Cheatriots At It Again....

[itjclarke]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

The League wanted no part of this. This has been the worst season from a public relations standpoint that the NFL has endured in years, IMO. Yet the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson issues had finally died down. There were wild rumors about Rice being signed late by Pittsburgh to help with RB depth during the playoff chase, and coach Zimmer openly stated that he wants and expects AP to be a big part of the Vikings offense next year– in both cases the public outrage in these stories was long gone. The recent controversial endings to the Dallas/Detroit and Green Bay/Dallas games had also been an embarrassment or at least sore spot for the NFL, yet it looked like those were overcome. Now this– no way Goodell and company are happy about it, and if anything, it puts unwanted attention back on them.

Regardless of whether you think it is a major rules violation, it is a straightforward violation nonetheless, and a slap in the face of league authority. And as often happens, I believe the coverup will be worse than the crime. The Pats should have hunkered down with no comment through this week and then ducked the questions next week on the theory that we were preparing for the big game. The proper response, IMO, would be no press conference but just a simple release saying they were aware of these irregularities with the footballs and would cooperate fully with NFL investigators when questioned about it. The wink-wink of that scenario would be that Goodell would not get around to or at least would not complete his “full investigation” until after the Super Bowl, so any penalty would await next year and the overall fervor would die down. They may get that same result anyway–you heard Brady say yesterday that the league has not even questioned him about it yet– but those press conferences, especially Brady’s, bring their own harm and bad publicity and did little or nothing to calm the situation.

Originally Posted by Runscott

If anything, this draws attention TO the shortcomings of the NFL and Goodell.

I was a little tipsy when I wrote my post last night, and do think I overstated if I hinted the league actually wanted this as a distraction to take focus off their own issues. I definitely also agree that the response (or cover up) is worse than the crime. That being said, I think seeing the league jump to action, interview 40+ Pats employees so far, and trying to look like the ever vigilant enforcers is laughable. Contrast the rapidity of this response with the months it took Mueller to investigate and eventually tell us nothing new about whether the league had viewed the 2nd Ray Rice video. Goodell and Co are a joke, and when they want to hide and play the waiting game, they're as effective as Michael Corleone in Sicily (they knew AP and Rice stories would go stale if they could just wait)... but when they see a very manageable opportunity to prove their "integrity", like deflate-gate, they're up front and center. I also do think, even if more PR damage is being done, Goodell is probably at least somewhat happy seeing another person play league villain... this of course is just my own hunch.

I'll never be convinced this incident is a big deal. I think the referenced Damon Huard comment seems plausible. Lots of opinions being offered about how big and blatant a 2 psi difference is, etc, but wouldn't it be fun to do a blind psi test of footballs and see if people could actually easily identify a 11 psi ball, compared to a 12 or 13. If the NFL wants to impose a regimented program for controlling, providing, monitoring game balls, and to stop allowing team supplied balls and alterations, so be it... it will then be a big deal if someone breaks these rules. Until then, I don't see how it can be made a big deal if enforcement has been nearly non existent for decades.

I also haven't had much time, nor do I really care to dig deeply into the coverage of this story, but I will say I don't trust the views of many many of the people I've seen cover the NFL. Many may be employed by the NFL network, others are granted great access and don't want to jeopardize that... others just have no clue. Years ago I shared an apartment with an oft times nationally syndicated sports radio host. I watched a Super Bowl with him and could not believe how little he truly knew football (couldn't tell a traditional 5 step drop from a QB in the shotgun, and so on)... yet he'd made a career talking about it, and even scarier, talked politics too. In the end, I realized most of his takes were just borrowed/taken from other talking heads, and there was limited originality in his "opinions". I'll continue to trust my gut on this one, and hope this does not overshadow what is a very compelling on field match up.