Cheatriots At It Again....

[FenwayFaithful]

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[vintagetoppsguy]

Ok, I'm trying to wrap my head around all this.

Here's my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong:

League Official #1 got caught trying to steal a ball and tried to cover it up by passing off different ball (a "K ball”). He gave the ball to Jim McNally who is a Patriots locker room attendant. McNally then gave the ball to another League Official (Greg Yvette) to be introduced into the game. Yvette noticed that the ball didn’t have the proper markings and notified another official. Did I get that right?

If so, that still doesn’t explain McNally’s part in this. Why didn’t McNally notice that it was a “K ball” to begin with? After all, he has several years’ experience. Also, as the first article mentions, it sounds like McNally wasn’t following procedure because “officials' locker room attendants don't typically have ballhandling responsibilities during NFL games."

[Runscott]

David, it sounds like it started with the removal of a 'K' ball. But the story still doesn't make sense, as the 'K Ball Coordinator' is not supposed to let these balls leave his sight - he introduces the ball into play, it is used for the kicking play, it is retrieved by another 'K Ball Coordinator', and it's then back in his hands until used again. They don't just get marked by the official and then tossed aside somewhere. It sounds to me like the NFL's 'K Ball' process isn't being followed, and that someone was too dumb to realize that the approved balls should have certain markings.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Scott,

Right. Fortunately Yvette caught it and he must have thought it pretty important/suspicious enought to notify Mike Kensil (NFL vice president of operations) who personally went into the officials' locker room at halftime to inspect all the balls.

It's still kind of hard to believe that an official who was supposed to be selling the balls for charity was instead selling them on the side. You would think that each ball would be tracked and accounted for. It's also strange that they haven't named that official (they named the other officials involved).

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

Scott,

Right. Fortunately Yvette caught it and he must have thought it pretty important/suspicious enought to notify Mike Kensil (NFL vice president of operations) who personally went into the officials' locker room at halftime to inspect all the balls.

It's still kind of hard to believe that an official who was supposed to be selling the balls for charity was instead selling them on the side. You would think that each ball would be tracked and accounted for. It's also strange that they haven't named that official (they named the other officials involved).

Here's the other thing - they are saying that suspicion was aroused because the substituted ball didn't have the correct markings by the official. The 'K' marking isn't done by the official, and I have never seen a 'K' ball that has any markings by the official - there are 16 for each game, and they are flown in and then the official holds onto them except for the time the teams have to rough them up, until game time. So no need to mark them.

In addition, while all game-used 'normal' balls DO have official markings on them, you rarely see those for sale - normally the NFL gives 'charities' (or whoever), the 'game prepared' balls that were not selected by the teams' quarterback;thus, no markings as they were never given to an official. By the way - the selling of 'game prepared' balls as 'game used' is not something that the NFL will acknowledge, but it's something I've seen over and over again. They play game-used collectors for fools.

My guess is that the NFL is giving reporters erroneous information, as a way to cover up that their processes aren't being followed.

[TUM301]

After hearing the last chapter of this saga one thing came to mind. I remember about 20+ years ago watching a movie about the great "Brinks Job". I think most fans, me included, were/are under the impression that the NFL is a huge well organized iron clad well oiled machine when it comes to game day ck lists. In actuality, much like Brinks which was all show and reputation with some of the worst security ever seen ( place was barely even locked up), the everyday rules are overseen by guys much like us. The league and it`s officials have apparently been giving lip service to "game ball " procedures for awhile and it bit them in the ass. Strangely it now sounds like at least one NFL higher up was aware of this before kick off. The more that comes out the more I`m leaning towards the Patriots being 100% in the clear and the league left with just another botched rushed to judgement fiasco. My 2 cents..........

[vintagetoppsguy]

I have an entirely different take on the situation. According to the story, an NFL Official (who was supposedly already suspected for stealing balls) gave a ball to McNally (the locker room attendant) who gave it to another NFL Official (Yvette).

That story makes no sense. Why would the first official give McNally a ball KNOWING that it wasn't a ball meant for offensive play (the ball was clearly marked as a K ball)? Surely he knew it would be caught!?!

And it sounds like McNally wasn't even supposed to be handling the ball in the first place. He should have refused to even touch the ball. Not only that, he should have KNOWN the difference between a K ball and a ball that is meant for offensive play.

It's also funny that the NFL official hasn't been named. Everybody else in the chain of events was named. Who is this 'mysterious' NFL official? Does he even exist? It's a great story if you don't have to name names.

I think Goodell is trying to protect his buddy (yes, they are buddies), Kraft and this story was either made up, or the entire truth hasn't come out.