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NFL Releases Deflategate Report
_xeno_ writes: You may remember back in February that Slashdot covered the NFL asking Columbia University for help investigating Deflategate, a scandal where the New England Patriots were caught deflating their footballs in order to make them easier to catch. The Patriots claimed this was simply a result of the weather, while their opponents disagreed. Well, it's been months, but we finally have our answer: the balls were, in fact, knowingly deflated by the Patriots (to no one's surprise). And while science can explain a little deflation, it cannot explain the amount of deflation seen during the game. Which isn't stopping Boston fans from attacking the science. The report stops short of certainty, though, concluding rather that deliberate underinflation was "more likely than not." Not everyone agrees that a conspiracy is necessary to account for the measured pressure readings.
No surprise they can't understand science. Have you met the average football fan?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The NFL should provide all game balls, selected randomly prior to each use. Bringing your own game balls is a pretty obvious vector for manipulating the game.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
Can we please stop tacking -gate on to the end of every scandal?
It's not clever when everyone is doing it, especially with trivial crap like this.
This is going to get bad: http://www.thedrawplay.com/com...
It's a report written by a lawyer. "More probably than not" is a legal term meaning "guilty in the civil sense, but not in the criminal sense." Essentially the lawyers writing the report are saying "yes, they're definitely guilty, but I'm not willing to say this meets the standards of criminal justice."
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
After removing the deflated balls, the Patriots went on to score 28 points! These balls obviously impacted their scoring. The margin would have been much wider. I think forces in Las Vegas need to be investigated.
It's time to put a stop to it, too. We need to organize. #gategate
McNally (4:39:40pm): Nice dude....jimmy needs some kicks....lets make a deal.....come on help the deflator
Why is this story here?
What is next a Real Housewives story?
If you can't attack the facts, attack the messenger. Sort of SOP these days.
Roger Goodell is pretty well known for loving the Patriots, so it's very hard to believe that he would hire a biased research firm to prove there was cheating.. If anything I'd expect him to hire a firm which would prove there wasn't cheating!
This space for rent, inquire within.
The difference between (+5, Insightful) and (-1, Offtopic) is knowing which thread you're posting on. ;P
Can we please stop tacking -gate on to the end of every scandal?
It's not clever when everyone is doing it, especially with trivial crap like this.
Totally agreed. Gategate needs to stop now.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
Came here to say the same thing. It's equal parts dumb and annoying. They might as well just toss a hashtag to the start to drive home the annoying factor. #SCANDALGATE.
DeflateAnd
DeflateNand.
DeflateOr.
DeflateNor.
DeflateXor
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
At least the political stuff, the spying stuff, etc. is 'stuff that matters'. This? Just bandwagon jumping clickbait. Is there no way this story could have been spun to include testing standards, analysis of effect on the game, or something even vaguely, remotely applicable to the audience of this site?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
or maybe slashdot's DB is suffering some severe corruption!
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
I know right? You'd almost think that the original hotel was named 'Water'...
When Bill Gates is involved in a controversy, will it then be Gatesgate?
Suppose he keeps his mansion's front fence in poor repair - GatesGateGate!
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
Rule 1: Blame the user, not the computer.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
If deflating the ball makes it easier for them to catch it, wouldn't the other team also get that advantage? How is it cheating if both teams have the same advantage? Perhaps not knowing the ball is deflated would make it harder for the opposing team to catch it or something?
Yes. Let's call it the War on Gate.
The score of the game was 45-7. The Patriots only scored 17 points in the 1st half, when the under-inflated footballs were discovered. The patriots scored their remaining 28 points in the 2nd half with normally inflated footballs. The 1 or 2 under-inflated balls that were used had minimal impact on the result of the game, even in gambling terms, as the Patriots beat the spread by 38 points. I'm not condoning cheating, but in this instance, it appeared to have been completely unnecessary from the start, so the level of coverage a trivial matter like this is getting is ridiculous.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Not only experience.
Some of the old dudes also lift heavier tasks that might be to abstract for the kid.
But there is balance between flexibility of younger employees and the greater salary of seasoned employees.
It depends a lot on what your company does.
Well, dammit, I clicked the wrong one again. Can one of you kids get over here and show me how to delete this post and put it on the right thread showing that old people know how to use computers as well as young ones?
Do you have ESP?
Not to mention that when people find out that the gate was purposely kept in disrepair... there would be another scandal.
Gatesgategategate!
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
You can't DeflatePUSH too much because it will DeflatePOP.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Sadly, no, I don't think we can.
-gate has apparently become cultural shorthand for or "scandal". Some people probably don't even know the origins of it any more.
