@DeborahT My post was a jab at “Coach” Belichick , not at you. 
I can’t figure how the NFL levies a fine based on the recommendation of a USA Today reporter who seems to have an axe to grind. I don’t see how this isn’t overturned on appeal. It seems to be pretty clearly a handshake int he video - both the slow-mo loop and the real time game video. It’s as if they’re trying to tell Lynch that they’ll start coming after his family next if he doesn’t step in line. Of course if he had planned on talking next week at all, this thing cooked up by a reporter certainly won’t encourage him to cooperate. If Bennett gets a sack next week they’ll be fining him for his sack dance for sure!
In other Bennett news the Seattle Police Department has donated the post game bicycle to his foundation to be auctioned off this spring.
Thanks for letting me know, Mokusatsu. You don’t hear back you start believing the worst.
The crotch-grab by Lynch is in the same category as giving the finger. If he’d given a one-finger salute in the end-zone, he’d be in the same situation.
At this point Lynch is being defiant with this stuff to prove something in his own mind, but really it’s more a like a two year old throwing a tantrum at this point. “You can’t tell me what to do!!!”
The fine on Sweezy is just bizarre.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/standings/_/type/playoffs/sort/conferenceRank/order/false indicates that Seattle had a slightly higher strength of schedule and strength of victory than New England.
Seattle is probably glad that New England is getting all of the press regarding the deflated footballs. It keeps the press from dredging up stories about their PED suspensions or the mess at USC that Pete Carroll left.
The NFL has some interesting meanings. No Fun League because they ban celebrations. Not For Long because careers are so short.
I think they take a firm line on how players act because they have seen what happens when they don’t. Remember the self-centered jerk Terrell Owens pulling out a sharpie and writing on the ball? Or him basically starting a fight by standing on the star in Dallas with his arms raised? That’s using a prop and taunting. And remember the elaborate dances players would do - and as a group - after every score became a cultural joke; people would talk about their touchdown dance. So they care.
And one reason I think they care is the players are mostly minority and the audience is mostly not. They want the game to appear “wholesome” in a mainstream way and that means stripping it of the visible aspects of race and class. And it does come to the surface, as when Richard Sherman is being his usual ungraceful winner, rather than think “that guy’s a jerk” it became “he’s a thug” because he’s dark-skinned. The NFL knows that is just below the surface.
Oh, about all I actually learned from Belichick’s and Brady’s press conferences is the team inflates its balls to the minimum. And Belichick said they’d pump it up more in the future just in case.
And I learned again that when it comes to sports people are even stupider than about politics, that they really can’t be bothered to be rational, that they can’t remember things from the recent past, and that anyone with an axe to grind can get on TV to grind away. Heinz Ward still can’t accept they lost.
Strength of schedule can be deceptive. The Seahawks beat the Cardinals twice in the second half after Palmer went down and they were playing stiff du jour at qb. Yet because Arizona started 9-1, their SOS gets a big jump.
KC ended the year at 9-7, but went 3-4 down the stretch. They were clearly getting worse, yet still managed to beat Seattle.
The weird thing is that the NFL Network has a morning show with a “Dancing With the Starters” segment. They rate celebration dances. They’ve been having a run off with all the weekly winners. I think it’s a really fun segment but why glorify it for ratings if you don’t like it? That said, I get not liking Marshawn’s crotch grab but I don’t get manufacturing further violations around it with the low handshake fine. Marshawn is called out for his “thanks for asking” interview but Belichick gets a league pass for his “on to Cincinnati” press conference.
OK - this just about sums up the weird week that it’s been!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/22/deflategate-cialis-parody_n_6526352.html
The NFL is exceedingly image-conscious in general, but the crotch-grabbing incident is especially heinous because they are in the middle of a multi-year effort to reach out to women, especially white women. They think we white chicks will be horrified by this kind of behavior, so horrified that we’ll turn off the TV.
Maybe someone has noted this, but Belichick got a little Marshawn Lynch-ish at the end of his presser.
“I’ve told you everything I know.”
“I don’t have an explanation.”
Lynch does it better.
Lots of deflection going on, imo.
If the Patriots deflated the balls, they cheated. It doesn’t have to be worse than Ray Rice, Big Ben, USC, Sean Payton, or any other incident to be wrong and actionable.
If I were a Patriots fan, I’d be mortified at this behavior, not pointing the finger at any other target I can think of. I would want the perpetrator to be held accountable. If nothing else, the buck stops at Bill B.
And I find it IMPOSSIBLE to believe someone so meticulous about how his footballs feel (his own words) as Tom Brady is didn’t notice 11 of 12 balls were deflated. That just completely defies logic.
One has to wonder how many other times Patriot footballs were messed with this season.
Can’t have the serfs getting uppity, can we.
What Lynch should do is claim a disability (social anxiety or some-such) and file an ADA claim against the league, asking for an accommodation.
Or maybe he’s doing it for fun, just to tweak the league.
The “we’re on to Cincinnati” stuff is obnoxious, but he is at least meeting his obligation to meet the press. There was lots of mocking of Belichick after this happened, so it’s not like he’s getting a free pass. He gets called out on it - it’s not shown a thousand times on SportsCenter because it’s brilliant insightful analysis, they are making fun of him.
It’s mostly making me wonder* what else has been going on with the Pats. I’m not limiting this to the actual footballs - it appears like they try and get away with whatever they can, so what else have they done besides this?
*: Full disclosure, the Patriots might well be my least favorite team in football, so I’m really just wondering this MORE.
Exactly, cosmicfish. And they don’t have a stellar history in the integrity department. The outcry is in part a function of the reputation they already had.
*The crotch-grab by Lynch is in the same category as giving the finger. If he’d given a one-finger salute in the end-zone, he’d be in the same situation.
You mean like Julian Edelmans tshirt that he wore on NBC with Tupac flipping the double bird?
NBC apologized for that, though, so it’s already covered. 
I didn’t see that, but if it was at some league-required thing, I would expect him to get fined as well.
It was his locker room press availability. The question is one of perception and equitable treatment, though. Could Marshawn wear a double bird flipping Tupac T-shirt for his next press availability and expect the network to apologize?