The 2014 Running Football Thread (College & Pro)

[endfire79]

[bayonetbrant]

I was just getting ready to post that ;)

[Martok]

The Seahawks-Packers match-up was a hell of a game.  One of the best NFC championships I've seen in a long time. 

And with Seattle going up against New England in the Super Bowl, there's no question about who I'm going to be rooting for/against.  :P 

I truly don't understand Patriot haters

as a South Florida resident I can honestly say the hate comes from the fan base everyone else has to deal with. 

This.  I dislike the Red Sox for the same reason. 

[Bison]

It's shit like this that really pisses me off about the Patriots.   They are always surrounded in some sort of underhanded, cheating speculation or proved underhanded, cheating event.  I also think Belichick is douche. 

[endfire79]

Question to you all: why doesn't NFL only allow balls brought in by the league officials?

[Marty Ward]

Question to you all: why doesn't NFL only allow balls brought in by the league officials?

Who brings the balls is not the issue, they were all checked prior to the game and found to be within spec. Perhaps they should have league officials be the ones who keep track of the balls during the game as that would be where any changes would be made.

[OJsDad]

Whew!  Brady knows nothing about balls being underinflated.  I worried that he may have noticed something funny with the balls after all of those hikes and not have said something.

[GDS_Starfury]

The Seahawks-Packers match-up was a hell of a game. 

what game were you watching?

[Steelgrave]

Personally, I think each team should be allowed to inflate/deflate the balls to whatever the hell the QB prefers. Other QB's have chimed in about how balls are put in dryers, have sandpaper run over them, all kinds of things. So long as you're not putting an illegal substance on them, i.e. stickem, it shouldn't be an issue. Let the visiting team do the same damn thing with their balls. Brady likes them under-inflated, Rogers likes them over-inflated, cool. Just leave the kicking balls with the officials and let each team prep their own balls the way they like.

I get that someone on the Pats bent the rules here, but I question as to why it should be a rule.  NFL has so damn many rules already the refs can't keep track. I'd like to see it changed.

[Marty Ward]

I don't know if Brady actually knows WHO deflated the balls but he had to know they felt different. I mean he is the ultimate student of the game and knows every little detail. There is no way he didn't know the balls felt low on pressure.

In baseball a pitcher can be ejected for throwing an altered ball whether he altered it or it was caused by using the ball in play or if another player scuffed it. They have to throw the ball to the ump for inspection. If there is a rule about the ball inflation then it must also be on any player who can tell if the ball has been altered to alert the refs or face the penalty.

[bayonetbrant]

Steve Logan was on here this morning with some good perspective.  He made 2 key points:

1. Go walk around downtown and see how many people are jaywalking.  Now there's no doubt a law on the books that says "don't jaywalk" but but no one gives a rip, until the police start enforcing it.  If you suddenly see all over the news "jaywalkers arrested" it's not like the rest of the planet was never jaywalking, but they're going to stop doing it right now while there's scrutiny on it.

2.  They did get caught, and the officials did their job enforcing the rules.  Just like when an offensive lineman gets called for holding - that doesn't mean he wasn't holding the play before, or won't be holding the next play.  It means he got caught on that play.  The other team is holding, too - and when they get caught, they get penalized.  But that's not stopping them from holding.

[Con]

First of all this is not about anything that altered the outcome of this or pretty much any game

I deal in a world of specs and measurements at work and this is a classic example of a poorly thought out rule

1. If the NFL thought that ball pressure was so important then it should not leave those balls in possesion of any teams.  It would be like the home team providing the refs.  Either define the end state (both teams play with the same ball) or not.  If Both teams need to play with the same ball then take the ball away from them.  I feel that this is a legacy rule left in the arcane rule book of the NFL.
2. If you have a rule then enforce it consistantly.  This is the real issue that the NFL is facing.  They have written a rule and then dont bother being consisitant with it.  Some teams over inflate some teams scuff some under inflate.  The NFL doesnt monitor the balls and does not punish those who have been caught altering the balls in the past.
3. A spec has to be written then you have to understand the consequences.  You need to have a statistical model of probability and understand where you fall in that statistical model of probability (ie CPKs from the mean).  This means that if the balls are inflated to the lowest and highest level of PSI allowed in the window of the spec that you need to know all the parameters that can impact that spec during the game.  This includes weather temp, error of measurement, calibration of pressure gauges, standard error of measurement in these gauges, training of the people taking the measurements, quality of the balls ability to maintain specified pressure over many different lots, impacts of 300lb lineman on them on turf, grass, cement etc.
4. Lastly you need a quality system in place to show that you know what you are measuring when you are measuring it and that you can prove that you have done it correctly.

None of these are in place for this stupid rule thus the NFL cannot actually prove that anything was altered during the course of the game.  Its all speculation and finger pointing with no clear concrete path forward that was propagated by the fact that the NFL didn't actually enforce it to start with.

What a mess

Con

[Tuna]

They should change the name of this fiasco to HateGate.

The Linebacker who intercepted and supposedly the incident started because of, has stated, that he did not feel a difference.. The ref's who are handling the balls every play, did not feel a difference (or at least haven't said that as far as I know)..

We get this 'tidbit' the the NFL said 11 of 12 balls deflated.. Yet not one other word from the NFL (including Brady or Bellicheck not being contacted) for the whole week. Really pretty shady.

Agree with Con, i was surprised to learn that officials aren't in charge of balls the whole game, just like in Baseball.

[BanzaiCat]

The NFL is pretty much a moral-free community, so I'm not sure why everyone's acting so surprised.

Really...everyone's going to get worked up into a tizzy over this when the NFL allows murderers, drug users/dealers, and other filthy lawbreakers and sociopaths to do whatever they want? Meh.

Personally I could give zero flucks about this. Never liked the Patriots though, which comes mostly from being a Dolphins fan many years ago.

[Con]

I honestly feel that Kraft should give the NFL a kick in the nuts and say

So ball pressure is the one rule that is more important than all the others in the rule book that you want to enforce now fine then we forfeit and the Pats will not play in the superbowl.  Award it to the Seahawks now with an asterix

Then watch the shit really hit the fan as the sponsors and fans go ballistic with no Superbowl

Con