nfl 2014-15 playoffs: SUPER BOWL XLIX patriots vs. seahawks

annoyed that even if the Patriots win, there will still be a cloud over them because of #deflationgate

nah fuck that

i'm not exactly pro-patriots but think the deflation controversy is kind of ridiculous, they would've obliterated the colts regardless of how light or heavy the ball was

I agree, but don't know that football fans overall do as well. Of course, I also think their previous SB wins were completely legit too, so...

someone is going to have to explain to me how the patriots were able to deflate balls that are under the control of the refs starting 2+ hours before the game (when they get weighed) and in a way that only benefited the patriots and not the colts.

cause... cause... spygate

anyway feel like the patriots shd be a lil favored in this one mostly based on seattles genuinely horrific recent play

not to mention their mediocre play most of the season, maybe thats just who they are?

The Baltimore Ravens hired former Chicago Bears coach Marc Trestman to be their offensive coordinator.

Trestman, 59, joins the Ravens after going 13-19 in two seasons with the Bears. He replaces Gary Kubiak, who was announced as the Denver Broncos' new coach Tuesday.

This is the Ravens' fourth new offensive coordinator in as many seasons.

Trestman interviewed for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offensive coordinator position earlier this offseason. He has been an offensive coordinator for four NFL teams -- the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals and Oakland Raiders.

Though it didn't work out with Jay Cutler this season, Trestman helped the Bears become the NFL's second-highest scoring team in 2013 with Cutler and Josh McCown at quarterback.

2013 Bears were indeed fun to watch, but fuck Joe Flacco and fuck the Ravens. I don't care if this works out like the 2013 Bears. I will still hate them with lazer heat eyes.

xp loooooooooooooooooooollllllllllll

does anyone know what the advantage of deflating footballs is supposed to be?

supposedly easier to throw, makes it easier to grip

reports said they were "weighing" the balls- is that what they meant? because it doesn't seem like the additional volume of air would be outside the margin of error for production footballs.

nothing about this whole story makes any sense

i guess i mean additional mass of air, though the volume of the ball should increase slightly.

dont the refs test then possess the balls from before game time, were the ball boys doing it whats the story idgi

there was a tom brady double on the sidelines going over game plans while the real tom brady deflated balls in the locker room

the patriots are diabolical

It was the NFL that performed the deflation, if anyone. I mean uhh ratings $$$$ etc

"Weigh these balls bitches."

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyy996pCMH1rp2jyto1_250.png

ban the pats

god just take their 3rd round pick and stfu everyone

this is hilarious to me

Part of the investigation that needs further vetting is how the 11 footballs became underinflated.

The game balls that each team received for preparation were required to be inspected and approved by referee Walt Anderson two hours and 15 minutes before kickoff, then returned to a ball attendant.

Under NFL rules, each team provides balls each game for use when its offense is on the field. The balls are inspected before the game by the officiating crew, then handled during the game by home-team personnel.

ll this seems like a bad system!

otm that is my 1 takeaway from this whole nonsense

uhh yeah "bring your own footballs" seems like a pretty bad system

we will text them then return them to you!

proposal: 1 (one) football per game. if something happens to that ball, there is a giant hamper full of like soccer balls, beach balls, nerf, etc and the offense can grab whichever they want

maybe not a better system but equivalent

before every snap, the qb should have to replace a golden idol with the football. if the football is underweight, they play the down under threat of death by giant boulder. also, all of the football will necessarily be played with a golden idol instead of a football in this scenario.

otm

Replacing the ball with a cat or squirrel would make fumble recoveries a lot more entertaining.

yes, a golden idol of a cat or squirrel god should be fine

whichever rodent god idol is the team's mascot maybe?

perhaps the game should be changed to a 1-on-1 scenario where a representative priest or nickel cornerback of each team places a deflated ball in front of a golden idol of his team's rodent god. The team whose rodent god first inflates a ball to regulation weight wins the football game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXYx9PLrjtk

After catching an interception in the second quarter, Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson noticed the ball was less inflated than usual. On the sidelines, he passed it over to an equipment manager, and it eventually made its way to the team's general manager, then the NFL's director of football operations. He told the game officials at halftime, but the balls were apparently never swapped out.

smh snitch

An even bigger mystery is how the officials — who handle the balls before every single play — didn't notice they were under-inflated, when one touch by Jackson caught his attention.

tru

current espn story now says the colts noticed underinflated balls in their previous game against the pats

ha wow

maybe theyve been doing it for 15 years

quotes brady in 2011 saying he likes saggy balls

I'm guessing that the equipment manager is deflating the balls after inspection. This shit already happened to Kiffin at USC.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2012/11/08/usc-fined-deflated-game-balls/1691303/

cld swap them out for diff balls too

I'm guessing that the manager fabricated an inflator needle attached to a hollow metal ring that he wears on his finger. The ring has holes along the edge that allows air to escape

and he's doing that qb thing where you hold the football close to your chest and swivel at the waist all "hey guys! this one feels good!"

but he is actually doing dirty deeds

what if the balls were flat just cause it got colder

thats cheating

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/01/patriots-deflate-ball-super-bowl-disqualified-penalties-sanctions

https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/ap_super_bowl_footballs_70179250.jpg

lol

obama on capturing belichick: "we got him"

lmao

Have some HOT TAKE ACTION! As mocked.

http://deadspin.com/the-ballghazi-takes-are-here-and-they-are-fucking-insa-1680877948

if the pats didn't deflate the balls the colts would have won 55-0. those INTs from Luck are really out of character, he's the best QB in the NFL.

nfl sld get down on its knees and thank the patriots for being such a perfect heel

nature boy bill belichick

Why do I need anyone in football to have integrity?

this guy gets it

bone integrity is important

fill the balls up with bone broth imo

@EasterbrookG
Luck hand: 10”. Brady hand: 9.4”. No way Belichick didn’t know this. if footballs equal, advantage to Colts in rain.

science

lmao

xxp are you insane? you thought Elway threw that Vortex far. fill a ball with bone broth and give it to elway. you'll find it in the science pyramid of the denver botanic gardens.

found to be two-to-three pounds lighter

That can't be right. POUNDS? Excellent reporting, USA Today toadwart.

prob refers to pounds of pressure

I assume he means pounds per sq inch, which wgaf besides Colts fans and people who have nothing better to do than see Belichick as Satan.

tbf, belichick is not satan, but satan's minion

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zZ8k1CT7sno/Ucj9f1aCOWI/AAAAAAAAAOw/TQqPITEWK5o/s1600/IMG_2099.JPG

http://www.theheckler.com/2015/01/20/belichick-fires-ball-boy-for-failing-to-deflate-1-of-12-balls/

This article has the right idea. It made me chuckle.

Belichick stopped short of admitting to cheating his way to a 45-7 win over the Colts, but said the fired ball boy failed to do things “the Patriots’ way.”

“With the Pats, we don’t go halfway, or in this case 92 percent of the way,” said Belichick. “We wish our ball boy the best.”

Added Belichick: “I understand he’s only got two years of high school left, I assume he’ll be fine in the end.”

2 new rules that should discourage the deflation of footballs during harsh weather games

new rule #1: football shall be played on a hard floor
new rule #2: you have to dribble the football as you run with it

It's slowly turning into a mob story.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/did-ravens-tip-off-colts-about-patriots-deflating-balls--021046443.html

where did that illustration come from

ok now this is kinda ridic:

The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 1m1 minute ago
As parents we once again have to be ethicists. How to talk about #Deflategate with your kids http://ow.ly/HLmsc

If the Pats were in family therapy (and I’m happy to refer them!), they’d learn a concept known as the Trust Bank. A child builds trust by making “deposits” in the Trust Bank by, say, walking the dog when it’s her turn, finishing her homework, etc.

bows before the altar of neoliberalism

my boss's boss, a senior vice president, blogged about deflategate and workplace ethics yesterday.

o wow

she's great but i was like "really now"

i've been deflating balls all week and i got a promotion today, i learned my lesson from the pats' example

how can you argue with that -- this is your livelihood we're talkin about

i see this game playing out pretty much like last year's super bowl, maybe not as sever of a blowout but i expect seattle to thrash through the pats

a team with a high powered offense that only runs the ball to keep defenses honest can easily be destroyed by a team that has a super physical defense that can play man defense and get to the QB with only four rushers

not sure you can say NE only runs the ball to keep defenses honest when they have just successfully used a rush-heavy gameplan in the championship game. and the biggest question for the game is whether seattle can actually get to the QB with 4 men, they are one of the league's more blitz happy teams.

however

i don't think the pats will plan to run the ball 40 times and i think seattle prob can get a lot of 4 man pressure on ol' softballs. patriots have to score 24+ to win this i think and i am not sure they will be able to. it will be close though, nothing like last year's game. if a team gets destroyed in this game it'd have to be the seattle team that played the first 55 minutes last week.

seattle been not too impressive this year, strangely overrated

http://www.drudgesiren.com/siren.gifhttp://i.imgur.com/eqcmrl1.pnghttp://www.drudgesiren.com/siren.gif

yooooo

http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/?p=2932

The 2014 Patriots were just the 3rd team in the last 25 years to never have lost a fumble at home! The biggest difference between the Patriots and the other 2 teams who did it was that New England ran between 150 and 200 MORE plays this year than those teams did in the years they had zero home fumbles, making the Patriots stand alone in this unique statistic.

