The Official CE&HST Super Bowl Thread

[Teddy B 17,252]

Read the link I posited when you have some time. If this was a court of law, the NFL would have no case. Kraft's lawyers must have digested the Wells report and then come up with this rebuttal. I just wonder if he'll take it to court.

I started to read it earlier, but had to stop. I'll try to get to it tomorrow.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

I started to read it earlier, but had to stop. I'll try to get to it tomorrow.

Your homework for tonight is to read it and the Wells report. There will be a quiz in the morning.

[Teddy B 17,252]

Your homework for tonight is to read it and the Wells report. There will be a quiz in the morning.

My homework for tonight is to mow the lawn and drink a few beers.

[Teddy B 17,252]

Deflategate (2005) to top ⤴home ⇐awards ⤵

TEAM: The Chicago Bears

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: Ex-Bears and retired Pro Bowl quarterback Jeff Blake confessed in an interview that removing air from footballs was common when he played in the NFL from 1992-2005.

"I'm just going to let the cat of the bag, every team does it, every game, it has been since I played," the ex-Jets QB said Wednesday in a radio interview on the "Midday 180" show on Nashville's 104.5 The Zone. "Cause when you take the balls out of the bag, they are rock hard. And you can't feel the ball as well. It's too hard.

"Everybody puts the pin in and takes just enough air out of the ball that you can feel it a little better. But it's not the point to where it's flat. So I don't know what the big deal is. It's not something that's not been done for 20 years."

Blake says that he'd order ball boys to let air out of his footballs just before the start of games during his entire NFL career, which included time with the Chicago Bears in 2005.

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? No

http://yourteamcheats.com/CHI#Deflategate-2005

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

My homework for tonight is to mow the lawn and drink a few beers.

That sounds like fun - except for the lawn...

[Teddy B 17,252]

That sounds like fun - except for the lawn...

Yeah, unfortunately it must be done!

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Yeah, unfortunately it must be done!

Why? My crabgrass hasn't even started growing yet.

And remember, this thread is about Tom Brady's balls, not idle chit chat.

[Teddy B 17,252]

Ballsgate (2003) to top ⤴home ⇐awards ⤵

TEAM: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: Prior to Super Bowl XXXVII, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Brad Johnsonpaid some guys $7,500 to scuff and break in the 100 footballs that were to be used in the Super Bowl.

Johnson, who led the Buccaneers to a 48-21 victory over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII, says he broke the rules to make sure the footballs in the game were more comfortable in his hand. According to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Time, Johnson struggled to grip wet, cold or out-of-the-box footballs and was forced to wear a glove in the preceding NFC Championship game. With the NFL supplying 100 new footballs for the Super Bowl, Johnson said that he made sure the balls would be prepped to his liking.

Admitted Johnson, "I paid some guys off to get the balls right. I went and got all 100 footballs, and they took care of all of them."

VICTIM: Oakland Raiders (Raiders' QB Rich Gannon threw five interceptions in the loss)

PUNISHED? No

PUNISHMENT: The NFL wouldn't care about teams potentially doctoring footballs until 12 years later. Although both teams used the same doctored footballs, Johnson specifically altered the footballs to be more comfortable in his hands, which may have been different than what was comfortable in Gannon's hands.

http://yourteamcheats.com/TB#Ballsgate-2003

Heatergate (2014) to top ⤴home ⇐awards ⤵

TEAM: The Minnesota Vikings

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: In November 2014, The Minnesota Vikings played their coldest home game in 38 years, when they beat the Carolina Panthers in 12-degree temperatures at TCF Bank Stadium.

As both teams dealt with the freezing temperatures, Fox cameras showed (at 2 min. 50 sec. of the embedded video) sideline attendants using heaters to warm up game balls, which was against league rules. NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said the day after the game that officials warned both the Vikings and Panthers not to heat up the balls during Sunday's game, and would remind teams this week not to heat game balls.

