Are These 5 Patriots Championship Rings Now Tarnished?
 

Pictured below are the five Championship rings Belichick and Brady have been awarded. Suddenly, the next championship ring that will be awarded to the Patriots after Super Bowl XLIX, and the rings shown below don’t seem so special.

“Deflate-Gate is the main subject on sports-talk radio this week. The latest breaking news is that the Ravens suspected the balls were deflated and warned the Colts before the championship game played last Sunday.

This whole mess raises some important questions:

1) If Bill Belichick knew the balls were deflated, then Tom Brady knew too? Is Brady a cheater too?.

2) While it’s a valid argument that the Colts were beaten so badly in the Championship game that deflated balls didn’t affect the outcome of the game, what about the close playoff game against the Ravens? Did New England cheat in that game too? If they did, could the Ravens have won had the game been played without deflated balls?

3) What if the Championship game had been a close game instead of a blow out? Would the talk and anger been more intense?

4) Has this whole matter tainted the upcoming Super Bowl game?

5) What will Media Day be like (in fact how about the stories for the next 10 days) if Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are not suspended for the game?

6) Since this is the second time Belichick has cheated (remember Spy-gate), how should he be punished? And when?

7) And finally, are these five New England Patriot Champion Rings now tarnished?

If you don’t think the championship rings above are tarnished, then ask yourself this question: The Rams were favored in Super Bowl XXXVI (Brady and Belichick’s first Super Bowl Championship). Back then, it seemed uncanny how prepared New England’s defense was during that game. How much did Spy Gate help the underdog Patriots in that game?

Any thoughts on this topic?

ANSWERS:
1. Both Belicheat and Shady Brady knew. I'm sure it was Brady who led this and Belicheat put his stamp on it. It's also easier for the running backs to hold onto the ball. I don't think the Pats RBs lost a fumble all season.

2. Probably

3. Yes

4. Yes. Either outcome will be tainted. If the Pats lose, then people will be saying that they can't win without cheating. If they win, they will say that they cheated to get there.

5. Belicheat and Brady will just dodge the questions like they usually do.

6. Much like Sean Payton with Bounty-Gate, he should be suspended for the entire 2015-16 season. He has already said that he didn't know anything about it.....highly unlikely, so he is either a liar or Tom Brady did it on his own and he should face suspension. Either way, the buck stops with the Coach/GM Belicheat.....he needs to face a suspension.

7. Absolutely

Patriots Rule.....
 

Patriots Rule!

Nuf said.

Peace, Mike

Phil - Great answers!

To expand on #5, while I agree those two will try to downplay and doge the questions, in similar fashion to the Rice incident, I see this story continue to grow because of fan outrage and media attention.

This story will be a big deal up until kickoff of the Super Bowl game. The main stream media is reporting on this, it even was showcased very early on the NBC nightly news last night (they show the biggest stories first).

Now I see petitions are popping up on Facebook and the internet and local sports talk radio is mentioning that the other owners, especially the Ravens ownership is outraged and will be putting pressure on Goodell to do something strong and harsh.

Strong and harsh....
 

The only thing the the other teams and owners will do is to continue to lose games to the Patriots.

I am quite enjoying the extra storylines associated with the Super Bowl (I mean the big game).

Defalte gate. Seriously......too funny!

Peace, Mike

Hi Michael,

I think further information needs to come out before a penalty can be assessed. What's being talked about on Boston sports radio this morning is that there is a very high probability that the Patriots were warned of this since the Colts brought it to the attention of the NFL back after they played in November........and then they still did this.

Another issue is that if the balls were checked prior to the game (which has been reported) and then the Patriots let air out of the balls between that pre-game check and half-time, then they are guilty of tampering with the balls after they were checked.

After the Ray Rice incident and Adrian Peterson incident, Goodell now has an itchy trigger finger. So, if they were warned and still did it, Goodell should hand down suspensions..........not necessarily for the Super Bowl, but at least for part of next season.

Also, Belicheat is a past offender so that should weigh into the punishment.

Do you really think that this was the first time they decided to do this?