Wow!

seattle been not too impressive this year, strangely overrated

― lag∞n, Thursday, January 22, 2015 3:29 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark

pats fans really gonna delude themselves into thinking this huh

its true man! they started off real slow then had a very good second half then played two poor playoff games

i mean russell wilson just played quarterback about as bad as possible a few days ago

i'm not overly into seattle's front 4 and can imagine a couple ways to move the ball against the squawks but this game hinges on the patriots holding seattle under 20, which is certainly in play.

not sayin they cant win but im not liking them nearly as much as i was last year when they were just clicking

that kind of defensive intensity fwiw is notroiously hard to maintain

seattle's defense is historically good though, it's not just a normally good defense

masterful performance by brady here by not simply laughing at everyone and yelling ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS again and again

if i was going to construct an argument for how this is not going to be the third version of giants vs pats it would be that perhaps seattle's secondary will be bothered by having to cover shorter, quicker WRs and maybe earl thomas and kam chancellor aren't used to being challenged in pass coverage by a player as good as gronkowski

gronk is a game changer for sure

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7533/16343586175_877f0d97ec.jpg

this is my favorite thing in the world right now

Deez Ballz Don't Deflate

lmao

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7_MjqkCYAEaBbs.png

https://www.yahoo.com/sy/nn/fp/rsz/012215/images/smush/1brady-gate_635x250_1421964803.jpg

love how pissed off those reporters look

sports reporters love to pretend to be real reporters

Seahawks CB Jeremy Lane on Rob Gronkowski: "I actually don't think he's that good.

ok "Jeremy Lane"

That's some Lanesanity right there

sorry

prob meant "that good at dancing" which is also wrong

http://i.imgur.com/K9bhUZo.gif

hey guys can i recommend watching this Tom Brady supercut about balls while listening to the Ninos du Brasil track that placed in the ILM poll.

http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/tom-brady-talking-about-balls-the-supercut-1681225270/+bubbaprog

NFL investigators are on the Boston Post Road as we speak, on their way to interview Brady & Co. They're just a few miles away from the Wayside Inn, where they'll spend the night and rest the horses, spent from four days of travel.

seattle been not too impressive this year, strangely overrated

― lag∞n, Thursday, January 22, 2015 3:29 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark

pats fans really gonna delude themselves into thinking this huh

― J0rdan S., Thursday, January 22, 2015 9:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they've had some bad performances man, receiving corps is wack

I think the Pats success really comes down to how well they will be able to run the ball. Seattle has such a fantastic defensive backfield, they can keep linebackers up tight to cut off clubs running and screen game. You got to think Chancellor is going to be shadowing Gronk and Kam is just as freakishly impressive an athlete. Seahawks are also like B-more and Pittsburgh where they are good at hiding who is the blitzer. Seattle's defense is built on superior speed and stealth planning.

Don't like either club, but I think football match up wise, it's pretty damn interesting.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8CrI42CQAAlhlU.jpg

almost as good
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8CJu55CEAARAyS.jpg

has anyone asked tebow for his opinion on the matter

God did it

http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/314599/sports-illustrated-cuts-entire-photojournalism-staff/

brutal

wow damn

not cool

sort of a flag of surrender

photos were the only reason i still paid attention to si honestly

http://41.media.tumblr.com/94cf04a2ec402d325aea929279217926/tumblr_n2lr7nK9Qr1qeu6ilo1_500.jpg

cool early pic of tom brady

The name of the magazine is Sports Illustrated for god's sake. It was patterned after Life magazine. Photos are the reason for its existence.

hmm #12... 11 of 12 balls deflated

lol did u get that off the nixon tiwtter account xp

i was not aware of the nixon twitter account till now

Richard M. Nixon @dick_nixon · 2h 2 hours ago
You know, Ray Rice beat a woman half to death. How about those footballs?

no thats the bad one you want @PresNixonUSA it nails the voice to an almost spooky extent

xxxxxp did not know dave eggers played ftball

anyway it tweeted that football pic 6 hours ago https://twitter.com/PresNixonUSA/status/558612906418638848

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12217376/baltimore-ravens-cut-nt-terrence-cody-amid-animal-cruelty-probe

no thats the bad one you want @PresNixonUSA it nails the voice to an almost spooky extent

― lag∞n, Friday, January 23, 2015 1:16 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

180deg wrong!

ur deg wrong

http://i.imgur.com/3kDF1WR.jpg

love the positivity

btw obvs shop used to say footballs

Pats about to make an announcement. Yikes.

"we have felt the balls and found them to be perfect thank you"

lol are they preempting the nfl investigation??

this is a massive fuck you to the nfl

omg he just dropped a my cousin vinny reference

so belichick just got up there and told everyone to fuck themselves didnt he

Loved the barely concealed rage

I felt a depth of empathy for BB I would never have imagined myself capable of

yup xp

classic

that was rad

need a ciggy now

http://youtu.be/rChfsndsIiA

bill needs to relax, most casual fans of the game don't care that he did it

"after conducting an internal investigation, we have concluded FUCK YOU!!!"

"greatest internal investigations of the nfl" gets better and better

I just think it's hilarious that the Patriots went from being seen as some incorruptible, pure dynasty and then pretty much since 2007, have been frequently embroiled in controversies every other year.

I mean it's a hilarious scandal and I'm glad for the entertainment (this really is Goodell's NFL), but this brand of cheating is no diff than Yogi Berra nicking baseballs with his shinguards. Deflated footballs didn't help tackles pick up blocks, help Brady read coverage, or force the Colts to miss tackles. The Patriots could have won if the ball was a rolled up newspaper. Fine em and let's move on.

But not before three more hilarious press conferences, please.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/8Jx63-NpUKQ

heh

it's been amazing to watch sports media coverage. i mean.. how do i say this.. a lot of sports media people do not seem to be good what i thought were sort of basic skills for a reasonably intelligent person .. such as not jumping to conclusions without evidence. and especially for a journalist, not reporting things as facts that haven't been proven to be facts. that sort of thing.

it seems like according to belichick, the explanation is that the pats scuff up the footballs a lot more than other teams do, and this process affects the pressure. this is why he is talking in press conferences about the process and how messed up the footballs are that they use in practice and in games

lots of sportswriters do not understand this even after belichick explained it - why didn't the footballs used by indianapolis come in at a lower pressure? uh.. because they are not going through the same process to prepare them? that's what he said isn't it?

yah the lack of accountability for these people is horrific; they can make accusations freely and will never answer for them.

its because sports is fake and doesnt matter

i used to think i wanted a career in journalism. in the past few years it has really dawned on me that if you happen to know a whole lot in detail about a particular subject, and then follow the work of media covering that subject, there are a handful of reporters who are really insightful, others who are not breaking a lot of stories but are at least reliable and honest, and then an absolute ton of analysts/writers/aggregators all over the web who get things wrong all the time in a really casual offhand way that never gets corrected by anyone

lots of things are fake and don't matter and have higher standards of accountability

like what

http://www.youtube.com/embed/8Jx63-NpUKQ

― Roberto Spiralli, Saturday, January 24, 2015 9:57 PM (49 minutes ago)

lmfao what

it's been amazing to watch sports media coverage. i mean.. how do i say this.. a lot of sports media people do not seem to be good what i thought were sort of basic skills for a reasonably intelligent person .. such as not jumping to conclusions without evidence. and especially for a journalist, not reporting things as facts that haven't been proven to be facts. that sort of thing.