I fear it's cromulency is no longer up for debate, even if it doesn't embiggen the language.
I think we're stuck with at this point.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Where's the coverage of something meaningful, like a rational response to the threat of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brains of kids? The federal courts just increased the potential settlement in the case against the NFL for the willful and negligent ignorance it showed its 'own' players, and Slashdot wants to trumpet the free advertising generated by the NFL spin doctors during the off-season?! How come no geeks have KickStarted a device for helmet data collection? One with a cell phone accelerometer, a near-field-computing chip/antenna and battery, so CTE could be easily researched and this stupid, violent, quasi-militaristic monopoly might be augmented by a rational approach to reality?
I very rarely complain that a story doesn't belong on Slashdot, but this time I will, because this is probably the least Slashdot-worthy story I've seen yet.
This is not news for nerds. This does not matter.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Can we please stop tacking -gate on to the end of every scandal?
It's not clever when everyone is doing it, especially with trivial crap like this.
Believe me, I'm not keen on corruption of language (see my other posts.) But you have to admit, the "-gate" suffix is kind of useful. And it has some staying-power, as a result of the Watergate scandal.
Eventually it will become an anachronism and disappear. For now, let's not get too worked up about it.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Yes. Let's call it the War on Gate.
Let it be known that I was for it before I was against it. #warongategate
Nothing posted to
Football isn't like most other games. Everything about it is designed to be hyper-dramatic -- histrionic even. If you have any doubts, watch a few NFL films with their martial music and moralistically thrilling tales of redemption and damnation.
It starts with the small number of games played. The average NFL player over the course of his entire career is eligible to play in one third the number of regular season games a baseball player does in a single season. So every football game is a big deal. The structure of football's post-season single elimination tournament is perfectly contrived for dramatic upsets of favorites.
Football is designed so every game to matters and that every individual play is potentially be the turning point of a season or even of a career. While it's absolutely true that subsequent play in the AFC Championshipo game suggests such a dramatic turn earlier on would have been unlikely, that's neither here nor there. It would have been unlikely in any case. The whole attraction of the sport is being there when something surprising creates a dramatic and unexpected shift in fortunes.
The important point is that the AFC championship game wasn't what it was supposed to be. That the result is probably the same as it would have been misses the point. Likewise the idea that Brady probably knew he probably didn't need to cheat has no bearing on whether he might have cheated. Pro athletes are selected for their competitiveness, not their philosophical perspective. So the only thing we can go by is evidence, circumstantial or direct.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
"If any reporter adds -gate to a scandal, it means the scandal isn't worth mentioning"
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Now give us back our SuperBowl trophy, Pats, and it will end peacefully.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Unless your an ass-hole who doesn't know the rules. Or a mental deficient who doesn't understand cheating is cheating regardless of the outcome.
The people who name these things also have a real low threshhold for what constitutes a "scandal." I swear, half the time I hear about a new one, I couldn't care less, much less get outraged about it.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
Of those degree holders, how many ex-players have degrees in Communication or Business?
What is wrong with a degree in communications or business? Are you implying something snide? Do you think someone interested in those topics is somehow inferior?
It's not useful if idiots are constantly applying it to things that don't really warrant the label "scandal."
Whenever I hear -gate these days it's a pretty safe assumption it's something that is totally not worth the bother for me to inform myself about enough to realize it's overblown and really doesn't matter.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
Not that you are guilty of all of what follows, but I have to point out the obvious.
Should a shot put be what ever size and shape someone else wants, or standard? How about a discus? Javelin? Don't want to compare to Olympic sports, how about NBA. Can a team inflate their balls to a different pressure than the other team, or wear them a certain way to gain an advantage? It is all standardized to make the competition as fair as possible.
The lengths that people will go to excuse a lack of fairness is really amazing. The lengths that people will go to in an effort of excusing cheating is just as amazing, but a bit more appalling.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Yeah, but the people who name these things are usually the press with an interest in selling copy.
There's always someone who will be outraged.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
*shrug* By all measures actually having properly inflated balls caused the Pats to play better... it doesn't seem this was much of an "advantage."
With that all said... I was also shocked to find out that the NFL didn't just supply the balls... it seems obvious. Let's let the pitchers bring their own baseballs to the baseball game... what could possibly go wrong....
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
College football is a big money business. Players bring in big money for their schools. The players have to keep up a minimum GPA or they are not allowed to play. If they don't play the school doesn't do as well and loses money. So the schools "help" the players by making sure they keep up their GPA. Help meaning they steer them towards fluff courses. At the end of it they give them a diploma, basically as payback for all the money they helped the school earn.
