter the conditions. For someone so particular about the feel of his balls, I can’t imagine Brady thought McNally pinning the balls gave him a consistent known advantage. It’s far too haphazard and it seems like there’s a far great chance of screwing up the balls that Brady already picked out.

But what it all comes back to is why? Why would Tom Brady even want to deflate his footballs below the legal limit? There are those who would have you believe slightly deflated balls are never dropped nor fumbled, but you’d certainly never want an even flatter ball in a cold and wet weather game.

Even I can admit the Wells Report has those text messages from McNally which can easily fit into a Deflation Scheme theory. But the other text messages muddy those waters just enough to add doubt that it’s as easily cut and dry as some believe it is. I know the Patriots are always looking for an edge, even if it’s a gray area of the rule book, but a deflation scheme seems like it has just as much potential to have adverse effects as it does giving any kind of advantage.

Of course the Deflation Scheme-ists won’t try to explain any of this. Those few texts from McNally (and not the other texts) are enough for them to buy an entire plot, despite zero hard evidence of anything happening in this game or any other game. Despite Tom Brady being the only person in this whole charade to testify under oath.

None of this will ever add up to me, and that’s why I continue to truly believe there never was a deflation scheme.

The Patriots Are Not on the Clock: Deflategate Fallout Looms Large in NFL Draft | Bleacher Report

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Players, coaches and executives have come to view the Patriots’ situation as a referendum on commissioner power. Many of the sources I spoke to used the same word: “railroaded.” As in, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell railroaded the Patriots. As in, the commissioner used his power unfairly and arbitrarily.They think, in effect, that what happened to the Patriots could happen to any of them.

Source: The Patriots Are Not on the Clock: Deflategate Fallout Looms Large in NFL Draft | Bleacher Report

Oh, so now the rest of the NFL starts to get over their blinding Patriots hate and sees this whole charade for what it really was — a railroading. I’m still so surprised by those who checked out after the Wells Report, assured the Patriots were cheating cheaters who finally got caught cheating. Yes, there are actually still football fans who are Team Goodell in this once single solitary instance, because they hate the Patriots.

Anyone who read any bit of material beyond the Wells Report and the NFL’s court arguments should see that there was plenty about this whole thing that reeked of not just unfairness but of a systematic attempt to win the case both in real court and the court of public opinion no matter what the truth actually was.

And yes, if you can get over how much you hate the Patriots, you’ll see that arbitrary and severe punishment is now the law of the land in the NFL.

Still, for all the hate that Commissioner Goodell gets, and yes, he is uniquely terrible, it’s still the owners that control the NFL. Goodell is, for most purposes, just the figurehead. The one who gets paid a huge salary to take all the flack. And if it wasn’t Roger Goodell it’d be someone else we’d all despise. But it’s the owners that want an 18-game season and games all over the earth and games on Thursday every week and every other shitty addition that’s happened to the NFL under Goodell’s watch.

The NFL is the owners, not Roger Goodell.

So this article is a bit significant, if true. If the owners are starting to see how, even on his short leash, that Goodell is still mishandling every instance of discipline that comes his way, they could actually institute real change. And maybe that’s enough to put punishment in the hands of someone, or someones, who can rule neutrally and fairly based on the facts and precedent, instead of over-correcting and applying broad powers to make up for other past punishments that didn’t go far enough in the eyes of some.

 

Tom Brady’s Deflategate Suspension Reinstated

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Tom Brady's Deflategate SuspensionThe US Second Court of Appeals reinstated Tom Brady’s Deflategate suspension today and this could be the end of the line for Brady and the NFLPA’s chances at appealing it, meaning the Pats could have Jimmy Garoppolo under center to start the 2016 season.

Essentially this court ruled 2-1 that Roger Goodell has the power to do whatever he wants because of the powers the NFLPA gave him in the latest CBA. We’re so far past this being actually about what actually happened with the balls during the 2014 AFC Championship Game, and here we sit, a year-and-a-half later with judges going back and forth ruling just what exactly the NFL can do to its players.

The NFLPA is weighing their options, which include trying to take this to the Supreme Court, but that could be a long shot. Now, it might just be in the best interest of everyone to drop it. This kills me to say it. The NFL played this whole investigation to win by any means necessary from the get-go. It was never about the truth and yes, it’s infuriating that they can stack the deck at every turn, leak lies to the media to support their version of the events and shape the narrative they want, then finally levy an unprecedented punishment at their whim.

Winnable Games in September

As I’ve said all along the real damage is the first round pick the Patriots won’t have this Thursday. Clearly that ship has sailed regardless, and with four picks in the first two rounds, I still think the Pats can overcome that loss of draft capital.

What are the real potential ramifications if Brady does sit the first four games: @ Cardinals, vs. Dolphins, vs. Texans, and vs. Bills?

Obviously Jimmy Garoppolo is now entering year three and has shown enough potential and should have a grasp of the offense that the Patriots should not be in a death spiral, especially getting the two most favorable divisional games on the schedule, though neither are certain victories. If those games were on the road in Miami and Buffalo, things might be a little different.

With Garoppolo, the Pats would have to scratch and claw in all four of those games, but I’d expect 2-2 at worst.

The entire Patriots starting defense except for Chandler Jones returns and they also still have the most talented offensive weapon on the field for those first four games – Rob Gronkowski, not to mention Julian Edelman, Martellus Bennett, Danny Amendola and maybe even Dion Lewis working back into the mix. Even without Brady pulling the trigger, there’s a ton of talent all over this roster, and let’s remember that even with Brady, the Pats have seen their share of 2-2 starts.

