leh-nerd skin-erd

it's odd to be at a time in sports history where a guy who clearly had his thumb on the scale, who hunkers down like a branch davidian and flatly denies EVERYthing and yet is somehow portrayed as the aggrieved party. I was speaking with a guy last night, born and raised in Ct, pats fan since pre-grogan, told me straight up there is ZERO evidence he did anything, that science has proven he was not involved, and that likely the balls disappearing into the bathroom likely never happened at all. that's all fine (crazy is as crazy do), but the really funny part was when he said the max penalty should have been a fine and/or a one game suspension. it's tough to balance all these moving parts I guess. off with his head.

I think if one were to step back a bit, seems likely the NFL wanted this to go away and probably think in the face of the facts gathered that brady would have taken his lumps and gone away with a slap on the wrist (relatively speaking, of course, since the pats were knees deep in spygate etc). Seems to me what they didn't count on was brady's willingness to blow it all up and take the game down as he went out. to me, the biggest crime of it all boils down to brady's hubris in that he has come to the conclusion that he's bigger than the game. I recognize the nfl (and by that, I mean ownership group) can be it's own worst enemy, but I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall when goodell got the call that the perfect nfl player---the one his fans love to love, and the one his non-fans love to hate---pretty clearly was messing with footballs in a way that no one really could have anticpated. all this after bounty gate, spy gate, ray rice, PEDs etc etc etc. he must have thought it was a joke. brady may well prevail and play, and the nfl may well lose. either way, screw him. "the deflator". what a d-bag.

The real question then is"Will Brady be like our next President"? Beyond tapping the supermodels, obviously.

These twits live in alternate reality. If brady took the hit when it all came out he likely sits a game and pays a few sheckles. But he chose the other option and forced the NFL's hand. I don't know many people who think the guy is an innocent pawn in all this, the debate seems to be more on severity of the penalty. What a mess.

Thunderdome.

silent solidarity is the best form of protest. good for you for following your principles. i guess i don't follow the logic. what was the end game? brady messes around with footballs, he's hardly a serial killer for doing so. still, in a league with all sorts of bad stuff perpetually floating around, the league needs it's future hof qb messing around, especially on a team previously dinged for messing around (and that hardly makes them serial killers, either) like it needs a hole in the head. the way is see it, there were four possible outcomes: the nfl sweeps things under the rug and tells us all it was no big deal. that tends not to end well, though you could argue that it wouldn't hurt the brand in the long run. brady's a victim to some, a cheater to others, and life goes on. tb12 takes the hit, acknowledges his role and takes his medicine like a man. sure, he's got a little egg of his face (jesus, let's hope that's egg and not…), but the league makes him sit a game or two and everything goes away. brady's a victim to some, a cheater to others, and life goes on. tb12 holds the line, the investigation continues, we end up where we did, and the nfl settles with him by fining him, no wrongdoing acknowledged on his part, no one believes him, he sends a check that's the equivalent of 43 seconds of one game. brady's a victim to some, a cheater to others, and life goes on. tb12 holds the line, the nfl gets backed into a corner, everyone goes all scorched earth and we end up in this ridiculous theater of the absurd. brady's a victim to some, a cheater to others, and life goes on. brady could have settled this out, as he should have, as i believe the nfl wanted all along. at the end of the day we end up in the same place. and f brady, too.

Related story: New England has replaced the slogan "DO YOUR JOB" with pastel colored signs reading "If you're uncomfortable, tell a personal development coordinator!" And "There is a U in Individualism!". They like to keep it fresh over there. Best of luck to NB, seems like a good guy.

I'd burn it at this point. Probably emitting carcinogens or full of that black mold stuff that's all the rage. I would offer the NFL the opportunity to salvage the game tape from the remnants though.

Sometimes I wish Rex was a triplet.

