ESPN Releases a 30 for 30 on the Tuck Rule Game, and a Book Proves the NFL Hid PSI Data That Would've Exonerated the Patriots on Deflategate. That's Why Old Balls is Still Defending That Wall

As it turns out, it's kind of ironic that ESPN would choose yesterday to release this "30 for 30" episode. Not because it breaks any new ground. It's the furthest thing from it. It's a rehash of the same old, long discredited, tired tropes about the Snow Bowl Game I've been refuting for 20 years now. I mean, just look at the fact that in New England we call the 2001 Divisional round game against the Raiders the way I just did, and the rest of the world refers to it with the term that gives this episode its title: 

The Tuck Rule Game. 

In the same way that old Rebels refused to use the term "Civil War" and instead favored "The War of Northern Agression," we'll never agree on the basic premise of the whole thing. Even this short trailer contains the blatant lie that the Tuck Rule had never been called before. For the millionth time, it went against the Patriots that very season, when the Jets retained possession after what looked like a Vinny Testaverde fumble. Here's the video. 

But none of this bears repeating. Bill Belichick is right when he says that was the rule. When referee Walt Coleman looked at the first replay, the first words out of his mouth were "Oh, shit." Or words to that effect. Because he knew they'd gotten the initial call right. Go to your graves thinking the Raiders were done dirty, and you'll go to your graves wrong. Wrongly wrongitty wrong wrong.

What makes this timing so ironic is that it comes in the same news cycle as a much more important story. Where again, the world got it wrong. Where somebody truly was done dirty by the NFL. And this is yet another Wall that has needed to be Defended. Despite the fact that it should never have been necessary. 

Source - Playmakers, my new book [Editor's note: I'll give Mike Florio the plug, NFL book author-to-NFL book author. I'm all about supporting literacy in America.] ... devotes a chapter to the saga known as Deflategate.

Then after describing Chris Mortensen's infamous and totally false "11-of-12" Tweet that started it all, Florio names the culprit who masterminded it:

So who was his source? Per a source with knowledge of the situation and as explained in Playmakers, the source for the notorious 11-of-12 footballs report was NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent.

It makes sense. It needed to be someone sufficiently high on the organizational chart to make it credible, and to prompt Mortensen to use it, despite the fact that (unbeknownst to Mortensen) it wasn’t true. 

Vincent was certainly a prime suspect, so there's no shock here. If the one billion episodes of Dick Wolf dramas have taught us anything, it's that the perp must have motive, means, and opportunity. And Vincent was lousy with all three. But the real damning revelation comes next:

Beginning with the 2015 season, the NFL began conducting air-pressure spot-checks at halftime of games. The numbers were collected and protected, with none of the information ever coming to light.

It was expected that, given the operation of the Ideal Gas Law, the pressure inside the balls would rise on warm days, and that it would fall on cold days. That’s exactly what happened. As the source put it, “numerous” measurements made at halftime of games during the 2015 season generated numbers beyond the permitted range of 12.5 to 13.5 psi, with the reading showing a direct correlation between temperature and air pressure.. …

So what happened to those numbers from the 2015 season? Per a source with knowledge of the situation, and as reported in Playmakers, the NFL expunged the numbers. It happened at the direct order, per the source, of NFL general counsel Jeff Pash.

Why would the league delete the numbers? It’s simple. For cold days, the numbers were too close to the actual numbers generated by the New England footballs at halftime of the playoff game against the Colts. Which means that the numbers generated at halftime of the January 2015 AFC Championship were not evidence of cheating, but of the normal operation of air pressure inside a rubber bladder when the temperature drops. Just as it was expected.

Even as I write this, I know it's not going to get a ton of pageviews because the world is sick of Deflategate talk. But that doesn't mean I can just let it go and move on. The whole nontroversy has been one of those arguments you have with your spouse that goes on and on, they dig in their heels and refuse to let it go. Until you're proven right and then it's all "Why are you still talking about this?"

Just as I and all the Barstool Boston guys were saying, there was never anything to this, and the science would prove us right. The NFL made a huge public commitment to record the data and share it with the world in order to prove they were right. And then? Crickets. They launched Operation: Change the Subject. When any of us brought up the question of where the psi numbers were, it was, "Why are you still talking about this?" 

I'll just add too that, after the Patriots employee whose job it was to carry the bag of game balls to the field took them into a Men's room for 90 seconds, the league turned it into a national scandal. The network newscasts were leading with reports about the bladder of a guy who answered to the name Dorito Dink. The NFL declared that from now on, the game balls would be scrutinized and under careful control at all times in order to thwart plots such as this. I assumed they'd be taken to the field in a Brink's truck and protected by armed guards. And in that very next 2015 season, the officials showed up to Gillette without the balls. They'd left them in a hotel room in Boston. The concierge had to use his master key to retrieve the bag, which was then rushed to Foxboro by the Mass. State Police. True story. 

The only remotely reasonable, logical explanation for why all of a sudden psi numbers and the chain-of-custody of game balls never came up again is because the truth of both was a humiliating embarrassment to Ginger Satan and all his minions. And that they never really truly mattered, until they could be weaponized against the greatest Dynasty the sport has ever known. 

The deafening silence on the data or the officials forgetting the balls says it all. It's Sherlock Holmes' The Dog That Didn't Bark. And of course Troy Vincent and Jeff Pash - who helped write the totally neutral and independent Wells' Report, then refused to testify in any of the legal proceedings, saying he represents the league and citing attorney-client privilege. It would be a pathetic joke if the whole thing didn't do so much damage to the Patriots franchise. Those first and fourth round picks they lost in the ridiculous deal aren't ever fucking coming back. 

Thanks for reading this long. Believe me, I'd love to not have to talk about these things any more. I'm stuck in this never-ending time loop of having to fight these same battles over and over again, with no end in sight. I'm Tom Cruise in "Edge of Tomorrow." Except I never get defeated, but every time I beat an opponent's argument with the weapons of truth, I have to go right back to the beginning and win the battle all over again. But I'll do what I must. I'll fight this fight for as long as it takes. And remain undefeated. 

Defend the Wall. Follow the Science. Kiss the Rings.