^agree with everything here, daria-g, except i've found it hasn't been restricted to sports media people. i've seen some jaw-dropping things on straight-up news outlets like cnn this week (nvm fox!).

Bill Nye NOT IMPRESSED

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/25/bill-nye-says-bill-belichick-made-no-sense/?cid=Yahoo

http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/24/tom-brady-and-the-liberal-war-on-success makes u think

yeah a fb "friend" posted some other right wing on Ballsgate so I guess this is being shaped as a skirmish in the culture war? maybe the repubs will press to rename the Patriot Act?

W. James Antle even his name screams of privilege gtfo die slow

Excuse me, that's W. James Antle III.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/397045/does-deflate-gate-explain-pats-super-low-fumble-rate-jack-fowler

hidden success factors are a key part of "marginal gains" sports performance practices. if you are willing to focus on, fudge, or find a workaround for some of these, you can reap very real benefits, especially over time. it sounds like technocratic bs, but it's true.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/olympics/19174302

if you're willing to straight up cheat (and i'm not necessarily saying it's true here), you can kick some real ass.

this is like, a lot of people don't realize HOW MUCH THOUGHT and analysis goes into shit in professional athletics. the players may or may not be geeks, but they have plenty of guys surrounding them who are, and almost nothing is left to chance. this need not necessarily implicate brady (beyond, imo, him recognizing that at game time the balls are softer then 12.5psi, which i believe any competent pro qb could assess).

baseball's mad that football is infringing on its territory

I guess this is being shaped as a skirmish in the culture war?

The right wing employs a large number of PR types who clearly understand the benefits of piggybacking a conservative pov onto any story that has the public's interest and attention. The rich people who finance these efforts know the value of this shit over time.

Bill Nye NOT IMPRESSED

Some scientists impressed, some not. That's fine. Funny how it took Belichick's impromptu presser to get the media to even consider possibly exculpatory scenarios.

Believe him or not, at least Belichick has given people something to chew on, test, and consider, in the midst of the deafening roar of crickets coming out of Park Avenue.

I honestly don't give a flying donkeyfuck if Belichick and co manipulated balls or not. It's just amusing to me the legs this scandal has.

Pre-sale media this might have been a minor incident nobody cared about. Or if the Cleveland Browns were the accused.

bill nye apparently a big seahawks fan lol

bill nye = empirically proven to be a gigantic hater

a flying donkeyfuck would be an awesome thing

u say that now

people are only angry because the beloved indianapolis colts were knocked out thus saying goodbye to the matchup everyone wanted to see.

I dunno..this Colts team is boring

"Precision is critical for any scientific experiment. For example, the official kickoff temperature in Foxboro on Sunday was 51 degrees, not 50. To fully simulate the conditions, the test should have occurred at 51 degrees. Also, room temperature typically is 72 degrees, not 75. That results in a four-degree variance, which surely had an impact on the ultimate findings, since pressure and temperature are directly related."

lol ok Mike Florio

boyle's law bro

"I'm excited to play in another Super Bowl. You don't get many of these opportunities in your life."

same

http://deadspin.com/gq-goodell-berates-nfl-employees-for-being-overpaid-1681772715

lol

at this late date as a below-casual nfl fan it's amazing to me that each team is responsible for its own ball on offense. that that isn't something absolutely under the control of the officials is kinda nuts. like, the solution to this insanity seems p obvious?

yeah its very weird

my initial understanding was that the teams provide the footballs and the officials check them and give them back. but it sounds like once they are handed over to the officials the officials keep hold of them through the game? which being the case, there is really no opportunity for tampering after the balls are checked, which is where this 'hot room' thing came from i.e. the calls are prepared in a heated room or are otherwise artificially heated to temporarily elevate the pressure before giving them to the officials to measure. so, even putting aside the inherent craziness of having each team provide its own footballs, if something is actually amiss here, the nfl being incompetent in not being able to enforce its own rules is way more significant than any team trying to take advantage of that incompetence (phil simms' aaron rodgers story about overinflating balls because the officials might not even adjust them correctly being a direct example of this in action).

my takeaway from all of this is that the NFL is best enjoyed as a clown show

i know this doesn't even need saying but the existence of this story as one team's misdeed vs league/officiating incompetence depends exclusively on the existence of ill will for the team in question, which happily for the news makers abounds. i am not sure what about the patriots makes them more entertaining to bash than the nfl itself. i guess it is because brady and belichick are just more interesting characters than goodell. maybe the nfl just did a good job of giving the story a push in the right direction at a critical time, with the benefit of advance knowledge of course. although as i reflect on it i don't believe we know where the indianapolis reporter's source was, with the colts or in the nfl, the former i assume. hasn't been enough attention on the genesis of this story at all really.

hating/loving teams is what the games all about, hating the league is too real and depressing

haha, that is true. ppl do still love to hate the league tho, but maybe that isn't pervasive elsewhere as it is here atop the hifalutin intellectual tower of the east coast

the whole situation can of course be redeemed by it blowing up in the nfl's face dramatically and hopefully repeatedly. feels like the only positive outcome.

- no one likes the pats because they've been too successful
- no one likes boston teams because they've been too successful and their fans are obnox
- brady's pretty smug
- belichick seems like a dick
- previous spying case
- outrage brings the clicks

really tho everyone knows the sport football should not be allowed to continue existing in any form

maybe the nfl just did a good job of giving the story a push in the right direction at a critical time, with the benefit of advance knowledge of course.

the nfl has more to lose from this than the patriots - the 'legitimacy'(lol) of the super bowl is now in question

i understand why ppl hate the patriots but are those things enough to hate them more than the nfl if you have an opportunity to choose a target, which is basically the case here? can you not sell more ads trading on disgust with the nfl in just 2014 alone??

reading that back it is v naive, lol at me. oh well.

i am not sure what about the patriots makes them more entertaining to bash

i mean...they're cowboys east now, that's pretty much why, and either you're into that or you aren't (or don't believe that, which is also fine), but that opinion of them is not exactly a mystery

honestly if they'd been viewed as heels from the jump or presented themselves as such once the brady era started there wouldn't be as much desire among professional and amateur sports blowhards to knock them down a peg...but they're the Play The Right Way Classy Guys, with #grit and whatnot. that type of organization even being perceived as having its collective dick caught in the wind will never not be amusing to many people

personally i'd be laughing just as hard if it was the NY giants, cowboys, 49ers, colts, bears, etc. if it was like, the jets or raiders or basically any NFC south, we would've forgotten about this 4 days ago

*any NFC south team

nfl fans should really be thanking the pats for knocking the colts out by any means necessary

also they're the only team w/ a high profile cheating case in the recent past

honestly if they'd been viewed as heels from the jump or presented themselves as such once the brady era started there wouldn't be as much desire among professional and amateur sports blowhards to knock them down a peg...but they're the Play The Right Way Classy Guys, with #grit and whatnot. that type of organization even being perceived as having its collective dick caught in the wind will never not be amusing to many people

well more Play The Right Way Classy Guys After Getting Caught Eavesdropping The Opposing Team And Signing A Literal Murderer but point taken

to be fair after hernandez killed a third guy they were like "ok, one too many"

paragons of footballing virtue revealed to be sociopathic cheaters is a compelling and incisive plot i support it

people cheat and i'm totally cool with the reality (for example, i don't think it makes you a "sociopath" (discounting actual sociopaths, like hernandez)), but that doesn't mean i'm good with people shrugging and asking what i expected.

