Patriots Equipment Managers Suspended

The New England Patriots employees Jim McNally and John Jastremski were suspended on May 6th over deflate-gate.  These two were in charge of inflating Patriots’ footballs to regulation.

According to a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, it was actually the NFL’s decision to punish McNally and Jastremski, not the team’s.

From ESPN:

“For those asking why Patriots suspended two employees if those two did nothing wrong, as New England claims: NFL asked Pats to suspend them prior to discipline being handed down, per a league source in New York. New England obliged with the NFL’s request.”

This makes what the NFL said in a statement about the punishments unclear, writes Business Insider.

“Patriots owner Robert Kraft advised Commissioner Roger Goodell last week that Patriots employees John Jastremski and James McNally have been indefinitely suspended without pay by the club, effective on May 6th,” the statement read.

That seems to imply that the team suspended the two. But note the language — it only says that Kraft told Goodell that they had been suspended, not that he had ordered it, according to Business Insider.

If ESPN’s report is to be believed, it gives the Patriots’ denials a little more weight because the team never actually felt the need to punish McNally and Jastremski.

It’s also worth noting that ESPN’s information comes from a “league source in New York,” not from someone within the Patriots who wants to make them look innocent.

It also makes things messy. The NFL released the Wells report on May 6 but waited until May 11 to punish the team and Brady. Yet according to the league’s statement, McNally and Jastremski were punished on May 6.

Business Insider asks:  If that decision was the NFL’s, why did they hand down discipline for the two employees immediately but wait nearly a week to go after the team and Brady? And why did the Patriots comply?

(Updated article)

How Did People Figure Out The Patriots’ Footballs Were Under-inflated?

According to sports.yahoo.com, the controversy with the New England Patriots using under-inflated footballs during the AFC championship game started when Indianapolis Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson intercepted a pass from Tom Brady.  As the story went, Jackson noticed the ball was flatter than usual, and that news moved to the equipment manager to the coach to the general manager to the NFL to the game officials, who swapped out the under-inflated balls after halftime.

Jackson said he just wanted a souvenir and wanted to keep the ball.  That’s common. Many players save balls after scoring touchdowns, or defensive players save interception balls, to put in their trophy case. Jackson reportedly did not know that it would lead to the story of the week in the NFL.

“I made a great play on a great player, so I handed (the ball) off and next thing I know, I’m in the middle of DeflateGate,” Jackson said to the Indianapolis Star. “I don’t know how that happened.”

Jackson reportedly said he didn’t know there was a controversy until the next Monday morning, the Star said.

On the ride home from the airport, his driver told him there was a growing controversy about the Patriots and under-inflated footballs.  That was supposedly the first he had heard about it.

Jackson told NFL.com the only odd thing he noticed was that the Patriots were using the Colts’ footballs late in the first half. He had no idea why – he just found it strange and assumed the Patriots had run out of their own footballs to use.

Do New Englanders Think Deflate-Gate Is A Conspiracy To Bring Down Their Team?

Do New Englanders think that deflate-gate is a conspiracy by people formerly affiliated with the New York Jets to bring down their team?

Some in the Boston-area media are creating the idea that dark forces are working to keep the Patriots from being recognized as a standard of excellence and integrity, according to The New Jersey Star-Ledger.

The Star-Ledger mentions a piece written by Tom Curran for CSN New England that claims Mike Kensil is “the driving force behind” the NFL’s investigation of how the footballs the Patriots used in the AFC Championship Game were somehow deflated beyond what’s mandated by the league’s rule book.

Kensil is the NFL’s Vice President of Game Operations, which means the regulation of the air pressure inside footballs falls under his purview. So far, so good…

Curran then points out a coincidence.

“Before rising to the league level, Kensil was the Jets director of operations for nearly 20 years. His tenure overlapped Bill Parcells (and Bill Belichick’s) time with the Jets and he would have been part of the Jets front office incensed by Belichick’s 2000 resignation as Jets head coach.

(…)

“Kensil’s tenure with the Jets ended in 2006, the same year Belichick disciple Eric Mangini became head coach of the Jets.

“Kensil’s professional reputation is strong and people have described him as having strong integrity.”

All well and good. However, The Star-Ledger continures, then Curran gets himself fitted for a tin foil hat:

“That Jets connection, though, certainly hints at a preexisting judgment of Belichick and the Patriots that could, conceivably, be a motivating factor in the league’s dogged pursuit.”

Pursuit of deflate-gate, they mean.

He is arguing that because Kensil worked for the Jets, he has a grudge against the Patriots, and may want to see the Patriots fall from grace…

Curran knows he has nothing to go on here except the fact that the NFL executive charged with looking into deflate-gate (Kensil) last worked for the Jets nine years ago.

Beyond that, there’s no evidence of any “Jets connection” except what’s in Curran’s head. “His thesis doesn’t even rise to the level of flimsy,” according to The Star-Ledger.

The Star-Ledger: “Look, what the Patriots were caught doing is football’s equivalent of pitchers doctoring baseballs. It’s a minor rules violation that’s mushroomed into a full-on scandal, albeit one that’s far more silly than it is objectionable.”

But Curran knows they’re out there, and he’s clearly on to something the rest of “you sheeple” can’t see. With that, let’s pull out of thin air offer three more possible Jets connections to this scandal.

1. Sal Alosi: He grew up on Long Island and he used to be the strength and conditioning coach for the Jets. And while in that role, Alosi was once caught sticking out his leg to trip a Dolphins player running along the sideline during a punt return. A guy who worked for the Jets and tried to cheat?

2. Damien Woody. Woody won three Super Bowl rings as an offensive lineman for the Patriots before later playing for the Jets when they beat the Pats in the 2010 playoffs. He now works as an analyst for ESPN. How is it that no one else can see what might possibly be obvious here?

3. Danny Woodhead. Woodhead spent some unremarkable time with the Jets as a running back before hitting his stride after being signed by the Patriots in 2010. He then signed a free-agent deal with the Chargers before the 2013 season and injured his knee in Week 3 this past season, causing him to miss the rest of the year. Obviously, Woodhead might have an axe to grind against the Patriots. Maybe. I think. What am I missing here?

What Is Deflate-Gate?

MSNBC

…and does it matter?

According to an ESPN report, nearly all of the game balls on the New England Patriots side during the AFC Championship game were under-inflated and an investigation of the Super Bowl-bound team is underway.

The NFL has found that 11 of the New England Patriots’ 12 game balls were inflated significantly below the NFL’s requirements, league sources involved and familiar with the investigation of Sunday’s AFC Championship Game told ESPN.

Are the officials at fault? Were Indy’s game balls weighed as well? More facts are needed before judging the Patriots, writes Mike Reiss of ESPN.

The investigation found the footballs were inflated 2 pounds per square inch below what’s required by NFL regulations during the Pats’ 45-7 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, according to sources.

“We are not commenting at this time,” said Greg Aiello, the NFL’s senior vice president of communications.

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