LII :::: the super bowl of hate :::: philadelphia eagles vs new england patritos

but anyway theres no way to cheat the refs, that wld be the refs cheating

I think we can just agree that if the pats win this sunday it will be because they have cheated

no it will be because the eagles didnt cheat enough

it may also be because Tom Brady is a sociopath who has assimilated and subsumed so many playbooks that he's incapable of remembering anything but the most base forms of human interaction and emotion, casting them and his wide eyed proteges aside in his quest for GOAT status.

that seems p likely

i don't think the nfl/refs favor the pats (other than perhaps subconsciously, as they tend to play their playoff games at home)

otoh i totally believe that the league *would* tilt basically any scales if it thought it could get away with it/would somehow make more money, because it is run by dumb greedy people

I mean, I kind of get it. The Pats definitely like to draw big PI calls, which sometime appear questionable. They pick up far fewer penalties than their opponents, which is mostly down to better discipline. But many people think they don't get called enough. Gronk, in particular is a target of these complaints.

OTOH, I don't know how anyone with eyes can't see that the Pats constantly make all kinda of sick plays on both sides of the ball. To me, they are willfully ignoring the fact that the Pats are obviously extremely good.

i think that if you're caught cheating multiple times ppl will think that you're a cheater

i learned today looking at the twitter replies to kevin clark's article about the patriots and penalties that many people are absolutely and genuinely convinced that the nfl is influencing its officials to give new england favourable calls

― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, February 1, 2018 11:53 AM (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

heres that article, pretty interesting

“He comes in [to team meetings] and says, ‘OK, we have this set of officials this week,’” said Harrison, now an analyst at NBC Sports. “‘They’ve called 18 pass interference penalties, they call a lot of holding, illegal procedures.’ He briefed us. Belichick, when he coaches, everyone is prepared. Probably too much.”

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2018/2/1/16958718/super-bowl-new-england-patriots-bill-belichick-rules-penalties-study

The Pats are like the Spurs, basically a model franchise w/a preternaturally gifted coach who is able to adapt to virtually any situation and put them in a position to win it all every year. of course one of those teams is in the NFL and its coach is not a cuddly woke dude but instead is Trump's secret penpal so....

I think people have a hard time wrapping tbeir head around the fact that purposefully drawing penalties is a part of the game, even when they've seen a million hard counts, hurry-up snaps, icing the kicker, etc, etc.

imagine how horrible its gonna be if brady retires and the patriots keep appearing in the afc champ game every year

mordy trolling with the hypotheticals i guess but it is worth bringing up how the patriots were punished after being ineptly framed by another team and the league in the context of a discussion about how the league is biased in their favour

lol

The Patriots’ knowledge of the rule book is not just to keep players disciplined and help them avoid penalties, Pereira said. It’s also proved to be a game-planning edge. That showed itself most notably when the Patriots disguised their eligible receivers in a playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens three years ago, a move John Harbaugh labeled “clearly deception.” In response, Tom Brady said the Ravens should “study the rule book.”

“Belichick knows the rules. The Ravens and other teams go crazy because they don’t know the rules, and then people think it’s a conspiracy,” Daopoulos said. “He just does a better job on this. He’s better prepared than anyone.”

I agree, but thats obviously not how the vast majority of NFL fans see it.

xp

mordy trolling with the hypotheticals i guess but it is worth bringing up how the patriots were punished after being ineptly framed by another team and the league in the context of a discussion about how the league is biased in their favour

― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, February 1, 2018 12:34 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i kinda tuned out all the various scandals can u explain to me the framing thank u

only the nfl can make scandal tedious lol smh

https://www.si.com/nfl/2016/01/18/deflategate-one-year-later-tom-brady-bill-belichick

omg dont make me read that plz

i think the explanation is obvious - balls love to be deflated

i am exaggerating for fun and colour but the condensed version is that the ravens, acting on bad information, spite and self-pity, tipped off the nfl to set up a sting at half-time on the afc championship game, as a result of which the roger goodell, acting on bad information and some kind of god complex presumably, ordered a poorly executed inquiry which depending on your pov was either inconclusive or basically cleared the patriots and then he punished them excessively anyway

so were the balls not really deflated are we through the looking glass

Wasn't it the Colts?

xp

the balls were deflated to an extent consistent with physics and not requiring external action

no, the sting was the colts game, but it was the ravens who brought it up after the divisional

what abt the story of brady conspiring with an equipment manager or some shit

do you think belichick is good at settlers of cataan

def he knows everything abt the various sheep and rocks the game requires

He converts sheep into footballs

the ravens and colts, sick and tired of losing only bc Brady conspired to have the balls deflated so his aging hands could get a better grip, finally found a way to put an end to the Pats' illegitimate reign.