Are you concerned he won't be disciplined if he took HGH? Are you thinking the NFL has a Peyton exemption from HGH or other performance enhancing drugs?

yes--because it represents the relative standing of the respective teams, and what fans of each have come to expect as normal. in buffalo, are you really surprised the pats could get screwed on a call and somehow it would ratf%$k us to the tune of nearly 30 yards? or. to hear patriot fans complain about getting screwed when the net effect of the obvious error was a 29 yard gain? and yes--because if you feel that the nfl is losing the quality of it's product due to odd officiating calls (how about an official who doesn't know or understand the most basic two minute play in football, that the receiver going out of bounds stops the clock?), what better proof do you need then a blown call that advances the ball 29 yards with the recipient of both being the guy who the league wanted to sit for 4 frigging games at the beginning of the season. this would be my call, among many, unfortunately.

damn, i'm sorry, but after listening to the finger-pointing from some of these guys, it's no wonder they blow. sound like a bunch of high school drama queens to me. i think back to all the excitment of last year, and then remember some games where they underperformed…say like in Oakland. How about this year in London? How about that one last stop when your team inexplicably claws their way back into a game? here's the thing--just because you can talk, doesn't mean you should.

In fairness, wasn't the one guy the official who can't figure out that whole clock winding thing? Most basic play in football and it continues to mess him up. Maybe it's because clocks these days don't have actual second hands on them anymore.

I watched the whole thing thinking you were stretching this a bit. My bad--you nailed it. I lo'd dat..though I'm always struck by a guy who says something along the lines of hating to have to talk about something...then goes on for 5 more minutes talking about it.

We might well lead the league in apologies for calls at crucial moments of winnable games. Jags pass int call that wasn't. Pats Sammy gives himself up, not to mention the Pats get a bad call against them that inexplicably results in the bills giving up 29 yards. KC had Hogan's non-catch catch. There's more--but we're like 3-0 in apologies.

I didn't see the game but saw the facemask call quickly this morning. At full speed it looked like a facemask to me, but then again the picked up flag on the facemask call v. Shady seemed the same and that flag was picked up. I didn't dissect the play from last night, but in that case, from what I saw, I agree that gets called when seen. The bigger issue for me is this---the Sammy Watkins out-of-bounds call took away the potential for an exciting play like this--regardless of how it ended up. That's criminal, imo, because at least with the facemask, at full speed, I can understand why the flag was thrown even if high def reveals it should not have been. In our play, blowing the most basic call in football should have resulted in that official being fired immediately, and Red Skeletor should have been fired as well for his bs explanation about judgment being that the player 'gave himself up'. At least lie to us, tell us that the official thought there was contact that drove Watkins out of bounds/stopped forward progress based on his angle. On the other hand, we do have the NFL's official apology that the call was incorrect, so that's nice.

"You *&^%ed up...you trusted us."* Signed, The Buffalo Bills *(if you don't know the reference, ask your dad, or maybe his dad.)

To summarize Pats-bad v. Bills-bad: Pats-bad is a whistle blown killing what should have been a good play...resulting in a 25+ yard gain on a play where the mistake by the officials should have resulted in a re-do. Bills-bad is a horribly blown PI call where the pats player collides with the receiver and where should have placed the ball in the red zone during a road game where you are 1-168 against the opponent. Bills-bad is an official winding the clock on a play that is really the most basic call on a player going out of bounds during the final two minutes of an important game, a scenario that occurs in virtually every NFL game decided by less than 10 points, and the explanation for the call is that the player 'gave himself up' while madly scrambling to get out of bounds to stop the clock. there's more but the throbbing in my skull may be indicative of a brain bleed.

As far as I'm concerned, this mutt provided a glimpse behind the curtain with this line: "Not that it really makes a difference...". To make matters worse...how the heck does the official blow the call to begin with. And finally...during the hurry up 2 min offense which is predicated on quickness and rhythm...they stopped play for the hogan catch to spot the ball...they blew the Sammy Watkins catch which stopped play for an extended time...and then the last play Brutal to watch..just brutal.

He should stay at Brady's house the night before the game.

Is that a mamel toe? Gross.

Well done, ya mangy mutt.

personally, I enjoy some of the creative off-the-wall stuff with a bit of complexity. but when I double-checked the avatar referenced I thought the simplicity of the reply was damn good. rolling it all up with 'and stop being a punk' was masterful. on the other hand I still laugh at the same stuff I laughed at when I was 13.

that's good stuff.