Georgia Bill

You guys just won't let it go. At the end of all this I think there's going to be a lot of embarassed people in the public eye who called them out as cheaters and liars, without any facts. Frankly, what Belichick said made sense. It made sense that he would insist on walking through the process so he could understand what happened, given the hoopla. In a nutshell he said the preparation process (vigorous rubbing) raises the PSI by about a pound. They are then provided to the officials who are asked to inflate to 12.5 PSI. All that done at room temp. Once out in game temps (colder), you lose not only the initial one pound due to prep, but also another half. So you can be down about one and a half pounds (to 11 PSI or so). I suspect this will be proven to be possible - depending on the ball prep process, and it is by far the most probable explanation. Why weren't the Colts balls low too? I have to say that's a stupid question. Maybe they don't heat up the ball temp as much when they prep the balls, if at all. Maybe they ask for their balls to be set at the high side (13.5 PSI).

I'll stand by my prediction. Early in their undefeated regular season they were most under scrutiny by Spygate, and they took it out on other teams. In fact they started to get criticized for inflating the score needlessly. The fact that they couldn't eek out the SB win (almost did, but for a miraculous helmet catch) does not change the fact that they seemed hell bent on crushing opponents - especially early on, to prove they did not need to cheat to win. Similar situation here, fresh allegation and all they can do now is prove they don't need underinflated footballs to win.

On the contrary, I now think there will be a similar score, but with the Pats winning. Remember the season after spygate? The Pats put the petal to the metal and crushed everyone they played. No slowdown no matter how big their lead. They were making a point, that they didn't need to cheat to win. I see the same thing happening here - it's kind of their only way to say to the world - we truly were the best team in the NFL, no matter the ball pressure.

I find great comfort in knowing that while my Bills often lose, they are honest losses. I'm sure we will go down in history being remembered as a model of integrity, as apparently in the NFL there is nothing more sacred. In fact, we should probably not allow excessively penalized players entry into the Hall of Fame, or put large asterisks on their records, for surely they were trying to cheat the sacred rules - and got caught multiple times, in attempts to win games.

Well I guess we don't have to wait on the NFL for the result of the investigation. Case closed - they cheated

Wow - seriously a ban for life? Some of you are just batsh*t cra cra. Somebody had a suspicion and voiced it - maybe a ball felt a little soft. NFL said they'd look into it. Any number of things could be root cause here, yet what seems like 95% of this board assumes they were deliberately cheating, and some want outrageous penalties. No matter the outcome those of you who felt they cheated will never believe a ruling the other way. No point deliberating it any further, your minds are already set. I guess perception is reality in this case - no need for facts.

I agree. More often than not, what people tend to ascribe to conspiracy is really only due to incompetency or ignorance. No evidence here that the Patriots actually did anything intentionally unethical. But because they DID in the past, it is now assumed that anything they can twist and distort to their advantage via ultra devious conspiratorial plotting, they will. I suspect nothing will come of this one though.

Actually.... You have a hard time building a case for New England being no. 1 for "bandwagon" fans, as the term bandwagon implies fans that are only fans when the team is doing good. In other words they aren't fans when the team is doing poorly. New England has been doing so good for so long that there is no "doing poorly" time period to use for comparison. The most fortunate fans - yes, that I would agree with.

With all the punts on 4th down, it is evident that our balls were indeed underinflated this year.

Pats 27 Colts 24 Hawks 38 Packers 10

Best wishes to the Schwartz! Sad to see him go.

And fans of the new team that hire (insert above coach's name) will always see them coming with rose colored glasses, and make excuses for any perceived shortcomings. Nothing unusual about any of that...

better than anything we have - check

The "no Super Bowl" bomb.

Why is he a "top name" coach? Because he coached the Jets (in the big New York City)? Are you a top name coach just because you actually were an NFL coach, because that's the only credentials I see. He had two good years and the other four his team sucked. Plus he came off with stupid outrageous comments for the press (before he had to shut up due to his teams sucktitude). This feels like a too hasty decision to me. Kubiak doesn't even get an interview? And before you blast me, I did not "want" Kubiak, I wanted a well deliberated thoughtful decision with all candidates being considered. This does not feel like that. Getting national "attention" from the media - yes we will get that. That does NOT make the team better.

Don't like it. We have a great D now - but we lose Schwartz, and they have to adapt to a new scheme. Doubt it will be great game 1, as would have been w Schwartz. Ryan proved he could take a good team and within 6 years turn it to crap - whoopee. Also he acted like an ass in the media first two years when Jets were good. Some say he learned, I say his team started to suck and thus he had to be humble. IF we get good look for the jackass to come back.

Why does anyone have love for Rex Ryan? Maybe you think he's a good guy, a players coach? I look at his record and say please don't bring him here. I expect there will be excuses - but aren't we getting tired of those in these parts? 2009 9-7 2010 11-5 2011 8-8 2012 6-10 2013 8-8 2014 4-12 In the last 4 years, it all looks too familiar.

No way he drags along Schwartz as that would mean Schwartz leaves a great defense to be a coordinator somewhere else. Why in the world would he do that? He is primed for success as DC here.

I think the QB's many consider "franchise" QB's would never have made it to that status if the rest of the teams surrounding them were mediocre. More often than not they become franchise type QB's because they had a lot of talent around them. It would be outlandishly foolish to throw away the solid foundation that's been built so far in search of the elusive franchise QB.

It might be that having Pegula involved in the interviews and hiring of the head coach is meant to accomplish two things, in the face of some uncertainty concerning the future of Whaley/Brandon: 1) it could be to comfort the potential candidate that no matter what either of those guys say (or what happens to them), I'm the owner and I'm telling you face to face what I'm after and what my plans are. 2) to allow Pegula to interview directly and get a feel for the candidates for this critical position, without just relying on the established management. It seems reasonable to me, and I wouldn't characterize it as meddling, given the situation.

I don't know about what is legal, but the norm seems to be for no announcements on staff departures until after a team has been eliminated. I'm sure it is meant to keep distractions to a minimum. It seems this bye week period allows a window for interviews with candidates that are currently part of the teams that earned a bye.

There's a big difference here. You or I probably would not opt to take a severance with no job lined up. The longer term job security is more important than the short term financial boost. But in Marrone's case, he had the option to get a $4 million "severance". If you or I had that option, we'd jump on it in a heartbeat, because $4 million is a truckload of cash. Frankly, he has probably been eyeing this windfall for some time. He may never get another chance like this again where he gets the big payout, AND had a good enough year where he will likely be able to secure another good paying job.

It simply doesn't matter who said what to who or if there was any influence. Marrone is gone (and don't let the door hit you on the way out). Polian is not coming, and if he either: a) listened to Marrone and decided not to come - for whatever reason - or b) decided not to come because Orton and/or Marrone was gone and he was only interested in light consulting, not heavy lifting then he was not a good fit anyway. So who cares how it happened? The only thing I care about is who is coming in, and we won't know that for some time.