TheBillsWillRiseAgain

I just meant the whole "Did the weather cause it?" case should be closed now. Nobody should be trying to use that as an excuse anymore.

The company that makes the balls came out and said the only way for a ball to deflate that much in that amount of time is a pump needle. Case closed.

I'm glad they didn't just come out and admit it. Because now if the league does find them guilty it'll be a much, much bigger deal because of the lying and deceit. Even when Spygate happened they fessed up. This time it's been nothing but denial.

Kind of weird to go through all that trouble to try to explain it that way when there's a much simpler explanation: they cheated. And the company that makes the footballs just flat out said the only thing that can cause one to lose that much pressure so fast is a pump needle. I'm sure they know more about it than any of us.

What a freaking idiot. Such a waste of talent. He deserves to be kicked out permanently.

You're right I take that back. I misunderstood the post a few posts up thinking he only had 120ish posts on this forum, and all relating to this topic.

I just figured he was a Pats fan pretending to be a Patriots fan.

The maker of NFL footballs said it's impossible for a ball to lose that much pressure without a pump needle. I tend to believe them. No amount of rubbing a football can explain the depressurization.

I think he's saying nobody cares to hear your arguments defending the Patriots. Because anyone who has ever played for, worked with, or known Bill Bellichick has said that he's a control freak and to think he wouldn't know about it is crazy.

If that doesn't put that excuse to rest I don't know what will. Literally no organization or group has done more testing on footballs and air pressure than the company that makes them.

If not cheating then it's clearly an intentional effort to get around the substitution rules and goes against the spirit of those rules.

PEDS is cheating by individual players. The Patriots have now been caught twice making a concerted team effort to cheat

You're right it wasn't illegal. That doesn't mean it was right. The rules aren't there for teams to try to find loopholes in them. I guarantee you there will be a rule change this offseason to plug that loophole.

It certainly could help explain why Brady seems to defy logic and keeps playing so well despite going into his 17th year in the NFL

Exactly. The Patriots are already guilty in everyone's eyes. They can thank Spygate for that. Any attempts by the Patriots or the league to explain otherwise is going to be met by harsh criticism from everyone and will make this PR nightmare worse.

Jason Peters would do wonders for this line.

Bill Nye doesn't eff around. If he says Bill Bellichick's explanation didn't make sense in a scientific way, it didn't.

Why in the world should a team that's been caught get the benefit of the doubt? I mean it doesn't seem odd that this has never before been a problem in the history of cold weather games, and the one time it is it happens to be with a team that's been caught cheating before? Are there ways to explain how the balls might have been deflated by natural process? Sure. But why go to the lengths to try to prove that in this case? If it looks like a duck and talks like a duck, the Patriots peobably cheated.

When you're one of the largest private companies in the world and you have $20+ Billion contracts with all the major networks, I think you can probably dictate their news segments unfortunately. I mean can you imagine if ABC or NBC or Fox wouldn't say what the NFL wanted them to say? They'd lose the most lucrative contract those companies have ever had. They all fight amongst each other to pay literally billions of dollars for the "honor" to broadcast NFL games. The NFL *owns* them all figuratively.

My concern that the league will end up making some excuse and do nothing comes from today's Bellichick press conference. This isn't the police investigating criminals, it's the NFL investigating a team that they're stuck with through thick and thin. To think the Patriots and the league haven't been in constant contact with each other through all this would be foolish. The Patriots aren't just sitting around in the dark waiting to see what happens. It's in the league's, the players', and the teams' best interest to contain the damage. With that said, there's no such thing as an impromptu press conference by a head coach during something like this. Not only would Bellichick never call a press conference before conferring with the league first, it was probably their idea to begin with and they probably told him what to say. Why does that matter? Because the league would never allow him to go out and deny all the allegations again, after "thorough testing" only to turn around a few days later and call him a liar and punish him. EVEN IF THEY WANTED TO, there's no way they could without causing the biggest scandal the sport has ever seen. I mean could you imagine the league and a coach going to war over something like that? We're talking federal courts, REAL lawsuits, etc. So unless Bellichick has completely gone off the reservation and is about to start a real, judicial war against the league... the only other explanation is that the league asked him to get out in front of this thing a day or two before they announce they've found the Patriots innocent.

Patriots apologists on a Bills message board make me sick. Pathetic bunch of battered wives.

lol get out of here with this crap.

Everything you just mentioned are plays. Trying to deceive the game by failing to report eligible receivers with enough time for the refs to notify the defense isn't a play. If it wasn't important for defenses to know who the eligible receivers were there wouldn't be a rule requiring the offense to report them, now would there?

The Patriots have nobody to blame for this but themselves. You get caught cheating twice and every strategy, tactic, and play is going to be retroactively scrutinized by everyone. It doesn't matter of this kind of substitution is technically legal. Anything that goes against the spirit of Tue game and fair competition will be pointed out for the Patriots now. They lost their right to fly under the radar when it comes to the grey areas of football.

Anyone that doubts the original study that was posted should read that whole wall street journal article.