Longer Post as I share a Frustrated Fan Perspective on Deflate Gate – read at your own peril! I leisurely prepared a cup of French Press Coffee this morning. Sipping slowly and easing into the topic which has admittedly been too much on my mind this week. Four full days and then some have past since “my” New England Patriots defeated the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 and earned their way to Superbowl 49 in just over a week. Normally this would be a week of celebration and preparation for hosting many friends. Rumors began to surface Sunday night that perhaps New England’s Footballs were under the regulation inflation. The league confirmed they were conducting an investigation and since that have only provided the official news they hoped to complete it in “2-3 days.” They’ve allowed leaks such as the Mortensen report suggesting 11 of 12 footballs were confirmed under weight to an average of 2 psi (pounds per square inch). AMist the speculation and opinion mongering which often pretends to insert itself as news and journalism, there has been some actual investigative fact reporting. This centers less on the specifics of this situation and more on the typical processes involved. I’ve sorted through most of those to bring myself to a comfortable understanding. Seemingly the heart of the issue is whether the Patriots were deliberately attempting to circumvent rules for competitive advantage in this and presumably other games. While the NFL has made no accusation many are suggesting a “smoking needle.” They suggest someone in the Patriot organization blatantly cheated by letting air out of the football and thus into this entire frenzy labelled “Deflate Gate.” We have evidence this isn’t something the NFL finds overly concerning as a November game confirmed Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers deliberately over-inflates his footballs in the hopes the officials miss it and give him the higher pressure he prefers. We know similarly many quarterbacks, including Brady, prefer less pressure to increase their grip on the football. We know also the difference was sufficiently negligible that none of the officials noted this during the first half when the balls were allegedly used. We have rumors only that the Colts had noted it from intercepted balls in a prior game and that they had forewarned the league to be on the watch for such a thing. This causes me pause to wonder why they wouldn’t have been more thorough in pre-game if they thought there was a significant concern. So what is the process and how could this have happened? Teams receive their allotment of footballs from the league well in advance. The quarterbacks work with the equipment managers to break in the balls to their comfort levels. This includes scuffing, buffing and playing with them at practices until they reach a point the Quarterback believes they are best suited for his preferences. The day of a game the QB meets with the equipment manager and feels out his favorites from the options and those are submitted to the officials 2.25 hours before the game. There the officials allegedly approve and mark each ball. Interestingly most reports now suggest this does not involve measuring the PSI but rather a simple hand inspection to observe any obvious concerns. There has been no statement on what level of testing took place on these footballs and we know absolutely nothing about the PSI for any of them. In fact nowhere in the prior process with the equipment manager is any testing requirement or expectation for football PSI. Once filled to the initial correct level there is nothing which makes an issue of this and teams may fill an obviously deflating ball but it very well may never be tested again. Why is this so important? Because the answers we’ve been given entirely make sense if Tom picks the 12 balls he most prefers they absolutely could have begun well under the 12.5 PSI and as the difference in tightness is such that many blind tests have left most without the ability to determine which is which without a direct comparison and in some cases even with a direct comparison. It’s why the officials wouldn’t have noted it before the game without a measurement and why Brady wouldn’t have noticed it. In fact he noted no change in the second half and statistically had an even better performance with the more inflated balls which were used in the second half. It is far less likely that the smoking needle involved anyone in or outside of the organization letting air out of the football post inspection or heating air to trick the inspectors. It makes every bit of sense that Brady picked the footballs from those he used for that purpose and they started lower than that amount the officials are supposed to assure. Add in the temperature decrease in psi and 2 PSI is entirely within reasonable ranges for understanding. So why has it been such a big deal? First and foremost because the NFL seems exceedingly irresponsible in their entire approach. First they did not initially release any statement but rather allowed rumors to leak. They then allowed more partial rumors to continue without any response to clarify or reveal any aspects of their work. This may have been reasonable, leaks excluded, were it not discovered on Thursday late afternoon that they had still not even spoken with Tom Brady regarding the situation. This could have and should have been a 1-2 day process at most so that clear answers and explanations could be given to the world. Instead the rumor mill continued to speculate and many frustrated or even envious people began to justify the 15 years of unparalleled Patriot success under Brady and Bellichick must have cheating as it’s justification. After all they are confirmed multiple offenders at cheating right? Well actually no, that’s more of the inaccurate speculative judgment. The Patriots were correctly found guilty of filming opponents signals from the field after a league point of emphasis made it clear that this practice by most (31 of 32 teams allegedly) would stop in 2007. They did this in their opening game against the Jets. They admitted it and while many would speculate the filming of signals was against the rules (untrue) and that it was the huge secret weapon of the team when in fact most teams are still filming opponent signals just from the legally allowed locations. The fact is the patriots did cheat and despite Bellichick’s explanation for why he thought it was allowed, they have thus earned the additional scrutiny which will follow them for all of their successful days. Extra scrutiny I welcome though I hope for the consistency of response which the Green Bay Aaron Rodgers affirmation suggests isn’t to the liking of the court of public appeals. This is all great but why are you writing this effective rant? Because I’m tired of waiting for the NFL to again butcher the job. The current commissioner, Roger Goodale, has led a league in many financial successes and perhaps that’s why he still has his 42 Million dollar per year job. In my opinion he is a failure and his removal cannot arrive quickly enough. He badly mismanaged Ray Rice’s investigation and findings. He makes a mockery of the serious issue of Player Safety by pandering to perception and doing little for the reality. Now once again in the preparations for the Superbowl he holds the ultimate responsibility for the sluggish approach and lack of any address to the public on what is going on from their part in the process behind the scenes. I cannot trust them to provide me the clarity of whether my team did something wrong or not. As such I’ve decided to trust my judgment and evaluation of the situation given the facts known and the most likely scenario. I’m planning my Superbowl game day with the trust and belief my team hasn’t done anything even remotely close to willful cheating. I’ll react to their news as appropriate if and when they share it but their incompetence is no longer going to mitigate my enjoyment of an all too rare experience. I’ll have my blog about it this weekend but here on Facebook I’m proud to say I’m a Patriots fan. I’m proud to say our players have worked hard to earn every victory and I hope they continue to plan and work towards hoisting the Lombardi trophy on February 1. I have really enjoyed many aspects of this sport for a long time and I hope that this entertainment remains entertaining for many years to come. This week was not so entertaining and my choice is to not allow that to continue. From today forth until the game, For all matters of Fandom, I’m going to think about and focus upon the fun aspects of game preparation. While I’m sure I’ll read and perhaps respond to some of the deflate gate circus act, it won’t be my primary focus and I won’t allow it to prevent my goal of enjoying next Sunday’s game in as many ways as possible. As Tom Brady suggested, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I do expect some on my friends list and many around the country to have a different viewpoint. Some are clearly expressed irrationally or with little attention to facts. Those can feel frustrating if we give them power. I’ve thought it out with an admitted bias but as well as possible and with my personal integrity very much intact. Go Patriots and I hope it’s an epic game with my sharing well earned celebration’s for a long time afterwards.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 13:06:33 +0000
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