MattM

. By definition, John, when someone cheats there is a "victim" of that cheating. In this case, it's both the team being cheated and its fans and the rest of the League to boot. That's just how cheating works. By definition it's not a so-called "victimless crime". Is it the root cause of all evils? Of course not--no one is claiming it is (except perhaps your straw man complex).

What a joke of a page. I love how for PEDs the Bills have 5 going back to 1979, with nearly all being from the early '90's or before, while New England has 4 since 2007 (and I think they may be missing some). I also love how they minimize all of the things the Cheats* have been caught doing (including by saying (with zero proof) that "everyone else is doing it, too.") The scope and size does suggest to me that pros (ie, the Pats* PR Dept) are behind this. Disgusting.

If the 10-20 mph winds holds up, I'd say that's a positive for us vs the pass-happy Colts.

How 'bout the Pats* just stop cheating? Isn't that a simpler (and fairer) solution, rather than forcing millions of (innocent) people League-wide to turn away from a sport they love? I've said this for a while now. At some point, when the full truth comes out the Kraft/Belichick/Brady Patriots* will be as beloved as the Chicago BlackSox. Each scandal moves that closer and if history is any guide, we'll get another data point (to go with the many, many others) on that journey very, very soon.....

Took them long enough to bust out a chant. I'm sure they were all waiting until the game was in the bag.

Todd Haley's a moron

Worst part is, if you look in the eyes of the Steelers' DC he's clearly in fear/shock. This is gonna turn into a rout.

That's a big F-U to the League--"you can't punish us". Amazing.... Puck the Fats

It's worth the read. I found some of his (or I should say his Stat PhD friend's) statistical analysis particularly interesting.

McDaniel was caught filming opposing team's practice walk through a few years back and fined $50k when he was HC of the Broncos. The videographer, Steve Scarnechia, is also a former Pat* assistant and son of longtime Pat* OL coach Dante S.

Uhh, ok--give ME a Pro Bowl QB and I could probably get you to .500.....

As has Urban Meyer, who I think was with Belicheat at some point, but that's in college, where outside things like recruiting can be half the battle. In addition, Saban and his body of work in Miami is a good example in the other direction.

None that I can think of offhand. That was one of O'Leary's points/argument in his Spygate book--continual success despite a revolving door of no name coordinators who try their luck elsewhere and fail miserably. In one case (McDaniel), trying to cheat elsewhere, failing miserably and coming back "home".

Not a ton new there for those who've been paying attention, but it's nice to have all (or most, as there are things they missed, like PED use among their core of "aging vets" who seem to regain a step when joining them (see Harrison, Rodney) and Ted Johnson's statement that sometimes right before a game the other team's audible list would appear taped on their lockers) there in one place. The one new thing (at least to me) was the implications of attempted bribery of a Senator, to wit: "In his 2012 book, "Life Among the Cannibals," Specter wrote that a powerful friend -- he wouldn't name the person -- told him that if he "laid off the Patriots," there could be a lot of money for him in Palm Beach. Specter told the friend, "I couldn't care less."" That, to me, if true, is a major new item that should have been investigated. That's a felony, folks. Amazing, even for the Pats*..... Even my wife (who works in marketing and is very familiar with astroturfers on social media) noticed that odd trend earlier this summer on Deflategate-related stories--lots of similar posts from folks with ridiculous handles (her favorite was "DebfromNebraska", a true Pats* fan) that sound made up and lots of up postings of pro-Pats* comments coming in swarms (as opposed to coming in naturally over time).

It has, but this one and, in particular his two rebuttal pieces linked far down he did in response to critics, are even better. Those two rebuttals cover a lot of the initial critiques, such as use of ST plays and dome teams. His results? No matter how you slice it, the Pats* from 2007 on fumbled at a much lower rate than previously and much, much lower than other Northeast teams and statistically lower than even dome teams. http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/2015/the-wells-report-may-have-uncovered-the-tip-of-the-iceberg

Except that (a) said vet has made the Pro Bowl and was not signed due to off field issues and not due to his play and (b) he could actually watch Miller play in 3 preseason games and realize that he's an upgrade over our guards last year, but that might take some effort.

Maybe because we're dealing with "ethically challenged" people here? Oh, don't worry, we'll be here again debating the Pats* next cheating scandal in a matter of months. The over/under is January.

....this article on his training methods is interesting. Personally, I find positive motivation works much better than fear and invective, so think it would be nice for this to catch on: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/sports/football/no-foul-mouths-on-pete-carrolls-field-football-with-a-new-age-twist.html?ref=sports Ralph Wilson would have approved of the no swearing part! PS. Still find PC to be an arse after that fake punt up by 30 with 6 minutes left and leaving USC one step ahead of the sheriff.....

Game worn jerseys like the Deflator got? Really? Don't you think if this was indeed a common occurrence Brady and the Pats* would have trotted out other low level flunkies who got such swag? I've been asking where those folks are for a while now and have yet to receive an answer. In fact, a poster on the main Deflategate thread way back claimed to have worked in PR or some such for a pro sports team and actually said the opposite--that it's all considered team property and very carefully collected and tracked by the team to be sold or donated to charity. Finally, how do you also explain McNally's request for straight up cash from Brady in one of the texts? Does Tommy go around handing out hundreds in the locker room?

I've read the whole opinion? Have you? You conveniently left out that Manning plays at least 9 games a year in a dome, which was explained by the study's original author.

I guess we'll see--many esteemed attorneys looking at the original case viewed the League as the most likely victor in the original case. What I meant be he must appeal is that Judge Berman's decision effectively guts any discipline not spelled out in detail in the CBA. For that reason alone, they have no choice but to appeal. As a corporate attorney, the decision is a bit scary. The judge basically rewrote the deal between the parties despite the language in the CBA on a number of points.

I've never been a Meh believer--the Pats* absolutely fleeced the Chefs when they traded him. He can't hit the broad side of anything over 15 yds in the air.

Hell to the no.

. We'll see, but I suspect they won't be able to stop anybody this year after losing Revis, Browner, Arrington, Dennard in the back end and Wilfork on the front end. I've been wrong about that before, but we'll see this year.

As in some sense an appellate court, he needs to take the facts as the arbitrator found them, as would any rational person reading those texts, seeing that Tweedledumber got tens of thousands of dollars worth of swag from Brady and seeing that the Pats* refused to let Wells talk again to Tweedledumber and Brady destroying his phone. This opinion was not about saying Brady was innocent--any rational person looking at just the evidence above would find he was not--it was simply about Goodell not having the power to nail the cheater because the CBA did not spell out that someone who orchestrates stealing balls and deflating them could be suspended and that since no one had previously been suspended for obstructing an investigation shady Brady* could not be suspended here (begging the question as to how anyone could ever be so suspended). Pretty simple, actually. The Pash stuff was just so much fluff added at the end, as was the last argument of "even though you both agreed that there would be limited discovery in arbitration, I'm going to overturn that". Absolutely ridiculous decision from a go forward policy standpoint, throwing into doubt almost any punishment the league wants to hand down going forward unless it's explicitly in the CBA. The league has no choice but to appeal. I expect this to be overturned, but far too late to effectively punish Brady*, who got to play in a SB right after cheating in an AFCCG. A low point for the sport.