There has been a foul gaze directed at the New England Patriots from just about everyone in recent weeks. First there was Bill Belichick's formation trickery against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Divisional playoffs. Now there's the use of under-inflated footballs against the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship.
The formation trickery is easy. The Patriots trotted out running back Shane Vereen as an ineligible receiver. Per NFL rules, Vereen reported as an ineligible receiver to the officials and they announced it. This caused confusion among the Ravens defenders because Vereen, as a running back, is typically an eligible receiver. This confusion should have been enough to force the Ravens to call timeout. It didn't. The Patriots ploy worked. Not once. Not twice. But three times. Instead of doing something about it, like calling a timeout, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh cried about it. He cried about it during the game. That earned him and his team a 15-yard penalty. So, one could say that the Patriots formation trickery worked on four occasions. He cried about it after the game. There was no reason for all that crying. Everything that the Patriots did was perfectly legal. The rules for football formations are as old as the rules stating that a team has four downs to gain ten yards for another set of four downs. It's basic football. What the Patriots did a couple of weeks ago was really no different than the first time that a team spread five receivers across the line of scrimmage and said "cover me." Or, the first time that a team sent a man in motion before the snap. The coaches that are crying about this Patriots formation trickery simply want as little mystery as possible before the snap. They want everyone with a running back or receiver uniform number to be a running back or receiver. They want as much information as possible handed to them. If some of that information is taken away. They cry. Get over it.
Now, the under-inflated footballs. This was ludicrous about a minute after it broke. And, it's going to be hanging over everything up to and through the Super Bowl. Sad. So sad. First of all, the rule that a football has to be 12.5-13.5 psi is arbitrary. There was no scientific study done to determine the optimum inflation of a football. If there was a study, optimum for whom and for what? Throwing? Catching? Holding? Signing? Is it a manufacturer recommendation? If so, recommended for whom and for what? Many people have shown in the past week that there is no obvious visual or physical difference between a 11 psi football and a 13 psi football. The similarities between the footballs are such that the officials handling them during the first half of the AFC Championship couldn't tell that an under-inflated football was in play. They were even going back and forth between the Colts' proper football and the Patriots' improper football throughout that first half. The officials are the only people in an NFL stadium paid to insure that the footballs are kosher for the game. They had no clue that such a terrible crime was taking place. An under-inflated football is not a competitive advantage. It's a personal choice. Until this shitstorm started the only people that cared about the pressure of a football were those that threw that football. The quarterbacks. These picky folk have their own criteria. It's as varied as their personalities. It could be due to hand-size. It could be due to what they had for breakfast. It could be the day of the damn week. This variety of preferences is the very reason that each team supplies the officials with their own batch of footballs for each game. They can rub them. They can hug them. They can do an abundance of things to the football. But there will be hell to pay if they play with that psi even though it makes no discernible difference to the football. So what if it makes it easier to throw. That's the point of all of this. That's the point of rubbing it. Scuffing it. Getting a feel for it. The football has evolved over the years in order to make it easier to throw. It used to be a bloated melon. Now it's more like a missile. The NFL wants more scoring. Most fans want more scoring. Nearly every rule change in the last 40 years was put in place to make it easier for the quarterback to throw the football. One of those rules allows the quarterbacks to bring a bunch of their favorite footballs to the game as long as the psi is right. Why is the psi such an issue when no one can really tell a 12.5 psi football from one of those 11s. In the 1960s, the AFL used a more narrow, tackier football than the NFL because it was easier to throw. I've never heard anyone gripe about the legality of the numbers put up by George Blanda, John Hadl, Joe Namath and the rest of the AFL throwers. No one has ever thought to toss up an asterisk on Namath's 4,000-yard season because it was accomplished with an itty-bitty ball. Namath would have thrown for 4,000 yards with with a beach ball. Maybe. As long as the psi was proper. As it stands now the 12.5-13.5 psi rule is a rule. It's an absurd rule but it's still a rule. It's not a competitive advantage but it's a rule. Fine 'em and move on. Enough already.
As for the NFL investigation. I have greater concern over the league's ability to investigate anything than I do with the Patriots use of a ball pump. The league finally issued a statement on this ludicrous matter yesterday. They said that they have interviewed nearly 40 individuals. That's excellent. As of Thursday they had yet to speak to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. There's a mystery. Brady should have been the first person interviewed. Certainly one of the first 40. Nice work.
It's simply stunning that this shit is going to be dominating the football world for at least the next week. The Super Bowl is around the corner. I'd rather read and hear profiles on Jamie Collins and Byron Maxwell. Something interesting. Something important.
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