"You can't do anything with the footballs in terms of any artificial, whether you're heating them up, whether it's a regular game ball or kicking ball, you can't do anything to the football," Blandino said. "So that was noticed during the game, both teams were made aware of it during the game and we will certainly remind the clubs as we get into more cold weather games that you can't do anything with the football in terms of heating them up with those sideline heaters."

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? No

PUNISHMENT: Looks like it was only the Panthers, not the Vikings. The footage shown on NFL Network is from the Vikings sideline, though there are attendants from both teams on both sidelines and a league source said the Vikings weren't heating up the balls during the game.

http://yourteamcheats.com/MIN#Heatergate-2014

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Gisele must be pissed with the whole country talking about how her husband likes his balls to be rubbed, brushed, etc.

[Teddy B 17,252]

Inflategate (2008-14) to top ⤴home ⇐awards ⤵

TEAM: The Green Bay Packers

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com, noted that during the November 30, 2014 game between the Packers and Patriots on CBS, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms discussed the preference of Green Bay Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers for overinflated footballs.

"'I like to push the limit to how much air we can put in the football, even go over what they allow you to do and see if the officials take air out of it,'" Simms said Rodgers told them before the game. Rogers' believes that "It's not an advantage when you have a football that’s inflated more than average air pressure. We’re not kicking these footballs."

Former quarterback Phil Simms said that Rodgers' preference is the exception as most quarterbacks prefer a softer football.

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? No but ... it's more probable than not that this was cheating

PUNISHMENT: To be fair, Rodgers' ball-manipulation is different than what Tom Brady was "at least generally aware of." Rodgers inflated his footballs to an illegal level before the game-day inspection and hoped that the illegal balls slipped by an unsuspecting official. It was still cheating, but not quite as serious as the accusation of deflating a football after it had been inspected.

Nonetheless, I'm sure the league is looking into Rodgers' statement about illegally tampering with his footballs. It's a matter of fairness and respect for the game, after all.

http://yourteamcheats.com/GB#Inflategate-2008

[Teddy B 17,252]

Stickumgate (90s) to top ⤴home ⇐awards ⤵

TEAM: The San Francisco 49ers

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: Former San Francisco wide receiver Jerry Rice admitted in an ESPN video history on the evolution of wide receiver gloves that he illegally used stickum on his own gloves to make his job easier.

Said Rice: "I know this might be a little illegal, guys, but you put a little spray, a little stickum on them, to make sure that texture is a little sticky."

At a time when many were expecting Rice to claim that his words were taken out of context or that he was joking, Rice took to Twitter to admit that he did it, and that it was more than "a little illegal." He tweeted: "I apologize ppl after doing my research about stickum!," Rice said. "The NFL banned this in 1981. All players did it! #equalplayingfield."

Bountygate cheater and former wide receiver Chris Carter said he himself never used Stickum and if Jerry Rice did, then he cheated.

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? No

http://yourteamcheats.com/SF#Stickumgate-1995

[Ban Hammer 13,333]

Why? My crabgrass hasn't even started growing yet.

And remember, this thread is about Tom Brady's balls, not idle chit chat.

[Rob L 3,811]

Rationalization stage of grief

[Rob L 3,811]

Gisele must be pissed with the whole country talking about how her husband likes his balls to be rubbed, brushed, etc.

Right,thats her job

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Roger Goodell is going to hear Brady's appeal, so it looks like the 4 game suspension will stay. I don't see him reducing it since his second in command made the decision. That is an interesting part of the CBA, the commissioner has the right to hear appeals and the Players Union agreed to it back in 2011 when the new agreement was signed. So Goodell is judge, jury and executioner. Brady's option after the appeal is to take it to court, and he'll have to turn over everything if he does.

I don't think the suspension will be reduced. The NFL is going to stand firm and say, if you don't like it, take us to court. And I don't think that is going to happen. If Brady has evidence to clear his name, he would have provided it. And in court, all parties will have to testify under oath and be liable for perjury. Somehow I doubt the Deflator will stick to his story.