#Deflate-Gate Part 2, Interview Reaction

I liked Florida State University football program since Dion Sanders when I first started watching football, but I had a change of heart after hearing about the favors the local law enforcement did for players in trouble. I also liked Tom Brady and the New England Patriots despite the spy gate scandal, but I have some serious doubts after today's media conferences with Bill Belicheck and Tom Brady. I did not believe that spy gate was that big of a deal since the information age has taken over with high speed internet and HD image quality.

I feel that sports is competitive and reciprocal. In high school we studied what the next team that we were going to face did to us last year. There is not enough money on the line to figure out what they did in practice and therefore we had enough information based on what they did in the game. If teams don't want other teams to know their plays, then they should decoy their plays like they do in baseball. Decoys are deployed by Chip Kelly with the Oregon Ducks and in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles. Therefore spy gate with BS and I felt the Patriots got a bad rap for it.

With my beliefs of spy gate, I watched Deflate-gate unfold and wanted to believe that the Patriots did not intend to deflate the footballs before the game. Knowing that balls lose pressure from a warm room to a cold environment, I wanted to believe that was the case. The other possibility might have been that the balls were checked on Friday and lost some air pressure before the game on Sunday. Then the Colts footballs might have been checked outside in a colder environment and therefore would not have changed the air pressure due to the temperature. Sounds like a big circle of what if's that only the league officials would be able to answer. The next issue is if the league officials didn't do their jobs right, they certainly won't confess on their end. 

This morning Bill Belicheck gave a great media conference. Some serious doubt came into play when he started off saying that he didn't know what happened to the footballs before the game, but then explained all of the different variations of footballs he forced his team to practice with. He might not have known about the change in the air pressure for the games balls Sunday, but he passed the buck to Tom Brady to discuss it with the media. Belicheck continued to deflect the question stating that he already discussed the answer.

This afternoon when Tom Brady spoke, he came across as calm and cool, "like the other side of the pillow" (Miss you Stuart Scott). Unfortunately, Tom did not come across as being credible because he said that he checks the balls out before the game. If the balls felt fine before the game, they might have had the correct air pressure. He might not have held a game ball during the game other than on the field and might not have remembered how it felt especially since he was not asked about it until the next day.

I have a hard time believing that he didn't notice that the balls were under-inflated during the game unless he could not feel his hand because it was so cold. I do not believe that is the case even in his old age of 34 as he has played in cold weather the prior week. As you can see in the picture, Tom Brady did not use a glove during the game, so he felt each football and he knew they felt softer. The next question was who made the call to go with the back up balls for the 2nd half as Tom Brady was on fire in the 3rd quarter?

Knowledge of the ball changing pressure due to temperature change is a basic fact of physics. It is a fact that I knew before ever taking a physics class as I liked playing basketball growing up. I remember walking outside with my basketball and bouncing it and it didn't come back up. I was 10 years old and obviously didn't have the experience that I do now and know to air up the ball before going outside with it. I might not feel the difference at first, but would know how to check it out quickly. I played basketball more than football growing up, but I am sure that someone playing quarterback for all of these years would know how to check a ball to tell if it was good to throw or was going to suck.

As the reporters said after the media conference, it was Tom Brady's chance to come clean and he didn't. Will the equipment manager come clean since he knows how Tom likes the football? Will he say that Tom Brady didn't know anything about it? 

Like I said in my past blog, there are cameras everywhere picking up everything from someone scratching their junk to picking their nose. All they have to do is watch the balls on each video tape to determine what happened by who and when.