the fact that the NFL still hasn't had anything of substance to say about this case is inexcusable

you misspelled "hilarious"

it's pretty lol how many times the statement 'people are just jealous of tom brady' has been uttered this week

is there anyone in america who is actually jealous of tom brady? he goes to bed at like 5 pm and eats nothing but kale

everyone in the world is jealous of tom brady and rightful so especially peyton manning most of all

xp: kale and Giselle Buendchen

boiled kale, you taste so good

xxxp i mean the dude can't so much as fart without there being worry on his team's part and that of the hagiographic boston sports media about how his legacy will somehow be subsequently compromised, i don't imagine that's an enjoyable way to live although the money probably helps

being tom brady is an experience to intensely blissful that an ordinary person wld prob percieve it as acute pain

imagine having a constant orgasm, after awhile it might be exhausting

not to tom brady tho he finds it exhilarating also he is able to have another orgasm while hes already having one

dude is a logarithmic expression of ecstasy, basically

^gets it

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weak

everything that's happened since the championship games keeps me changing my mind on who i'd like to see win. first i wanted the patriots because i don't want the seahawks to win again. then i thought about bill simmons crying on national tv if pete carroll beats the pats and i wanted the seahawks to win. then sagging balls gate occurred and i thought it would be sad if the pats didn't win and rub it in everyone's faces. i think i'll stick with that pick.

but bill simmons' tears are worth so much more than the last trophy that this franchise is ever capable of winning for at least like, idk, 15+ more years once touchdown tom bounces

::speechless with rage::

*angrily deflates football, realizes what he's just done and hurriedly hides damning evidence behind back*

i like both of these teams so I hope it ends in a tie

wld be p cool tbh

i guess on balance i would like the patriots to win

i voted for the patriots just cause of my life long fandom

patriots were the nearest nfl team to where i grew up

haha

brb creating a map projection that makes spirals a jets fan

I'm half-hoping the Pats get caught up in their send-off rally and end up trapped by the blizzard

xp lol pure evil. i would be like the black white supremacist on chappelle

sorry i think they're already gone

aw

maybe Gronk got distracted by some aluminum foil and they're having problems chasing him down

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0126/bos_pats_rally_576x324.jpg

wilfork is like, "i'm so glad y'all havent sacrificed me on the altar of baal yet to keep touchdown tom alive it means a lot to my kids"

Wilfork is more like "why am I here with you mere mortals, I have people in peril to rescue"

idk man i feel like kraft and/or belichick has sacrificed some lost children snatched off dot ave (and/or underperforming pats players) to various occult entities in order to keep the flame of winning alive

yes but Wilfork is an actual superhero

otm

how about that qb list, huh?

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/2015-nfl-free-agents-141400044--nfl.html

@JayGlazer

Breaking news: sources tell @FOXSports the NFL has zeroed in on a locker room attendant w Patriots who allegedly took balls from officials locker room to another area on way to field. Sources say they have interviewed him and additionally have video. Still gauging if any wrong doing occurred with him but he is strong person of interest

this is a joke, right?

idk jay glazer other than him being an occasional FS1 reporter...is he known to joke about such things

lmao @ person of interest

jay glazer also the person who falsely claimed that d'qwell jackson thought the ball was deflated and who reported earlier today that the nfl knew that the patriots would be using deflated balls and let them do that in the first half in order to pull a sting at half time.

guys it's about ethics in football journalism

it kind of is tho!

#NotAllFootballs

in the future all footballs will be made of solid horse meat

Balls to be inspected after every play.

Likewise every time Jay Cutler throws a td game will be suspended for 30 mins while ball is inspected in lab.

also they're the only team w/ a high profile cheating case in the recent past

― iatee, Monday, January 26, 2015 1:32 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is debatable at best btw, just off the top of my head the current coach of the pittsburgh steelers tripped someone during a play, the vikings and panthers were caught heating balls on the sidelines during a cold game, and the broncos taped a 49ers walkthrough a few years ago.

so ditka explicitly said on HBO's Real Sports that he wouldn't want his 8 year old son to play football and got all teary eyed.
of course when gumbel was asking him about his ex-players life-threatening ailments, he went off on an extensive rant along the lines of "Yeah but what, are you blaming me? Is this my fault" so fuck him.

also they're the only team w/ a high profile cheating case in the recent past

― iatee, Monday, January 26, 2015 1:32 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is debatable at best btw, just off the top of my head the current coach of the pittsburgh steelers tripped someone during a play, the vikings and panthers were caught heating balls on the sidelines during a cold game, and the broncos taped a 49ers walkthrough a few years ago.

― call all destroyer, Monday, January 26, 2015 8:28 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not to mention bountygate, which was not cheating but still a high profile scandal

qualifies as cheating prob cause of illegal payments

yeah i was unclear on exactly where bountygate landed in terms of proof but shld be in there

i would draw a distinction between an individual cheating at a given moment and a conspiracy to cheat that involved coaches/management/forethought

there's a difference between holding/pass interference and filming practice or setting bounties

no one is talking about holding and pass interference?

Why AREN'T we talking about it????!!!!

well, it *is* all cheating

(but yeah i was mainly trying to defend tomlin without explicitly saying so)

bob kraft taking the opportunity this eve to demonstrate his balls are fully inflated

yeah a coach interfering with the game exists somewhere in the realm between an onfield penalty and organized, premeditated rule-breaking--it also had more of an in-game impact than anything the patriots ever did.

oh, this is a lot patriot pitying rubbish. unless the nfl was completely incompetent and tested the balls at differing temperatures (i don't put it past them), there is almost no way someone at the patriots wasn't doctoring fucking footballs for brady. it's not the biggest deal in the world but goes in the kinda lols but mostly sad- and subject to sanction.

and the broncos taped a 49ers walkthrough a few years ago

http://cbssports.com/images/nfl/photogallery/Josh_McDaniels_Broncos_Video_Tape_Investigation.jpg
you gotta be fucking kidding me

there is almost no way someone at the patriots wasn't doctoring fucking footballs for brady.

no

unless the nfl was completely incompetent and tested the balls at differing temperatures

this is basically the case that Belichick was making the other day

what actual information do we have about doctored footballs that you can have any confidence in? there is no rigour to any of it so far, hopefully more information is released with the interview that proves otherwise but i'm not going to hold my breath. it takes a lot of will to conclude the patriots definitely did anything, which is fine but pretty hilarious coming in the context of an accusation of bias

interview=investigation

Here's the thing; this whole thing is hilarious

true, but since i've already made myself look a fool-

unless the nfl was completely incompetent and tested the balls at differing temperatures

this is basically the case that Belichick was making the other day

no, he said:

We found that once the footballs were on the field over an extended period of time, in other words, they were adjusted to the climatic conditions and also the fact that the footballs reached an equilibrium without the rubbing process, that after that had run its course and the footballs had reached an equilibrium, that they were down approximately one-and-a-half pounds per square inch. When we brought the footballs back in after that process and re-tested them in a controlled environment as we have here, then those measurements rose approximately one half pound per square inch. So the net of one and a half, back to a half, is approximately one pound per square inch, to one and a half.

so doing this process + calibration + exposure to cold + rewarming + calibration = a one psi loss. what? that's ridiculous.

and

No, the situation is the preparation of the football caused the football to, I would say, be artificially high in PSI when it was set to the regulation, regulated level. And then it reached its equilibrium at some point later on, an hour, two hours into the game into the pregame, whatever it was — and that level was below what was set in this climatic condition. I think that’s exactly what happened.

he's telling you the "rubbing process" caused the football to be "artificially high." it's not an explanation- it's an admission. if a merchant accused of thumbing the scales told you that his preparation of your bag of tomatoes caused it to weigh "artificially high" at the the time of weighing, what would you say?

and the thing is, i still don't believe that explanation, that rubbing them caused them to have an artificially elevated pressure reading. if the balls were in fact low, it would have been much easier just to let air out of the ball.

so yeah, i'm just biased.

no one has provided enough detail about the state of the various balls to perfectly assess any of these claims but to call pressure loss without tampering ridiculous is, well, ridiculous.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/24/basic-physics-may-defeat-deflategate.html

On a blackboard, the Ideal Gas Law is written thus:

PV=nRT

The P stands for pressure, the V for volume. The n is the amount of gas, the R a mathematical constant. The T is temperature.

Among other things, the equation establishes that if the volume is a constant such as the inside of a football, then the pressure will vary in accordance with the temperature.

Let’s say the internal pressure of a football is measured indoors, as the footballs were two hours before the AFC Championship game last weekend.

And let’s assume that the temperature inside was in the mid-70s Fahrenheit.

Now we know that the temperature on the field was around 50 degrees when the balls were brought out for the start of the game.

