TheBillsWillRiseAgain

If they expect the public to believe that some ball boy took it upon himself to do all that without the direction of someone higher up they're crazy.

I hate on the Patriots with or without a scandal because I've always considered them cheaters. I just wasn't sure how they were cheating. I don't consider them guilty because I hate them. I consider them guilty because they've already been caught cheating before. So while I harp on them for BOTH reasons, there's only one reason I think they're guilty.

I'm ok with the league being unfair to the Patriots and punishing them for this even if it's not against the rules.

I think your insinuation that people are only hating on the Patriots because they're good, and not because they've now been caught cheating the league twice, is the news here.

Blows my mind they still haven't canned him after all this crap. If the NFL is going to go down like the Titanic some day, it'd almost definitely be Roger doing the steering.

Who even decides when to fire a commissioner? I can't believe he hasn't been yet.

Well it's not like this coach has been caught cheating before so he deserves he benefit of the doubt.

I don't need the league to make an official statement to consider it settled. There's a reason they put out leaks. We already know 11 of the balls were underinflated and that at least 1 was by 2 lbs. of pressure.

If the Patriots aren't guilty then why is god dumping 2 feet of snow on New England right now???

Who asked you?

The weather/atmosphere argument is completely off the table unless you believe the Wilson Sports company is conspiring against the Patriots. So what other explanation is there to even talk about? The Patriots intentionally deflated their balls.

Maybe, but probably not. Maybe but probably not. The "other half of the discussion" sounds like a few people trying(and failing) to dig for any valid excuse for the Patriots they can think of. The people arguing against you don't really need to dig for explanations because all the evidence suggests they're right.

I think I'll stick with the direction that all the glaring evidence points rather than ignore it and desperately try to find any explanation that isn't the obvious answer that they cheated.

There are several charts and graphs that have been posted suggesting that deflated balls gave the Patriots a large advantage in both bad weather passing and not fumbling the balls and they're based on real numbers. I didn't see any charts of graphs suggesting otherwise. We've also heard plenty of anecdotal evidence from ex-players of the NFL explaining that it's a big advantage. I haven't heard otherwise. And we've heard from the manufacturer of the ball itself state that the only way for a ball to lose that much PSI in that amount of time is putting it in a freezer or using a pump needle to deflate it. Every single piece of real evidence points to the Patriots having done this intentionally for several years at least, to them benefiting from it, and to them finally getting caught for it.

What "counter-arguments?"

This is a terrible argument. It provides zero facts, pure speculation(unless you've played in the NFL?), and suggests that the PSI of a ball can't give large advantage because the league isn't more strict about teams having access to the balls, which has NO basis whatsoever.

No.

I'd be pretty shocked if the NFL ran a sting operation on the Patriots the same night the NFL commissioner was partying with the owner of the Patriots at his house.

So far the arguments are: 1. The weather/atmosphere did it. The manufacturer of the football gave a statement saying there was no way for that much air to leave the football without putting it in a freezer or using a pump needle to remove it. 2. Tom Brady likes the ball at the minimum levels and Luck likes them at the max levels, so they both lost air but the Colts' balls were still in the allowed range because of a higher starting pressure. If true, Tom Brady certainly wouldn't be the only QB in the league to like the balls filled to the minimum levels, and he's definitely not the only QB to play games in cold weather. Are you trying to tell me that nobody ever noticed the balls being under the acceptable range in any of the cold weather games of the past few seasons? 3. The deflation was caused by the cold weather that particular day Then why did it also happen in the November Colts/Patriots game? And the Patriots/Ravens game? We have teams complaining on at least 3 separate occasions that the Patriots' balls were under inflated. We have statistics that show the Patriots fumbling(or rather not fumbling) at a highly abnormal rate compared to the rest of the league over the past 4 years We have statistics that show Brady's yards-per-attempt have been abnormal compared to other QBs for the past 4 years We have the fact that the Patriots were caught outright cheating in 2007 and punished by the league We have a Head Coach saying he's never heard of or talked about ball pressure with anyone in his career We have a 17th year QB claiming he's never once squeezed a football to check the air pressure Seems pretty obvious to me.

^lol

If the rest of the league was doing it the Patriots wouldn't be the only ones with off-the-charts fumble statistics.

Gronk. If you were to tell me either "Gronk had a good game" or "Gronk had an quiet game" I could probably tell you who won the Superbowl. On the other hand I think Lynch could have a good game and the Seahawks could still lose.

Robey is "bad?"

He knows they can't do anything to him right now with all the deflategate crap going on.

This article quotes a couple representatives for Wilson Sporting Goods. http://www.boston.com/sports/columnists/wilbur/2015/01/thats_bs_-_wilson_doesnt_seem_to_buy_belichicks_sc.html