Deflategate Musings:

I have many thoughts on this topic. Below they are listed in no particular order:

(1) Can we stop adding "-gate" to everything remotely suspicious/controversial/popular? We get it, Watergate was a huge scandal so now every scandal is related to that scandal. This normally gets under my skin a lot more than Deflategate has. Perhaps that's because "deflate" and "gate" rhyme. In this case, I'll help perpetuate the use of "-gate" by using it in this post.

(2) I don't believe Belichick, but I don't believe Tom Brady more. First off, how many of you, when watching the press conferences were amazed by how much Belichick had to say? I for one was astounded. He didn't brush it off like I expected him to. This tells me two things: (A) He's taking this seriously, and (B) He feels obligated to address the situation because he knows there's something to hide. He can't be his usual cocky, arrogant self because he knows the media is right in accusing him.

I honestly feel like Belichick has built in plausible deniability but he also knows that Brady was the driving force behind Deflategate. To my second point, never would I ever expect Belichick to deflect attention from himself to Brady like he did in the first press conference. Saying, "I don't know, you'll have to ask Brady," is just crazy to me. Not only that, he wasn't pressed about Brady when he said that, he seemed to be rambling, and then deflected attention from himself to Brady. I wouldn't say he threw Brady under the bus, but he definitely knows that Brady was the one who orchestrated everything.

My last point on this matter, during the press conference, Belichick took it too far when he was stating that he has never paid attention to air pressure in footballs. Really?! One of the best masterminds of our era doesn't know every last detail of what his QB (the very one he's been in tandem with since the year 2000) prefers in a football? I simply cannot believe that. He's hiding something for sure.

(3) The use of the word "ball" is hilarious.

Pay attention, watch the media heads. Whenever they talk about this subject, you can tell they are coached to use the word "football" instead of saying "ball." This is not their fault, it's every guy's fault in America. Admit it, inside each one of us is a middle schooler who still giggles for every sentence with a "ball" remark. It's a wonder why women put up with us. My favorite part of all of this is that whenever the media heads slip up and say "balls" instead of "footballs," there is usually an ever so slight pause where you can see them finish the sentence in their head, try and gauge the level of appropriateness of the rest of their sentence, and wonder if they will be on The Daily Show, Tosh.0, or some other modern day satire for their remark.

(4) Brady is guilty.

I'm operating under an assumption here I want to express. No ball boy nor equipment manager in the game today would ever intentionally deflate the balls on his own accord. There's no way. There must be a driving force involved. That driving force wouldn't be a WR/RB/OL/TE/FB. The only people that would make that decision would be a coach or QB. I don't believe a positional coach would make the call on anything like that. I've already outlined why I don't believe Belichick did it either.

This thought process leads me to believe that Brady is the driving force and one moment in his press conference confirmed this to me. There was a point when a reporter stated (summarized) "Tom, you are an idol and hero to a lot of people across America. You're a big example and someone that a lot of people want to emulate and be like." The reporter then asked him the question, "How would you then respond to people who say 'Tom Brady is a cheater?'" Tom Brady then said, "I don't believe so."

To me this confirms everything. No matter what circumstance any human being is in ever, when someone is falsely accused of cheating/lying/stealing and someone asks, "are you a cheater?" the answer is ALWAYS some strong expression of the word "No!" Brady was behind Deflategate, probably has been for a long time, and by saying "I don't believe so" confirms that he was behind Deflategate but doesn't consider it cheating. This segues to my next point perfectly.

(5) While I do consider this cheating, I don't believe it should be a rule at all. Who cares how much the opposing team inflates the ball. They're the ones who should be comfortable with how hard the balls are in the first place. (the middle school boy in you came out didn't it? See point 3 above) The air pressure obviously didn't make a difference in the second half when the NFL switched the Patriot footballs with footballs inflated with legal pressure. In the second half, the Patriots outscored the Colts 28-0. While this illustrates the point that the Patriots were stupid to risk it in the first place (having clearly been the superior team), I think it also illustrates that there should be a rule change where they relax the rule completely on air pressure in a football. Let the coaches decide how inflated/deflated they keep their footballs. I don't think it has any effect on who wins the game.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know!

First Sporticulation question for ya

I imagine sometime we're going to stop with "inaugural" posts but for now allow us to be unreasonable with "firsts" for the blog. This is Patrick typing and I've decided that the first appropriate sporticulation debate will deal with your favorite outlets of information. Here's the deal, if you're reading this--reply with your favorite sources of information and be detailed about it. If you put "ESPN" and nothing more, you are a homer and will be made fun of by at least 2 self-proclaimed sports fans (Eric and myself). So, here goes.