We also know that the temperature soon after dropped into the mid-40s.

And, as calculated by a prominent Boston physicist at the request of the Daily Beast, a 30-degree decrease in temperature would result in a corresponding pressure drop of 1.54 PSI (pounds per square inch.)

In 2006, Tom Brady (and Peyton Manning) lobbied in favor of changing an NFL rule that mandated home teams provided game balls for both teams. Brady wanted the NFL to let every team provide its own footballs to use on offense, even when that team was playing on the road. After Brady and Manning’s efforts, the NFL agreed to change the rule. Prior to that change, there would be relatively little advantage to playing with deflated footballs because both teams would be using the same balls.

“The thing is, every quarterback likes it a little bit different,” Brady said at the time he was pushing for the change. “Some like them blown up a little bit more, some like them a little more thin, some like them a little more new, some like them really broken in.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2015/01/stats_show_the_new_england_patriots_became_nearly_fumble_proof_after_a_2006.single.html

haha nice http://deadspin.com/robert-kraft-doubles-down-on-patriots-innocence-asks-n-1681931497

i do not dispute ideal gas law btw

found a picture of belichick explaining it for us

http://media.twnmm.com/storage/21444461/15

patriots fumble rate plummeting right after rule change allowing them control of game balls p sus tbqh

they had control of game balls 50% of the time before any change. was there a significant disparity between home/road fumble rates before that? or did someone just spend a day trawling thru various stats until something that could be explained 100 other ways appeared to correlate?

to be clear, i am not saying i believe the patriots didn't doing anything, but there are 2 major assumptions to any of this, 1) that there is something to explain and 2) that illegal tampering is the explanation, and even the first one is still hugely speculative. and if we are able to actually establish 1), from what details we have about the process here, hanlon's razor points squarely at the nfl until there is anything of actual substance implicating the patriots.

there was no incentive to flatten the balls before the rule change cause the other team wld be using them too

also u seem to be looking for some sort of courtroom ready proof but most ppl are just saying "lol yeah patriots did it cmon" and their intuition on this is prob right imo

not to mention theres statistical evidence that also points in that direction, and now this thing w lobbying for the rule change that wld enable the money business

monkey

bradys description of his process too p sus

http://soshcentral.com/football-science/football-statistics/2015/01/27/fumbling-data-truth-patriots-fumble-rate/

fumble rate analysis that has been going around seems to have some issues.

so if the resolution of this is an nfl statement "we feel like NE prob did this so pay a fine and draft pick loss" you are content with that?

they have talked at length about what you can do the prepare the balls within regulations, so there is no reason to look for something more sinister

and there is no statistical evidence that points in any direction on this. let me just say if this is your today show audition i am 100% behind you, you would be a terrific addition.

as long as the NFL bans Brady and Manning I will be satisfied

http://soshcentral.com/football-science/football-statistics/2015/01/27/fumbling-data-truth-patriots-fumble-rate/

fumble rate analysis that has been going around seems to have some issues.

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, January 27, 2015 10:38 AM (56 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol sons of sam horn stepping up w some excellent non exculpatory cherry picking

i think the cherry-picking occurred when the nfl.com writer included special teams fumbles in the original analysis!

so if the resolution of this is an nfl statement "we feel like NE prob did this so pay a fine and draft pick loss" you are content with that?

― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, January 27, 2015 10:39 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the burden of proof shd be higher w the nfl, but you seem to be arguing against something that hasnt happened yet/that you dont possess all the evidence for, but for my personal judgement at this point in time im fine saying the pat prob did it

oh sorry not nfl.com, just "nfl analyst"

i think the cherry-picking occurred when the nfl.com writer included special teams fumbles in the original analysis!

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, January 27, 2015 10:44 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they literally do not even contest his primary claim

this whole saga is more entertaining than the actual games to me

this is the most I've enjoyed the Pats in years

saying 7% increase instead of 88% is de facto disputing the claim

no claim?!?

saying 7% increase instead of 88% is de facto disputing the claim

― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, January 27, 2015 10:53 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no that evidence is a small side analysis of a few players who left the patriots, the main claim is just about how often the patriots fumble compared to other teams, which is a pretty simple calculation and is not disputed by the sons of sam horn

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/sports/sports_nut/2015/01/fumble_chart/150123_SNUT_Fumble-01.png.CROP.original-original.png

i mean like this chart is just how often do teams fumble

the secondary analysis was trying to see if the patriots are just finding super fumble adverse players and may well be flawed but it doesnt really matter since it was non comprehensive anyway

i assume phi and denver are using overinflated footballs

that wld be a good joke if philly wasnt exactly on the trendline with every other team except the patriots

also if philly has been found to be possessing over inflated balls

let's just assume every possible steroids/deflated balls joke has been made and move on

xp i'm not really sure what you're holding onto given that changes in temperature can plausibly explain the psi variance and given that no one has offered a reasonable theory on how the balls were tampered with. what seems likely to me is that tons of nfl games have been played for years with balls outside of the approved psi range.

I will agree to that provided that Brady is banned and we can hear more balls jokes

sorry tom brady will outlive you and all your descendants

does it really seem like the balls wld be that hard to tamper with

team employees are handling them, transporting them

cld even be swapped out for an entire diff bag of balls

by tomorrow you're going to be on the "he took the balls into a bathroom for 90 seconds" wagon aren't you

im just saying based on the descriptions of the protocol it doesnt seem like it wld be that hard

do the refs mark the balls after inspecting them or anything

yes, they do

what do they do to them

Then Waggoner marks each by silver Sharpie with an “L” below the NFL shield, Steratore’s branding of each ball so they’re not confused with other balls found on the sidelines. The “L” is in honor of Steratore’s fiancée."

lol

nfl really shd have chips in the balls for precice spots anyway they cld monitor inflation too

lol

@ppppolls: Pete Carroll (+21 at 37/16) has a net favorability 34 points better than Bill Belichick (-13 at 28/41) with NFL fans: http://t.co/teS1iseXTS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5PgOk1Hjcc
you don't feel in beast mode. it feels you.

Could never put my finger on who he's a ringer for but the internet has enlightened me
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7K94LYIgAE_Ot1.jpg

im just here so I won't get fined

supposedly the league was gonna fine him $500k if he hadn't shown up

man they really wanna take this dude's money huh

tampering was committed by none other than Murray Head

he's telling you the "rubbing process" caused the football to be "artificially high." it's not an explanation- it's an admission.

an admission except i don't see how it is breaking any of the current rules. maybe the league wants to change its rules to say the footballs need x number of hours to settle before the refs check them and also make sure the refs check them properly. but anyway, if this process involves taking some kind of industrial power tool to scrub the surface of the football.. which is what some other teams do.. that's the effect that no one in the media has really even asked about. it's not the room temperature vs the field temperature, it's the temperature/pressure/whatever generated by the process of breaking in the football the day of the game. which would obviously be different for the footballs used by the colts because they don't have the same process

and if the referees didn't really check the pressure that carefully that's on them

it doesn't make sense to me that the footballs were tampered with. like sneaking them into another room and deflating them or whatever. it doesn't make sense that a lhigh profile organization under a lot of media scrutiny would have, as a regular part of their process before the biggest event of the year at their stadium on national television, some random dude at the bottom of the chain charged with sneaking off with the game balls and doing something to alter them. it seems like if that were the case any investigator would have found it out within like a day

seems like for "the rubbing process" to account for the inflation issues youd have to either rub them right before the inspection or store than so that they retain the heat which id think wld otherwise dissipate pretty quickly, taking the would scenario from a byproduct of their process to the point of the whole scheme

wild speculation i know just a bit of fun folks, i like this theory tho provides plausible deniability

wodner if the refs were ever all yikes those are some hot balls u got there fellas

yeah it seems like it's a fine line between 'accidental byproduct of the process' vs intentionally being a little shady. belichick did say the 'process' continues right up until they're handed over to the officials. but like, if the refs continually okay them and/or don't even check all that carefully and never have any issue.. well.. i think that if during the afc title game someone decided there was going to be an issue, there were better ways for the league to handle it

yeah if the refs okay the balls and the patriots dont mess w them after then thats on refs/league for sure

i mean i guess the rules cld have something about being knowingly deceptive or whatever but still

truly

http://qpbs.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pPBS3-16908238reg.jpg

then thats on refs/league for sure

― lag∞n, Tuesday, January 27, 2015 7:15 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just to clarify i mean that from a ~legal~ standpoint, patriots still doing something unfair to the other team