After the balls were replaced mid-game for fully inflated ones, the Patriots went on to miraculously decimate the Colts.

i mean, tbrrrrrr, my own personal pet theory which i have expounded previously on this subboard does include the patriots deflating the balls, in an unauthorized way but not with a result that i would describe as cheating for reasons in the circumstances, but it is as much conjecture as anyone else's published account and there is no legitimate definite by which the patriots could be described as having been "caught cheating" and the nfl just made a laughing stock of itself (again) and ne won the super bowl anyway (again)

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1hedVRFXXXXcaXpXXq6xXFXXXd/xdr147-tom-brady-jesus-canvas-painting-printed-oil-painting-art-on-canvas-livingroom-decor.jpg

thats the guy right there who throws the blessed oblong

theres no doubt in mind that tom brady is the best at the game of olive ball

apparently passion of the christ 2 is going to be about the 4 weeks brady was suspended after deflategate

justice for tom, finally

jim caviezel as brady, mel gibson as jimmy g, danny glover as jacoby brisset

Sal Paolantonio just did a report that Doug Pederson likes ice cream and called his wife to confirm. Make two weeks between games illegal.

— DL (@davelozo) February 1, 2018

deflategate was 100% a makeup call for other shit Goddell wanted to punish the Pats for. of course it wound up blowing up in their faces

the problem is the NFL has no creativity with junk like this. instead of suspending him just make him play with overinflated balls for 4 games. if he suddenly turns into Blake Bortles, well, then you've got your answer

deflategate was def iffy. notice everyone is evading spygate.

well it is inarguable that the patriots failed to comply with a league-wide memo about from where precisely in the stadium sidelines could be filmed and were punished for their temerity. truly a scandal to resonate thru the ages.

In a report for ESPN, Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham contend that commissioner Roger Goodell's handling of Deflategate was influenced by his hasty and incomplete handling of the Spygate incident.[71] Van Natta Jr. and Wickersham argue that the true extent of the Spygate scandal was covered up by Goodell and the National Football League in order to protect the image of the NFL and as a favor to New England Patriots' owner Robert Kraft, who was in part responsible for Goodell's promotion to commissioner.[71] The report alleges a highly complex system in which opposing teams' signals were recorded, decoded, and relayed to Patriots coaches and players on the field during games spanning at least 40 games between 2000 and 2007.[71]. This system also included a personal assistant to Bellichick who had a photographic memory and had the official title "Football Research Director", the only person with such a title in the NFL, he told congress stories about sneaking behind opponents benches and filming their huddles. According to the article a scout team would go out to future Patriot opponents and film signs and plays. They would then make a spreadsheet of all the signs and corresponding plays, Patriot staffers would then hand off the spreadsheets to the "football Research Director" who would match signals to the plays. The Patriots would also sometimes bring in former players of the team they were playing ask them if they accurately had recorded the signals, they would later cut the player.[72]

The article goes on to quote a former Patriots assistant as saying "things got out of control," in reference to the entire system of covert taping and signal decoding.

if true that would include the 2004 superbowl

good example of the specious and unsubstantiated guff that blew that story out of all proportion. thanks mordy. also

Seth Wickersham

patriots still reeling from his massive expose this season

lol theres no such thing as a photographic memory and even if there were why mention it

well, it's amazing what ppl can convince themselves of with sufficient desperation. which really brings us full circle

some great KEY STATS courtesy of warren sharp:

in the 11 games NE has lost since 2014, they averaged 22.4 ppg on offense, which is the exact average for all teams in all games in that period. the 11 teams they lost to averaged over 31 points in those games.

The last season that the Patriots lost a playoff game, they kicked off that postseason with a game in which Tom Brady tied for the lead in rushing attempts (6) and Steven Jackson led the team in rushing yards, with 16 (2.67 YPC).

https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags/SuperBowl2018/SuperBowl2018.png

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.