A Fish Called Yanda

You seem hung up on thinking that we're all saying that it would have changed the outcome of our game. Most of us are not arguing this at all. We are simply stating that if the Patriots have commonly used under inflated balls during their games over the last few years, that there is a chance that in some of those games, the Patriots would have lost rather than winning. Obviously it is impossible to prove that this has happened, but this is the reason why I think deflategate is such a big deal. I'm not concerned about our game against the Pats. Nothing we say or do is going to change the outcome of that game. But to try to say that this isn't that big of a deal simply because it might not have changed the outcome of our game is looking at this issue from far too narrow a position.

To be honest, if I'm the ballboy, I take the balls into the bathroom with me if I have to pee. No way I let those things out of my sight, especially since they've been through such a long process to get into the bag I'm currently holding. Can you imagine what would happen to him if he somehow lost the bag?

I also find it ironic that this has turned into such a pissing contest between the Pats and the NFL.

Also - doesn't the fact that 11 out of 12 were under inflated somewhat strengthen the argument that the ball boy might have deflated the balls in the bathroom on his way to the field? 90 seconds is not a lot of time to do that, though in reality all you have to do is stick a needle into 12 balls for a couple of seconds apiece. Wouldn't it be rather easy to accidentally miss one of those balls, thus ending up with 11 out of 12 that are under inflated?

If the Patriots want us to believe that a ball boy acted upon his own accord to deflate 11 of their 12 footballs after Tom Brady had so meticulously groomed and selected them. Well...I just don't even know what to say to that lol.

This is a win-win situation in my book now. Either the Pats get found guilty of doing something, and then who knows what happens. Or the Pats get found not guilty, NFL gets forced to apologize to the Pats (especially given all of the leaks that have been coming out from sources inside the NFL) and I think this might be the nail in the coffin for poor Goodell.

But if we tipped them off, we would have had to thought that the balls were under inflated in our game as well. If this were true, I have to believe that Harbaugh would have come out and said that they thought that, no?

This is the crux of why I'm so interested in this issue. Warning, everything I say below is theoretical and not meant to be taken as fact. I do not necessarily believe that it is true. Pats fans, don't blow a gasket. If you are to believe that the Patriots have done this in the past, how many situations were there that literally if a Patriots player was holding a regularly inflated ball they would have fumbled, but rather they did not fumble because the ball was not properly inflated. In those situations where the player would have fumbled, how many times would the Patriots have lost a game that they actually went on to win. Have any of these games occurred during the playoffs? Naturally there is no way to prove any of this, and thats why its all theoretical...but this is exactly why it annoys me when people say that this isn't a big issue. It is a big issue. This is regardless of whether or not its just the Patriots as well. If the NFL is going to have the rule in place, then people need to follow the rules because otherwise you are possibly changing the outcome of the entire NFL season.

You don't have to explicitly state that they haven't done it before, that's not what ravensdfan is getting at. He's saying that you're discounting the fact that its likely they've done this against many opponents in the past. Whether or not it affected the results of our game or the Colts game is irrelevant. It very well could have affected the results of any single game that they played in the past where their balls were illegally under inflated.

Eh - the contract stuff forcing them to talk to the media is dumb. You can't enforce it in any meaningful way, so why bother having it at all? Does Lynch repeating the same sentence over and over again add anything to the conversation? Nope. Its like the Tuck Rule. Just because its there, doesn't mean its right.

The fans on the Patriots forum still seem to think that science is on their side...I'm not particularly sure who they had run the tests, perhaps Sarah Palin?

To the Patriots forum I go!!!!!

Eh, Lynch is there to play the game. I don't think anyone should be forced to talk to the media if they don't want to. You can never force a player to actually elaborate on things that they say during post game pressers, and you can't really force Lynch to say anything more than the same sentence over and over again. So at that point, why bother? Just leave him be, let him play the game and stop being a baby about it. But of course Goodell runs this league with the reins as tight as humanly possible, and he's never going to give in to one of the players that is making him millions and millions of dollars...because why would he?

I love, love, love Marshawn's complete disrespect and refusal to bend to the will of Roger Goodell. Hope he continues his one-man war against The Man.

Patriots fans are the Richard Nixon's of the NFL. So utterly terrified of their own actions that they continue to attempt to place blame elsewhere and only end up digging themselves a deeper grave.

Looks like Bill Nye isn't the only person who disagrees with the Patriots assertion that the temperature outside is what caused the ball pressure to deflate. Now Wilson (you know, like, the people that makes the footballs for the NFL) have come out and said that's complete bullcrap. http://deadspin.com/nfl-football-manufacturer-also-says-bill-belichick-is-f-1681802079

You are taking an opinion piece from a New England newspaper that decided WITH NO FACTUAL BASIS that John Harbaugh somehow did something in order to get the Patriots in trouble. That entire article was complete bullcrap and has been refuted numerous times by people with far more knowledge of the situation than us. You are simply trying to find someone to blame other than your cheating team because you cannot reconcile in your head how dirty your team plays in order to eek out wins. The Patriots are a disgusting, petty, cheating football team. They proved this in the past, they have proved it again this year. The fact that you continue to blindly support a team that continuously bends the rules in order to try and crawl back into the Super Bowl is disheartening and kind of sad. I feel bad for you guys, because if the Ravens were in this same situation I would be an emotional wreck. But alas, the Ravens are a team that follow the rulebook to the letter and do not attempt to find ways to subvert rules simply because "it doesn't say we can't do it, so lets do it." To call your team the victims in this situation demonstrates exactly how delusional you are. Go ahead, try to blame this on us. Go ahead, try to say that you doctored the balls beforehand, because that somehow in your limited view makes it appear that you didn't break the rules. In the end of the day there is one team to blame for this situation: the New England Patriots. When you play with fire, chances are you're going to get burned. Your team got burned during SpyGate for refusing to comply with a memo sent out to the league, and your getting burned now because your team did something to make the PSI of the footballs lower than it should have been during game time.

You somehow act like this is any better than deflating the balls after getting them past the refs inspection. In my view, this is exactly the same as tampering with the balls after inspection. It is cheating, and your team has once again made a decision that is going to haunt them for years.

It always amuses me when Pats fans try to bring up Ray Lewis and call him a murderer and use that to try to say that the Ravens are a team of thugs. Everyone seems to very quickly forget about Aaron Hernandez - who looks like he killed quite a few people during his time as a Patriot.

Somewhat similar to the NFL's "internal review" of their handling of the Ray Rice case.

Don't know if this has been stated already, but it was in fact Tom Brady lobbying the NFL that helped change the rules on footballs. They used to just provide the balls right before game time, but Brady and I believe Peyton convinced them to give them the balls beforehand so they could scuff them up.

mike freeman @mikefreemanNFL Gerry Austin, longtime referee, says halftime Pats-Colts footballs brought in, checked at half. Colts footballs still legal. Pats were not. That should clear up the Patriots fans' excuse that it was because of the cold weather.

Evidently all balls were properly checked before the game: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/21/source-footballs-were-properly-checked-before-colts-patriots-game/

Can you link me to that? Can't find it.