Patriots deflated the balls. Let's move on

theres literally nothing to move onto of over a week is the problem

We can talk about the fashion choices of the legion of boom on that si cover shot. Partic earl's shoes

they decided to photoshop extra thick soles on everyones shoes for some reason? originals arent nearly as ridiculous http://sneakernews.com/2015/01/27/sport-illustrated-photoshopped-richard-shermans-red-yeezy-2s-latest-issue

what a weird thing to do

Ahaha wtf

Whyyyyyyyyy

v nice deployment of the red october yeezys

(in spite of the faux-platform)

probably something something photoshop something

someone got gronk to read a passage from a gronking to remember at media day

Took wrong message from Bieber's CK ads xxp

this shit is reaching epic proportions of stupidity
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8c7F11CcAAKDRZ.jpg

what the hell

you can't wear that hat, now get out on the field and incur some life-destroying injuries that we'll pretend don't exist

apparently there is precedent:

"Brian Urlacher wore a Vitamin Water hat during a 2007 Super Bowl appearance and was fined $100,000 — the league has a deal with Gatorade (Pepsi)."

this is dumb tho because it's marshawn lynch's brand and not skittles or whatever. also he's not brian urlacher.

nfl needs to chill and make some slight attempt to have a good working relationship w its players

it's almost like the nfl is purposely trying to come across as a heel

roger goodell should be like vince mcmahon and come back to the league as an evil qb character

btw had no idea til today the players dont have a union

decide to kick the pats out of the super bowl because of deflategate and replace them w/ a team filled w/ evil nfl businesspeople

superbowl should be played scientists to punish the nfl for fucking up their high school chemistry experiment so badly

my alma mater hard at work http://physics.bu.edu/~schmaltz/deflate.html

The nfl should prepare cartoon videos of some gas molecules bumping up against the inner wall of the football at measurement and game temperatures. Roger Goodell has to choose a temperature and then do a push-up every time a molecule bumps the inner wall. I want him to prove to nfl fans that he's learned his lesson and knows which temperature he should choose.

~schmaltz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVOyf3Dc_WY

http://i.imgur.com/vbtto9h.jpg

lol wow

I was thinking today that it's super easy to tell with a basketball that it's been deflated or overinflated cause you bounce it all the time

I guess it's harder to tell with a football because mostly you just hold it like a baby

Also I'm very curious about that ball boy, sticking a pin into 12 footballs for a few seconds each seems totally doable in 90 seconds or however long they have him on video for

yeah wld be no prob

gmafb you should see how many pins i get into my tawm brady voodoo doll in 90 secs it would be soooooo ez

especially if belichick was waiting behind a false wall to pop out and supervise the operation

srsly tho if that's part of the ball boy's job he is a fucking ninja and also has the most stressful job in the nfl

Mostly it's like why is there any reason at all to take a bag of footballs into a bathroom idgi

maybe hes belichicks protege

nfl should assign a private eye to do surveillance on the ball boy & check for recent luxury purchases

I was also thinking they could probably just take an ex linebacker and tape all the footballs to him and then get him to wear a super baggy shirt and sweats and then he could enter the bathroom and nobody would suspect a thing

the pats fill the balls with hot air immediately before they are checked. then the pressure is lower when the air inside comes to equilibrium at game time temperature.

you could probably do that and even argue that it's not illegal if the NFL is so dumb that they don't spec a temp for the pressure measurement.

yeah seems like the most likely method

wld be funny (and bad) if they fumbled like 25 times in the sbowl

patriot footballs have a little turkey thermometer in prep room, when it pops up, its ready.

ha the legion of doom is probly gonna punch and dig like never seen before it would be vmic i think.

der

FYI NFL

http://i.imgur.com/UPMyru9.jpg

those r handy

Super Bowl is officially sold out, NBC exec says it is a record amount for ad sales. (Spots were $4.5m/30 seconds)

30 second slots now selling for $11m on stubhub

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8d7TMaIAAAUMJk.png

let the takes wash over and cleanse you

That is one helluva face

i don't know who ed sherman is. i mean, outside of being a dickhead.

find him and destroy him

I actually began my journalism career at a young age. When I was 9, I had a letter published in John Justin Smith’s column in the Chicago Daily News, making fun of the Cubs. While I’m not sure if my writing has improved much since then, this White Sox fan still enjoys taking shots at the Cubs.

The letter put me on a clear career path. After graduating the University of Illinois, I began a 27-year career with the Chicago Tribune in 1981. I covered the Chicago Bears during their famous Super Bowl season in 1985 and spent three years as the beat writer for the White Sox. The teams were bad, but I got to write about Hall of Famers Carlton Fisk, Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton (he actually talked once!) and Tony La Russa.

Later I got to cover a fellow named Tiger Woods as the Tribune’s golf writer. I took over the sports media column in 1997, and it quickly became one of my favorite beats. I got to ride in John Madden’s bus; spend a night watching basketball with Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson at TNT; and share lunch with David Halberstam, one of my journalism heroes.

After leaving the Tribune in 2008, I did a sports business blog for Crain’s Chicago Business. I continue to write about golf for several outlets and co-host a Saturday morning golf talk show on WSCR-AM 670.

I am the co-author of two books. Dan McNeil, a local sports radio personality, and I wrote The Great Book of Chicago Sports Lists (Running Press, 2008). I then teamed with long-time Washington Post reporter Leonard Shapiro on Golf Lists Mania (Running Press, 2011). Jim Nantz provided the foreword for the book, which included contributions from Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

In the honors department, I was cited twice in the prestigious Associated Press Sports Editors contest with top 4 finishes for best news story. I was a three-time first-place winner in the Golf Writers of America Association contest in the enterprise category. In 1994, the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University presented him with the Excellence in Sports Journalism Award.

I live in the North suburbs of Chicago with my wife, Ilene, an accomplished lawyer and my sons, Matt and Sam, who inherited their father’s addiction for all things sports.

My favorite sporting moments? That’s easy: The White Sox winning the 2005 World Series and making birdies on 12 and 14 at Augusta National. Not bad for a 15-handicapper.

oh he's a chitown sportswriter, making him clearly no stranger to lava-hot takes

if Marshawn would just chat about himself in a fascinating first-person style like Ed Sherman's, we'd have no Skittles boycott

Seahawks' Lynch makes a mockery of Media Day

His teammates' defense of him is understandable; to them, Lynch is loyal in the locker room and ferocious on the field, fully worthy of his "Beast Mode" nickname.

Also, consider their general profile: These largely are very young men whose talent has afforded them shelter and structure most of their lives. They are people for whom "hard work" equates to lifting weights and running sprints; for whom "commitment" means adhering to a loose daily schedule that tells them when to wake, when to eat, when to think; for whom "adversity" means being .500 midway through a season and somehow making the playoffs.

They know little of the real world and its gravity.

dude deserves to be tackled repeatedly

whatever shall we do if the sanctity of media day is rendered null & void, will beat writers even be able to eat?

umm i have some issues with lynch but he grew up in *circumstances* iirc.

for whom "commitment" means adhering to a loose daily schedule that tells them when to wake, when to eat, when to think

Wow that does sound loose

coach sys think and i think man end of story

they are free to poot just whenever

it is chaos

That guy should be permanently reassigned to cover roller hockey events

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/01/jeb_bush_and_bill_belichick_at_andover_the_presidential_candidate_and_patriots.html

There to witness this transformation, along with Jeb, were his fellow members of the Class of ’71, a group that also included Lincoln Chafee, who would eventually assume his father’s seat in the U.S. Senate, and Tom Foley, who would to go on to become a successful venture capitalist and George W. Bush’s ambassador to Ireland before twice losing bids to become Connecticut’s governor, in 2010 and 2014. (Just one and two years behind them, respectively, were authors Buzz Bissinger and Michael Beschloss.) And at the start of their senior year, they were joined by Belichick, who had come north for a postgraduate year after attending high school in Annapolis, where his father was working as a talent scout for the Naval Academy’s football team, to improve his odds of getting into a premier college.