I believe Belichik knew. I also think they will distance themselves from it by saying some ballboy did it without their knowledge and they have now fired him.

I heard an interesting thought as to the punishment that would stop all of this BS really fast.

A fine of the team won't do diddly. What will the fine be? $500,000? Maybe $1 million? The Pats made that back and 10x more by winning the Ravens game, being able to host another playoff game, and getting to the Super Bowl. That sounds like pretty good risk/reward to me. A suspension of the head coach during a game is meaningless. If he can have no contact with the team for however many weeks I suppose that would be somewhat interesting, although knowing Belichick he would just find a way around that too.

What would absolutely stop this and any other inane shenanigans in the future is to hit the team with a salary cap hit. $15 million for 2015, $10 million for 2016 and $5 million for 2017. If the union bitches about it then disperse the amounts among the other teams, thus the total league wide figures would not change. now THAT would put an immediate stop to all of this REALLY quickly.

Tom C

AH HAHAHA!

Belicheat just threw Shady Brady under the bus!

Throwing Brady or the ball boy under the bus won't fly. The NFL in bounty-gate explained that the Head Coach is ultimately responsible.

The most troubling aspect of this to me is two things:

1) The Ravens lost a very close game and it appears the Ravens believed the Pats were using under-inflated footballs.

2) The integrity of the games is of the utmost importance. Once the public feels that games are not being played fairly, that is a catastrophic public relations hit for any professional sports league.

I believe the media and the other owners will put a lot of pressure on the NFL, and this combined with the first incident known as Spy-gate will lead to an unprecedented punishment by the NFL.

Perhaps as a Jet fan, this is just wishful thinking, but this will be fascinating to watch over the next few days.

Tarnished
 

This link would can show you how to properly clean a tarnished ring.

http://www.ehow.com/way_5252185_home...shed-ring.html

J.

Reply
 

As seems to be the case with everything in our society, this issue will divide along partisan lines. Patriots faithful will trivialize it; Patriots haters will emphasize it. Many people won't care. I do know the Pittsburgh Steelers have serious issues with Spygate relative to the 2001 and 2004 AFC championship games. This controversy may be similar to the Barry Bonds steroid issue. Both the Patriots and Bonds were too good to need any additional "help".

Whatever the case, this forum is about rings and the Patriots know how to design them. I would be happy with either of their AFC title rings let alone one from their Super Bowl victories.

All this talk and no one has even mentioned that the refs handle the balls not once, but twice, every single play!!! Why would they not have noticed it. The head ref was a 12 year veteran and the others were 7+ years, and you are telling me they couldn't feel it?? :confused: They handle the ball more than Brady.

My buddy is an official in the NFL and he said that you are moving so quickly with the ball, that you could not tell if the balls were under-inflated........just saying.

Plus, that still doesn't excuse the Patriots for cheating to begin with.

Phil, I agree that it is moving fast, but aren't the QB's moving just as fast if not faster??

I don't know how it's on the officials........

Brady came out yesterday and said that his preferred level of pressure is exactly 12.5 PSI. So if that is the case, why didn't he say something about the first half balls that were at least 2 lbs. PSI under that?

Total liar and the NFL cover-up is disgusting.......

Don't get me wrong, it's not only on the officials, I feel they have some ownership as well though. Brady is wrong if he did it............but it hasn't been proven yet.

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

So their performance in home fumbles lost is beyond great. It is historic. They fumble so much less at home than any other outdoor team in the league it isn't funny. It is statistically a near impossibility that this is just some sort of "numbers glitch". Guess what a more deflated ball leads to?

Fewer fumbles.

What if their use of these type of balls leads to two extra home wins this year than they would have otherwise had? What if that gives the Steelers home field and a one week bye......giving Leveon Bell an extra week to rest and maybe get healthy? I don't understand anyone who says this is meaningless.

Tom C

I had a feeling it was only a matter of time before we saw Patriots Super Bowl Ring humor make its way to the internet.

This photo showed up this week on Twitter. Kind of says it all:

The rings won't be tarnished, but the market may be a bit soft ;)

Steve B