You are painting with an awfully broad brush there my friend. The real picture is FAR more complicated than you paint it. How do I know? I was a Division 1 college athlete. (wrestling if you care) Yes there are some schools that in football and basketball seriously bend or just plain ignore the rules in the pursuit of wins. Others do quite well and actually do have high academic standards. I can assure you that you won't find players at schools like Northwestern or Stanford getting cut a lot of slack in the classroom. While the NCAA is a hugely hypocritical organization, most college athletes are legitimately there to try to get a degree. The ones that aren't tend to either not graduate at all or for a very few leave early for a pro draft. The ones that shouldn't be there tend to wash out or leave before graduation.
Claiming that they have earned the diploma in any real academic sense is laughable.
Then you don't know what you are talking about. Had you bothered to actually look you would find rather few examples of college athletes being given degrees that they didn't actually earn. Don't be so quick to assume that everyone who plays college sports is a dumb jock who couldn't possibly have earned their degree.
Football, by its very nature, is played by jocks. Jocks who have been scoring with cheerleaders since highschool. Worse yet, these are elite jocks.
Did you REALLY want to date the cheerleaders? Was that an actual goal in your life? If so then I have to say I think that is pretty sad. Personally I'd suggest trying to date someone you actually find interesting.
Do you REALLY think the "jock" versus "nerd" thing is really a thing? If so then you've been watching too many movies. The real world doesn't work that way. I was a D1 college athlete and I also earned an engineering degree. I wore coke bottle glasses, was terribly shy with girls, got generally good grades and was all state in my sport in high school. The generic concept of a "jock" is as laughably absurd as trying to paint all the smart kids as identical.
They make millions to play, have the hottest wives (and GFs on the side), and are parts of a team/corporate entity that makes billions of dollars tax free.
And the nerds who sign the checks for those athletes make billions and own the team/corporate entity. Current owners of major league sports franchises include Marc Cuban, Steve Balmer, and Paul Allen. All nerds who made their money in tech and didn't have to destroy their body to do it in the process. Who would you rather be, the millionaire athlete or the billionaire owner?
What, exactly, in this story makes us care even the tiniest amount about "sportsball" ?
Some people do care. If you aren't one of them that's fine. Go on to the next story and quit whining about how oppressed you think nerds are.
And they should use the same ball for the entire game, for all purposes. Any wear the ball takes is "part of the game" and neither team should be able to change out balls on a whim because of any perceived advantage.
The only time the ball should be replaced is if it deflates and cannot be reinflated. I might even throw in checking and re-inflating to standard pressure at the start of every quarter but only if a ball would show anything more than a nominal loss in pressure throughout the game.
They should build a rfid pressure sensor in the balls.
That way the pressure can be checked just before the ball will be used in the game. Balls with a wrong pressure can be inflated / deflated or rejected immediately.
It's very useful. You know that anything that has -gate on it can be ignored!
Exactly. Summary of the article:
Truly first world problems.
If we can't discuss workarounds for it...
granted AC is trolling, but even this troll is better than reading about a bunch of millionaires crying about a bag of air :)
I guess it depends on when the team is able to bring one of their balls onto the field. If they get to pick the ball at the start of a play when they have possession, then the only time they'd be playing with the other team's ball is on an interception.
Or am I missing something here?
Program Intellivision!
Wow.
What if the footballs were filled with CO2 instead of air?
Hopefully that topic was one of the 243 pages!
but slashdot user == regular user?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Many schools provide tutors as part of the sports scholarship.
It's not a part of the scholarship. Scholarships don't work that way. What is in those scholarship packages is rather rigidly defined.
Your time as a college athlete is rather regimented and most programs require both freshmen and students who are at risk of ineligibility to attend study sessions where tutors are made available. This is a good thing because it can be very hard to be disciplined with your time and a lot of 18 year olds away from home for the first time often don't make the best choices. They make tutors available because the athletes don't have an abundance of free time to seek out extra help when needed. Competing in D1 sports is effectively a full time job on top of your academic load. It's challenging for anyone.
The tutors help the athletes, sometimes during tests.
This does NOT happen as a routine matter. Perhaps you can find some examples of that happening but it simply doesn't work like that in reality. The tutors are not present during tests and would have no reason in general to be present during the tests. If this were to happen it is a CLEAR violation of NCAA rules and a program could face sanctions. Most aren't quite that stupid.
And professors "leaned on" to be lenient for retests and such.
Again, not a routine thing any more than among the general school population. I can probably point out examples of abuse better than you can but your perception of what is happening doesn't match what happens in the real world at most schools most of the time.
Rule 1: Blame the user, not the computer.
Clearly you neither work for the Patriots nor are you a New England fan.