The point is, the first four games of the season are not going to make or break the Pats’ 2016 campaign.

Part of me almost welcomes the challenge. Maybe that’s just due to being so sick of Deflategate and lawyers and judges that I just want to stop having to think and blog about them. But it’s also like when I used to play season after season of Madden on franchise mode and it got to the point where it was no longer challenging so I’d always trade my best players away to league rivals to at least make things interesting.

So Jimmy G is very likely going to get a shot to show what he can do and I can’t imagine Brady feels great about that on top of having the suspension reinstated.

We can only hope that someday the NFL gets what’s coming to them and that some more truths from behind the scenes come out. But at this point I’m so ready to put Deflategate finally behind us, even if it means giving Tom a September break.

Now back to draft analysis to cleanse the pallet…

 

Monday Patriots Regroup

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Bill BelichickPlenty going on this Monday of the offseason, and I’m going to stick to ignoring Deflategate, but if you want to read about amicus briefs and other legal stuff I wish I never had to cover just read resident Deflategate go-to Michael Hurley’s two pieces here and here. In short, non-partisan lawyer writes letter to court saying NFL lied. NFL says they didn’t lie, they were just going off what Roger Goodell thought. Seriously, I can’t wait until this whole charade is over.

Another Deflategate bit is that Robert Kraft told reporters today that he had written a letter to Roger Goodell asking for the first-round pick back.  Didn’t sound like he had heard back and let’s be honest, with a little over a month until the draft, that ship has sailed. Unless the court upholds Judge Berman’s decision and scolds the NFL for their handling of it and there’s a public outcry that also comes from the rest of the NFL owners, there’s no one outside Patriots Nation that want the Pats to get that pick back, even if they should get it back.

Do you think any of the other 31 want to give New England that pick back? Especially after the offseason they’ve had and how, oh look, they’re now one of four teams with four picks in the first 100. This is more than enough ammo to make up for the missing first rounder, as much as you’d like the near-certainty that Bill Belichick would get a great player with it.

Kraft’s letter will calm some of the masses who are still angry at him for not fighting the NFL harder, but I can’t see it having any real chance of getting anywhere with the NFL who will do anything in their power to make us believe Deflategate actually was an entire cheating scheme masterminded by Tom Brady.

Free Agent Visits Continue

Now to football, what I really care about here. Couple visits were reported: Nick Fairley, a defensive tackle who spent last year with the Rams, and tight end Weslye Saunders.

On Fairley, it’s another former first-rounder the Pats are kicking the tires on. Fairley is under 300 pounds and has a bit more of an upfield guy but that’s perfect for the rotation the Pats got going. I do wonder how much he’s related to Dominique Easley‘s unreliability of his first two seasons, but Fairley is one of the best players still left on the market and would solidify and already solid defensive tackle rotation.

As for Saunders, it’s another tight end, what did you expect? Despite the acquisition of Martellus Bennett I’d still prefer to never see Michael William running a route again in my life, so this would add a solid third option who could specialize in blocking. He’s only caught 10 passes in four seasons.

 

Roger Goodell should give back NFL draft picks to Patriots | The MMQB with Peter King

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Shaky evidence, shady science and total disinterest in learning the truth are grounds for Roger Goodell to admit he erred by docking New England draft picks for Deflategate. Plus Mayock’s combine preview and more

Source: Roger Goodell should give back NFL draft picks to Patriots | The MMQB with Peter King

I can’t believe we have to keep talking about Deflategate, but here we finally have Peter King coming around to say the Pats should get their lost draft picks back. Mostly this feels like too little too late because let’s face it, the Pats are NEVER getting those picks back. Just wait until next week’s court arguments to see how firmly entrenched the NFL continues to be on their side. Each time we’ve heard from the NFL lawyers they keep making it sound like Brady did worse and worse. The Wells Report said he was generally aware. Cut to the NFL’s appeal and now Brady was at the center of an organized deflation ring. Yes, it’s a giant leap, made solely because the NFL wants to win their case. Not because they have any conclusive proof. They want to win, even at the expense of a slice of Tom Brady’s legacy.

The best we can hope for at this point is that Judge Berman’s ruling gets upheld, the NFL quietly swallows their medicine and we can bury deflategate once and for all, or at least until both the 2016 and 2017 draft when the Pats have vacated draft picks. Yeah I know, it’s bullshit. And that lost first rounder will have a tangible effect on the Patriots for the next five years.

The only small silver lining I can take from Peter King coming out with this take is that he essentially represents the casual mainstream fans. When the NFL was whipping everyone into a frenzy over Deflategate, Peter King was right there with them every step of the way. But now we at least have hope that the non-partisans can see through the NFL’s web of deception. That there are fans of other teams realizing that the Patriots got steamrolled and it could just as easily happen to them. Perhaps most disturbing is the lengths the NFL has gone to not for the facts, not for truth, but to prove their side even if it means planting false information in the press or at the very least letting it linger there for months without a correction.

We’ll always have opposing fans who throw Spygate and Deflategate in our faces. Whether or not those fans actually believe the Patriots last 15 years of success has been due to extensive and elaborate cheating plots, or it’s just an easy way to dismiss New England’s success and give Pats fans crap, will depend on how educated the fans actually are.

But Peter King speaks to and for a large number of low information football fans, and hopefully this piece does its own small part in putting Deflategate in the history books as nothing more than an overblown sham that the NFL was too invested in and too proud of to actually treat it as it should’ve been treated.