Marshawn Lynch has a problem. He's not taking my job seriously.

Why would he, his job is one that's not serious and has no gravity.

Why isn't he taking seriously the job of people who report on his job?

Fine him and suspend him.

that particular style of sportswriting is quite literally the worst thing in the world. worse than famine and ISIS.

that slate column was the most masturbatory nonsense i've read in ages

jesus christ

Otm to both

Do you think Belichick and Buzz Bissinger ever hung out

bissinger trying to persuade BB to like, do ecstasy or some shit sounds like the beginning of a hilarious buddy comedy

xp i don't know, can a slate writer use public information to speculate on it?

"Ever self-serving, Lynch was thrown a bag of Skittles candy, with whom he has an endorsement deal."

This is literally the opposite of self-serving

skittles-serving

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/your-guide-to-deflate-gateballghazi-related-statistical-analyses/

not sure i can do it tbh

ja

oops

jay feely has blown the lid off the chicago bears organization with the shocking revelation that jay cutler lacks leadership skills

damnn

Jimmy Clausen has excellent leadership skills, at least with his fellow hedgehogs.

Trestman lost the team! #breakingfeelynews

jay feely is so awful

https://medium.com/the-cauldron/an-open-letter-to-charles-barkley-co-cb5c4e64cf3

haha for a second i thought that said jose-calderon/an-open-letter-to-charles-barkley

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SxLzXaCgQM

@BartHubbuch
Looking forward to the Marshawn-to-English translation from this morning's press conference.

nypost ftw

woooooooooooow.

Bart should be forced to give his 2014 salary to Marshawn and then be forced to watch Marshawn set it on fire bc fuck you "Bart"

http://youtu.be/MNpkSyryQz4

since i seem to have forgotten how to embed youtube videos: ^that's Gronk vs Beast Mode playing Mortal Kombat X on Conan.

marshawn's video game reactions are special

yess http://gawker.com/psychic-clam-predicts-super-bowl-xlix-winner-seahawks-1682659082

Should somehow have referenced legendary cankles post. Disappointed tbh.

goodell is outdoing himself with this press conference based on the quotes rolling across my twitter feed

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8nKMd4CQAALaXQ.jpg

They found the culprits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feuNeJewzDo

xp seattle has the advantage there, the other two easily assuage the pain/awfulness of macklemore

whereas...yea all kinds of nope on the opposing side

jim from the office is so bad

damon and afflecks accents are perfect

shdve invited affleck the younger to participate tho

apalmer v macklemore is pretty tough

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

no need to watch the game, theres the score 25-7 squawks repeat

steven tyler is so weird looking right now

his face is several psi under imo

looks like someone didn't fully use a "pump" on his face so they could more easily "get a grip" on it.

magnificent

Should somehow have referenced legendary cankles post. Disappointed tbh.

― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, January 30, 2015 9:14 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Link?

http://i.imgur.com/Iglownl.png

http://i.imgur.com/bewW7xP.png

lolz:
https://twitter.com/andyweei/status/561556380667363328

the not-so-lol-kinda-lame result:
https://twitter.com/wegmans/status/561559421219008512

at first I read the response as that the employee was fired and I think the cakes were just ditched, but come oonnnnnnn

more marshawn vs. gronk http://deadspin.com/marshawn-lynchs-outtakes-from-gaming-with-gronk-are-als-1683003501?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

lol both those clickhole bits great

dyo: Lindsay Lohan: "Hot, Ready, and Legal!"

lol classic post

XD

GO SEAHAWKS

so good highly recommend

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=puYhohw-k_w

This song suxx

I can't wait to completely ignore this event

shush no one cares

Can't wait how calstars is gonna go grocery shopping during the Super Bowl... because the supermarkets will be empty!! Wwo what a lifehack

calstars ignores the #1 american holiday because... hes cool?

what event are you guys talking about

the superb owl

bought an easter egg to watch this. we've also got mini eggs. good luck usa

GO SEAHAWKS :)

^^^

the egg is like a chocolate superbowl egg

the one they throw but i eat it

I forgot this was happening

But then you put down the fleshlight and it came to you?

http://www.theonion.com/articles/friend-shows-up-to-super-bowl-party-wearing-eagles,37896

huh superbowl xilx

lol

uh oh

Buscemi.

nil-nil makes it seem more authentic, great stuff

what was Buscemi schilling?

Ohh I ain't tellin u

Nice! Except for the INT, the pats have been looking pretty dominant so far.

noooooo

cmon seahawks plzzzzzzz

lmfao that coke advert is the most sinister thing i've ever seen

The rock with a mini gun :)

verified tanks and beasts

Pay With Lovin' maybe the worst thing yet

Huge!

Gutsy move, hawks

huh

pete carroll's balls: sizable, arguably big

Holy fleck.

dope

Nice robotic lion

MISSY

What's she saying after 'let me work it'?

Man I screamed when Missy showed up.

Xpost "it's NERF and I got a pan ketchup"

A+ halftime show!!!

that was fucking awesome

Bob vistas has so muchnbogox

Lol at Kravitz being a castoff.

yeah that was really good. black eyed peas a sick joke of a memory at this point

That halftime show was the greatest thing I've ever seen.

fucking

incredible

Rockist fb friends bitching, apparently unaware that their beloved rock bands sing over prerecorded music at the SB.

katy perry riding 'the more you know' star around the stadium A+++++

that was sooooo many factors better than carting the Rolling Stones or Aerosmith out there

pats cant block sea anymore = game ovr

holy shit @ that butler trip

Eh, there have been missed calls on both sides

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8zezgoIMAAh4KI.jpg

same move edelman got him with last drive when brady missed the throw

the first move was much better tho

hoooly shit

Hahahahhahaahha

that is literally unbelievable

pats are cursed by unreal catches huh

amaaaaaaazing

holy hell

why in god's name did they throw it

Amazing!!!!!! So glad they fired Carroll.

tom brady is happy

the seahawks are... deflated

seattle could definitely get a safety and the ball back here tho

wow

what the hell!

lol Pete Carroll.

Weird last play throwing into the middle of the field considering the Seahawks had Beastmode or maybe running some type of option play with Wilson to either throw or run it in.

What is going on?!?

AMERICA

beautiful seattle seahawks football here to close it out

this is nuts

nuts!!!

such a dumb call, whyyyyyyy

i really wanted to see sad bob kraft :(
welp

did the Dolphins win?

Go eagles

"i really wanted to see sad bob kraft :("

Sad Paul Allen is pretty awesome come on.

Wasn't really paying attention until the very end. Wish I hadn't seen that.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

that was a pretty dope super bowl tho

otm

Can't believe the bears won

where were the snipers
this was a preventable win

fffuuuuuuuu

congrats jay cutler

but yeah, awesome game overall

Great game. Not running beast mode on that drive will haunt the Hawks for eternity.

damn, this looks like it was actually a good game and I missed nearly all of it. Is there/will there be some way to watch a condensed/play action only version?

YOU GUYS

still not sure if that really happened

looool @ warner handing the lombardi to the pats
where's goodell already

man this has been an unreal postseason of teams blowing games in crazy ways

hey goodell! thanks for making the runup to the game absolutely miserable for the pats and their fans <3

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8zug0XCEAAkRU8.jpg

^ x 10000000

I couldn't really hear commentary over the noise, but was there any good goddamn reason for the Hawks to throw the ball when they're inches from the end zone?

No. Zero reasons.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_k4__zh4GdZA/TLtAu5azfCI/AAAAAAAABwg/nsF4mnWJatg/s1600/Rules+of+the+Game+-+Octave+and+Andre.JPG
Everyone has there reasons.

wow it was really *inches* and they threw it? that's insane. (i had to stop watching for some of it - don't handle stress well)

Aargh, typo. @##*@&# "their'

I thought the Pats made a huge mistake not letting Lynch score on 1st down, there's like a 0% shot he doesn't get it in on three tries with no clock remaining. Also can't believe BB doesn't call a timeout there

i agree there; weird conspiracy theory vibes

yea i thought they should've used a time out, v odd end but good game really grats pats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llyiQ4I-mcQ

I know, I know, it's Pete Carroll. Is he calling offensive plays, though, or is it Darrell Bevell? Or was it a Russell Wilson audible? I know the adage is that only teams win or lose games, not individual players, but whoever it was among those three that called that play lost the game all by himself.

Wpooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Carroll said it was his call

dan patrick made it sound like it was russell wilson's call
i feel better blaming carroll tbh

Smug Pats fans are cracking me up right now. It's like winning the lottery with a ticket you found on the sidewalk.

cue GeneWilder.jpg

it was a pretty absurd way to win a game. more than the two (?) defended passes in the end zone from sterling moore and a missed chip shot by the ravens in the afc title game in 2012

football gods are weird

;)

just saw a clip of belichick postgame press conference and he has exactly the same expression/tone as when they lose

Decided to watch this Blacklist thing afterwards and finding it not terrible, although James Spader just compared himself to an axolotl, don't know how I feel about that.

No, it was a blind cave fish, never mind.

wooooooooooo pats

shaugnessy just wrote "the patriot way" in a lede and there is no way in hell he was being ironic

*shaughnessy

NE almost died but did not and instead lived long enough to see itself become the cowboys

nah we're way better than the cowboys

by the way what the hell was with Wilson going for the kill shot with 1:40 left on the clock. seriously channeling Flacco there

anyway - about that final call - maybe with :20 on the clock and 1 TO he was figuring he had to pass on either 2nd or 3rd down? I mean you can't run 3 straight times there, you'd run out of clock. ironically BB *not* taking the timeout may have won them the game

that's what they do, they throw deep. they're pretty good at it

xp

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8zdbMKIcAIChGT.jpg

nah we're way better than the cowboys
--call all destroyer

not what I meant exactly, but they are certainly a better team than the current cowboys and their opponent pissed it down their legs

xxp gotta be aware of the game situation though

sherman getting hype about a. russell wilson 1st half performance or b. seattle point total

call all destroyer
Posted: February 1, 2015 at 11:45:12 PM
nah we're way better than the cowboys

only dynasty that has an argument is the montana/young niners

I know, I know, it's Pete Carroll. Is he calling offensive plays, though, or is it Darrell Bevell? Or was it a Russell Wilson audible? I know the adage is that only teams win or lose games, not individual players, but whoever it was among those three that called that play lost the game all by himself.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, February 2, 2015 3:42 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bevell calls the plays.

Carroll was careful to say "we" about the decision making but it was Bevell's call and Bevell took responsibility for it.

carroll was so shook lol never seen anything like it

i get what they were trying to do and don't even disagree with a pass, but the pass should have been a safe throw toward the sideline.

also run down the clock why

We come from a city. And our city won or lost a football game today.

shh

i think they got confused that the pats didn't call timeout, def got shook by the clock situation.

pete carroll tripping balls in the lockerroom is so incredible

i disagree with the pass, it was senseless when they got positive yards on every single run play. amazingly boneheaded. good point abut the clock tho, i think that was a thing, altho i was screaming at the tv about that.

i think you can pass there as long as it's the type of pass that either your guy is getting or is hitting the ground, instead they called basically the riskiest goal line pass play.

feel like that kind of play call beat the packers but Seahawks o coordinator was on a tony soprano peyote roulette thing at the time

well it is important to put that play in the context of numerous other risky throws that happened to come off thru the game

seattle's offense seems to be best in broken late-game situations, there's something just off about it.

and how bout them 'mercials!

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/01/madden_nfl_15_predicts_the_win.html

whoa

Video is pretty wrong tho

Pete Carroll not even chewing gum

didn't watch the game, but regardless of the offensive call, that was a heckuva® play by butler

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/check-out-doug-baldwin-s-dirty-touchdown-celebration-021817629.html
this was such a doofus move by everyone involved

did everyone have a good whorefest?

several interesting things happened, it would have been confusing and alarming for you

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8z0jLiIYAMCtkV.jpg

this was a lot more open than i realized last night. what a play to come up for the int.

that's interesting. with butler lurking there is he open at all? i don't know enough to say but from that view that looks like they set a trap and baited wilson into it. either way an outstanding play by butler.

official tightly covered by the safety there

even with butler recognizing the play he's coming a long way up to actually beat lockette to the ball. a deflection would have been an excellent play there, nevermind the int.

god is good

lol i watched the game w just a few friends who r hardcore pats fans no n00bs or enemies allowed and when the int happened we were all freaking out except my friend pete who cldnt believe it actually happened he was just sitting there saying like no wait its not over what guys

quote of the day from pete carroll "we were planning on running it in for the win just not on that play"

lol bro https://twitter.com/dangerusswilson/status/562229359398756352

lmao just had to get that pass out of the way so we could get to the actual winning play

that carroll lockerroom interview will go down in history

was it better than Mike Matheny saying last October "well, I didn't bring my closer in to save the season because it was a tie game"?

like that was the most coherent thing he said the whole time, he was just profoundly shook and babbling really worth watching

was watching the nfl network after and they had this emmit smith tweet in the corner of the screen for like five mins while they were talking lol https://twitter.com/emmittsmith22/status/562084396753121281

lol i watched the game w just a few friends who r hardcore pats fans no n00bs or enemies allowed and when the int happened we were all freaking out except my friend pete who cldnt believe it actually happened he was just sitting there saying like no wait its not over what guys

― lag∞n, Monday, February 2, 2015 11:09 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think i was a pete, i was physically moving r. spiralli out of the way to see if there were any flags on the int.

like when the announced the int stood after review he was all wait no what listen he cldnt compute lol

then he was worried there was no place to kneel cause they were on the one

coming from that far out of position to make the int was crazy for sure but even more impressive was imo how he hung onto the ball and stayed up after the collision the receiver went flying lol just totally blown up

i liked the melee on the final play too good stuff everyone losing their shit cldnt believe what happened

best superbowl ever right

any chance he could've stayed in the end zone? cuz I was thinking the same thing - "Hawks can easily get a safety here and maaaaybe get 2 shots at a 15-20 yd throw and kick a winning FG"

then he was worried there was no place to kneel cause they were on the one

― lag∞n, Monday, February 2, 2015 11:41 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes this was also me

i liked the melee on the final play too good stuff everyone losing their shit cldnt believe what happened

yeah I mean every sportswriter on the planet is gonna be talking about this but it's really interesting to see how legacies and dynasies can be flipped in literally an instant. figured Russ was fighting an uphill battle trying to score a TD w/ 2 minutes but he then gets two 30 yard plays, one of which was absolutely ridiculous, and you can really see the life coming out of the Pats, given how everyone and their mother knows that Lynch is gonna score there like 95% of the time. only, that happened.

yeah, it wasn't clear if the Pats let the clock run down after the first attempt by Lynch because they were so stunned or if they were really playing devious mind games to force a passing play. Naturally, I prefer the latter interpretation.

ya cldve been that belichick saw that the seahawks were looking disorganized there and just decided to go w it

pats fans can admit that bill froze up like romeo crennel, they won the game anyway so it doesn't matter

bill's relief was like the end of american psycho

Right, there were tons of people saying "just run with Lynch 4 times there" but on 2nd down no way would they have gotten three running plays off, there were 23 seconds (?) and only 1 TO. So they would have to throw once, either on 2nd or 3rd, and I guess if it's on 3rd everone knows its coming. I'm guessing this is what Carroll is saying in his pressers. I'd like to think BB was considering this very thing but I feel it was most likely just shock. My issue was that running the slant through the middle there is literally the riskiest thing you can do.

Rewatching this, it took a really, really great play by Butler to even make it possible, and to Seattle's defense he really does look wide open in that moment.

there were only 23 seconds cause they took the entire play clock to run a play btw

wow

http://i.imgur.com/5kkwrpR.png

on loop https://vine.co/v/OtEnpTa7tUZ

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--Jm4Vj7ez--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/nsxfjcng5rixsfcui1nr.gif

the fact that he had the presence of mind to get to the right spot for the INT and then manage to find his balance and run it out of the end zone is pretty mind blowing

pats fans can admit that bill froze up like romeo crennel, they won the game anyway so it doesn't matter

― J0rdan S., Monday, February 2, 2015 12:09 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

literally no way to know this but deciding it was more advantageous to let the clock run and force seattle into throwing at least one pass rather than running lynch three straight times is a completely reasonable call and prob the mostly likely explanation all things considered

http://i.imgur.com/plmpD7M.png