Radio:

Hans Olsen and Kyle Gunther on 1280 The Zone radio based out of Utah. These guys are hilarious because they can make fun of anything and anyone in any situation. Laugh out loud humor while being able to provide contextual information for anything dealing with local Utah sports.

Sportingnews radio is decent, but I don't love it. They mainly only rehash common news stories without providing further context.

Magazine:

I used to have a regular subscription to Sports Illustrated but it's since been cancelled and I'm not too ecstatic about renewing one. I've read ESPN the Magazine before and don't love it, but don't hate it. I've only read a few SportingNews and from the small sample size I read, I liked it the best. I'd be interested in your comments about why you like the magazine you like. In my opinion, SI is good for behind the scenes stories, ESPNtheMAG is good for player profiles, and SportingNews is good for in-depth analysis for fantasy purposes.

Websites:

As far as national websites go, I frequent SI.com, ESPN.com, Foxsports.com, yahoo fantasy page, and cbssports.com the most in that respective order. I think SI.com has the best writers and featured stories, ESPN has the best coverage (though the Insider option annoys me), Foxsports has the most interesting articles yet provides the least amount of coverage, Yahoo has the best fantasy coverage, and cbssports is just good all around.

Writers:

Let me rattle off the guys I esteem and follow the most: Ken Rosenthal, Jason Whitlock, Joe Posnaski, Peter King, Jayson Starks, Jerry Crasnick, Rick Reilly, Tom Verducci, Jon Heyman, Stewart Mandel, Pete Prisco, and Steve Rushin among others.

In my opinion, SI.com has the best writers (tallying 5 of my favorites). I don't like Jason Whitlock's articles that much, but I'll read anything he has to say due to his being controversial.

To me, the most important aspects of a good article are humor, thought-provoking, knowledge, ability to include historical context, and lack of biasness.

Announcers:

I love the Joe Morgan/Jon Miller baseball tonight combination and I'll miss them when they stop. Harold Baines is another one of my faves along with Chip Carey (Skip, you're missed).

Dick Vitale is absolutely my favorite. He's the best at providing unashamed enthusiasm for the sport he loves. I'll watch any game he announces. He makes everything fun.

Jon Gruden is good for providing thoughtful analysis of the game. John Madden was a great guy but for the sports dummy. Not thought provoking at all, but a good announcer. I made fun of him when he announced but now he's missed.

I love the college football gameday announcers: Corso, Herbstreit, Fowler, and co. are awesome.

**Interesting note, is it just me or does the NBA provide the least quality coverage? I can't think of any announcer or writer that I particularly like? (Barkley doesn't count; he is a joke).

Is anyone else falling out of love with ESPN? I don't love their coverage that much anymore. The stuff that you can get for free is too mainstream and not thought-provoking at all.

Alright peeps, what're your thoughts? Agree, disagree? Am I off-base? Let me know!

Inaugural Post

Well, if I was the slightest bit responsible I would be working on a paper or something right now, but I've been compelled to at least make an inaugural post. I'm Eric, the one whom Patrick dubbed as a fellow contributor to the blog. I must say that I did coin the phrases sporticulation, sportification and sportificating, nevertheless he is the driving force in this conquest to fill minds with gobs of useless yet enthralling sports opinion and information. So here's the deal, we want to hear your thoughts, feelings and ideas on anything sports. If you don't agree with Patrick or myself feel free to go postal on our comments... Caution: Any rebuttal to our comments will undergo through analysis. Legitimate and logical responses will be acknowledged, homer weak-sauce contributions will be subject to an all out beat down so please do your homework. See ya.

A Thorough Introduction to Our Blog

This blog is headed up by 2 moderators: (1) Eric and (2) Patrick. We'll withhold last names and personal information for obvious reasons. We are avid sports fans who frequently talk, theorize, philosophize, text, and email sports. We'd discuss it over a loud speaker if it wouldn't earn us a "disturbing the peace" citation.

We specialize in anything mainstream (baseball, basketball, football) on both collegiate and professional levels. We're also interested in everything else sports related; including Olympics, steroids, fantasy sports, soccer, UFC, boxing, underwater basket weaving, etc.

You'll figure out our favorite sports and sports teams as we post and I imagine that at the beginning, it'll mostly be just us two reading our posts. If you like what we have to write then let us know, tell your friends to follow us, and participate in what we write. We hope this can get somewhat big and all can have fun letting us know what's on their sports' minds.

PS: Just so you know, we have lives outside of sports so excuse us if we don't post everyday. We also have other interests, one such being movies, everything is fair game for our blog. Thanks all!