Like someone else said, was a rule broken? Yes, but on the list of things that could be done for a game, this is REALLY low for me. If the Pats had beaten my Browns, and this story came out, I still wouldn't care. Wake me up when we have something more interesting to talk about than air pressure in a ball.
Fans complain about rules that don't make sense all the time, so it's pretty weak for some of them to retreat to the "it's a rule!" tactic here.
The rule is a rule...but it's a dumb rule.
If it doesn't matter, then why did they look spooked today? Why not admit it?
Let's go back in time to when Brady was dismissing all this as nonsense. Did fans say, "Well...he's not acting like it's a big deal so it must be overblown"?
Nope...he was attacked for acting that way too.
Fans are all over him no matter what he does. (gotta love sports fans)
It kinda makes sense that he would act different when the media has blown this up into a major issue. How could he possibly react any other way?
It does help the grip on the ball. Its not the reason why they're a winning team, but it
might help in a game or two. I mean, if they did it against the Ravens where they won by 4 points it would raise questions (though we won't know when/if they have done this before). And if it didn't help at all they wouldn't do it.
Apparently the Patriots have an abnormally low rate of fumbles since 2007, ironically 1 year after this rule of teams handling the balls began in 2006. Maybe its coincidence or maybe there are other variables, but the next team isn't even close. Here's a link:
http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/ (It sometimes crashes from the traffic) Its interesting to look at and see the rest of the NFL hovers around the same area, yet the Pats are waaay off in the distance.
Maybe they have players who are outstanding at holding onto the ball, but I think the Bengals might disagree...
Let's use a more scientific approach.
We only know the status of the balls on
one game. We know the balls were under inflated for the first half and within the limits for the second half.
What were the results?
Based on the actual facts we
know, it not only made no difference in their performance....the regulation pressure made the Pats play
better! That's the
only evidence we have. Everything else is part of your "might" and not worth basing an opinion on.
There really is no basis for all this drama. I mean....I'm hearing some people talk from such an extreme position of ignorance that they don't even know what psi means. Some are actually claiming that makes the ball "2 pounds lighter"!
And the other players coming out and saying they can't tell the difference in the ball is falling on deaf ears too.
This is smelling like a witch hunt to me.
If it doesn't matter why is there a rule and why did they break it? It is cute to mention it doesn't matter. I agree they would have most likely won no matter what. But if it doesn't matter, why did they do it?
I would say because that's what QB's do. When you hear all these statements from other QB's talking about how they like the ball a certain way, there is no reason to think Brady is any different.
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