RE: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
May 15, 2015 at 1:44 am
The punishment simply doesn't fit the crime, or the evidence, and I'm trying to be unbiased here despite being a Patriots fan.
1) The Wells report stated that it was "more probably than not" that Tom Brady knew about the footballs being deflated to lower than regulation pressure. However they didn't actually find any hard evidence of that. The text messages talk about deflating the footballs, but not about deflating them to lower than regulation. Without actual evidence against Tom Brady, it's ridiculous to punish him, and it's especially ridiculous to punish him with a 4 game suspension, when (if we remember from last year), beating your girlfriend / kid only gets you a 2 game suspension (and that was later lifted).
2) The Wells report also completely exonerated the Patriots as an organization, the coaching staff, and the owners. There is no reason for them to receive a fine, let alone draft pick losses. Even if Brady was involved, this would have been a conspiracy between three people (Brady + the two equipment guys), and not the Patriots.
I'm betting that Brady will win his appeal, and at least get 2 of the game suspensions removed, if not all of them. He has the advantage of being a player and having the ability to mount a proper defense in a court. The Patriots organisation however can't do that; there's some legal agreement that they can't sue the NFL, so any punishment they get can only be removed / altered by the NFL internally. I'm just hoping that they see reason and some to some agreement.
Also, in regards to the ideal gas law, on paper I understand that it doesn't add up, but there have been
experiments performed which indicate that various other factors can explain the deflation of the footballs, such as the wet weather. This can be a case where simply taking one factor (the temperature) as the only consideration is unscientific.
On a somewhat ironic note, I find it absurd that despite 3 out of 4 Colts balls
also being under the regulation PSI at half time (they didn't test all the Colts balls due to "time constraints"), there is no action against the Colts for using deflated balls.
What really should be the outcome of this (and likely will in the months to come) is the NFL should implement stricter policies on how the game balls are handled before the game, and also buy better equipment for determining the PSI. It's ridiculous that you can have two pressure gauges which are so inaccurate that there is a .45 PSI difference between them. If football pressure is such an important aspect of them game (which, given the fact that the Patriots scored far more points against the Colts using properly inflated balls in the second half, I don't think is), then the gauges used to measure the pressure should be impeccably accurate.
My suggestion? Keep the current rule which allows the team to customize the balls within reason (i.e. rough them up for the Quarterback and pump them up to within regulation pressure). Have the equipment guys leave a note for the officials with the requested pressure for the balls, and if the officials find any balls lower / higher than regulation pressure, they can then inflate / deflate them to the requested pressure. Then, have the officials lock the balls away until game time.
