I'm sorry. Thats unacceptable. It is not why the Patriots won. Obviously. It was 45-7. However..... It is a blatant attempt to gain an advantage. Which is cheating. And the head coach, aware or not, is ultimately responsible. He has to be suspended. Belichick should not be able to coach the Super Bowl. And I would suspend him for 3 years, if I am commissioner. Sean Payton got a year as did players for allegedly having rewards for hitting and injuring players. Which isn't CHEATING. This was. It deserves a much harsher penalty. Belichick may or may not have known or have condoned it. But he is ultimately responsible. And should be punished.

Think about this.... What if the final score of the Patriots and the Colts game was 24-23? At the time the balls were deflated, the Patriots had no idea what the final score of the game was going to be. Had the final score been close as I indicated above, then what do you do? Replay the game? You can't award the Colts a victory, but you certainly can argue that it influenced the outcome of the game at that point, if the game was close. The Patriots should be severely punished as should their head coach Bill Belichick

It wasn't 24-23 so you can't base punishment on that.    Or any result for that matter.

Base it on intent.

And suspending Belichick for the Super Bowl would be something MLB would do.   Take away from the game and draw attention to the controversy.   The NFL should issue the standard "A complete investigation will begin......." statement and deal with it in the off-season.

And, FWIW, do you think, if it was a team-based decision, that Brady wasn't in on it?

Here is the question, do you think New England all of a sudden decided to do this in the AFC Championship game, or had they been doing it for awhile.  The Ravens game was a very close game where one small illegal edge might have made the difference.  Obviously you can't go back and test the balls in the Ravens game, but I'd be surprised if they weren't doing it then as well.  Couple that with their playing fast and loose with the substitutions rules in that game and it seems obvious that the Ravens got hosed (and yes I'm saying that a bit tongue in cheek as a Ravens homer).

Winners win and losers whine.

There is no chance the Ravens would not be aware and on the lookout...by now someone from that gum flapping franchise would be saying they suspected this in their own game


I would be shocked at this point if Bill was around for the 2015 season


I may be wrong but Payton's year was earned not so much by the act but by his being dishonest with the commish

You can cheat and win.  

Belichick seems to think rules are optional.   Anyone who thinks a ballboy took it upon himself to deflate footballs is insane.   That's not to say BB or TB issued a Code Red on deflating balls but someone higher on the totem pole than ballboy instructed it to be done.

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/12205179/if-allegations-prove-true-new-england-patriots-arrogance-consequences


A Boston reporter.

All QBs have a way they like the ball.....Tom does prefer a softer grip....Aaron Rodgers has said he prefers a ball to be as inflated as can be


A lot of thought goes into prepping the balls to a specific player...it would be interesting to learn who knew what and when things happened, but I dont doubt a clear truth would be hard to come by

I think teams are allowed some play in the PSI of balls.    The cheatingwhore Patriots when beyond that.     Probably all Brady's idea.   He looks like a sneaky bastard and he had a child out of wedlock.

That made me chuckle

Sometimes the truth is funny.

BTW, I agree that BB is looking at a suspension.    I don't think he gets a full year but he's gonna miss some games.

A few thoughts:

1) Belichick has to be suspended for the Super Bowl. You can't suspend him during regular season games later, but not the damn Super Bowl.
2) If a Colts defender thought something was fishy with the footballs, then obviously Brady, the RB's, etc knew they were playing with a deflated football. I do question how no refs caught it.
3) Score of the game is irrelevant, and are we supposed to believe they decided to cheat vs the Colts, but not the Ravens the week before?