First off, if we're going to get some science explanations, can't it be somebody like Carin Bondar or Ellie Harrison. Second, why aren't more people talking about what $100T2 posted in the NFL thread? For instance, if they used something like this: to inflate the balls. And that tank was sitting next to a space heater in the equipment room, not improbable in an area beneath the stadium, isn't that possible? Or, if the tank just happened to be in a sauna? Belichick and Brady both kept saying "we followed the rules" - if there's no rule against using hot air, then they did. Move on. Change the rule next year, if you want. ETA: Let me add: I hate the Patriots. But, using every advantage while still following the rules, is not cheating. If the rule says you can't use hot air and you use it, that's cheating. But, if there's no distinction, then that's just a creative way to (possibly) get a competitive advantage.
If they used something like that I wouldn't be surprised if it could have just been a simple calibration error or something, like the air pump was just running 10% low that day for whatever reason. Or is that implausible?
Then the officials measurements would have reflected that. The issue was that the measurements taken before the game were then altered during the game. $100T2's explanation makes sense to me, but Belichiks one about atmosphere having anything to do with "rubbing" was clearly retarded.
All of this stupid bullshit is taking away from the superbowl for fuck sake. God damn people are fucking stupid. Move the fuck on man. It's less than a week to the superbowl. We were at the bar yesterday and I have never ever heard so much fucking flat out dumbass commentary. Hey dipshit, it's over, they won't strip anything from them. They will play the superbowl, pay the fine assessed and that's that. And yes it sure as shit does matter that the score was 45-7. Brady could have been playing with a soccerball and they still would have won.
Let's also toss in the fact that Colts had a normal football and should have been able play normal football and should have scored more than 7 points.
But, isn't it funny for all the female co-anchors / radio hosts that keep talking about Tom Brady's balls? Actual phrase I heard this morning that was not said as a joke, " . . . whether or not the equipment manager should handle Tom Brady's balls before the game . . ." Well, it's funny to me and the other eighth graders at my school.
IIRC, it's been a while since I read it, nothing discussed in The Unfair advantage was actually against the rules, just not dealt with by the rules. Thus, the SCCA (amateur?) catchall rule "If the rules don't say you can, you can't." Real cheating, like, oh, say Lance Armstrong, is disgusting. In 19 odd (some very odd) years of education, I cheated exactly once. In 9th grade we had this English teacher that was a real dick. Everyone hated this clown. Someone "obtained" a copy of the answer sheet before the midterm. So, we all agreed that we would all max out on the test to drive him crazy. Well, all of us, except one jerk, who not only didn't use the answer sheet, he told the teacher what was going on. So, we all, except the jerk, got a zero on the midterm. Yes, it was worth it.
I'm sure he tipped his fedora to the teacher after doing so. Hope he's still a virg. I don't condone cheating, but white knight bullshit like that is just insufferable. I'm not proud but I definitely cheated a few times in college. Blanking on an answer and going to the bathroom to google it on my phone. I wouldn't let myself do it in grad school, but undergrad, yea. Never to the crazy extent of rolled notes in pens, or written on hats, or the like, never understood cheating prep that took as long as some solid studying did. Come to think of it, I had a biopsych class in undergrad where the prof, while entertaining, had a real hard-on for keeping his semester GPA's well below 3.0 Well, on the final, he decided to put on headphones and watch a movie, presumably some prententious documentary, on his laptop. In that unspoken way that college kids do, a kid tested to see if he was paying attention by moving his backpack and letting a notebook fall out. Nothing. Within minutes, in the upper rows of a big lecture hall, multiple kids had notebooks blatantly sitting on the chairs next to them. Kind of absurd. I still got a B- in the class. Fuck brain chemistry.
"Real" cheating? If you don't believe just about every other rider was also on EPO and god knows what else then I have a lovely bridge to sell you.
My brother in law was a pro racer, literally rode with TJ Van Garderen in Europe. Every guy in the big races dopes on way or another to some extent. Cheating isn't encouraged, its a necessity in pro bike racing. If you don't dope, and the next guy is you're giving up a significant amount of performance in the name of integrity. This can mean not winning stages to losing your job because some guy who has similar talent is doping and is performing better. Sports has always been a bottom line business, especially with the borderline guys. The reason Lance got away with is for so long is he simply paid the labs to not see his samples or to simply pass them without testing. During the tours, he'd provide actual samples, but the techs were paid off so they didn't perform the actual tests. Deflategate is stupid, the NFL blaming some nobody for the balls being deflated is worse.
The best Lance Armstrong tactic was amazing in its simplicity: when they came around for random drug tests, he just pretended he wasn't home. Somehow he was able to keep this up for years.
When this thread first opened I had a post written out in defense of Armstrong for the exact reason you mentioned, but then deleted it because I figured I'd just get railed. But since someone else had the Brady's to broach the subject (in Texas, where LA is from, he has has basically been disowned; it may be different elsewhere)... I honestly think in cycling, like you said, the guys gotta dope in order to keep their jobs. The concept of a clean peloton is a myth and a dream. I'm sure a lot of minor league and guys for various sports and everyone who plays in the CFL take the same approach. Armstrong did a lot of "blood doping" with blood transfusions which is extremely hard to catch and I'm not morally sold on as far as it being a form of cheating. At least if you use your own blood, as Armstrong did.
In this video from Nov 2013, we see behind the scenes action of how balls are checked and inflated. From this video, I really don't see how there could any error other than the Patriots intentionally cheating. You can clearly see such careful ball handling, such as setting them in a sink, using a leaky gauge from the Dollar Store, a compressor left over from my highschool art class, and identification marks that would be impossible to forge. I think I'm more surprised that the Colts' balls all met spec than I am the Patriots' didn't.
Honestly, I think most pro athletes cheat to some extent, just for the sake of gettin' paid. Look at Alex Rodriguez: You give me $275,000,000 and you can inject me with any steroid you want.
What a moron. During Lance's height of domination one of his primary rivals was Jan Ulrich: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/23013133 Then there's Vinokourov: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_s ... 914301.stm Pantani: http://espn.go.com/sports/endurance/sto ... -de-france Basso http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_s ... 693357.stm etc, etc, etc. Armstrong was simply built with a superior motor, with the playing field elevated by doping and everyone using the same doping techniques, he still dominated. If everyone is cheating, does that diminish his accomplishment? I personally don't think so
Let's not get into the silliness that is "he doped better so is worse". They either cheated, or not. You can't cheat and then say, "but he's cheating better than me, that's not fair!"