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View Full Version : Now He Decides To Speak Up On McNally



pbmax
09-17-2015, 05:27 PM
Information that actually helps tie together the entire Deflategate story has now finally be unearthed by the Indianapolis Star. But it immediately raises three questions

1. Why didn't the NFL have a record of this?

2. Was he interviewed by the NFL?

3. Why speak up now?


“He always asked for the footballs way, way before he was supposed to get them,’’ Baltz said. “If he could get them 10 or 15 minutes before he was supposed to get them, instead of the usual two minutes before the game — and there were some crews that let him do that — he would do it. I wouldn’t let him take them early, and I think he eventually figured that out because he stopped asking after a while. I probably did 10 to 15 games up there [in Foxboro] and those first few times, he’d always ask. I always thought it was very suspicious. He certainly acted in a suspicious manner.’’

That sounds exactly like the kind of thing you would have heard about from other crews, but no one else spoke up (or was not asked). However, some of his story makes zero sense:


"What I specifically reported him for several years ago, and I thought this was really unusual, he’d run out on the field with the footballs before the game and the next thing you know, he’s playing pitch-and-catch with [Tom] Brady. Then, next thing, he’s on the sidelines right next to [Bill] Belichick, like he’s a [bleeping] assistant coach or something.”

Why would playing catch with Brady or talking to Belichick be suspicious to this guy in 2007? It sounds more like after he learned about Deflategate and McNally, some things he saw looked suspicious. I would love to know what his complaint actually said at the time.

from: http://www.wthr.com/story/30056286/kravitz-blogindy-based-nfl-official-baltz-was-suspicious-of-mcnally-years-ago

via: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/09/17/former-nfl-official-reported-mcnally-six-or-eight-years-ago/

Packers4Glory
09-18-2015, 02:29 PM
deflate gate...the most overblown story in football history. who gives a shit?

The big story is the video they were taking and that the NFL covered up.

MadScientist
09-18-2015, 02:52 PM
deflate gate...the most overblown story in football history. who gives a shit?

The big story is the video they were taking and that the NFL covered up.
Have to disagree, Deflate Gate was definitely under-blown.

pbmax
09-18-2015, 02:55 PM
deflate gate...the most overblown story in football history. who gives a shit?

The big story is the video they were taking and that the NFL covered up.

I used to think that, but I am not sure about it anymore.

A number of coaches, including Jimmy Johnson and some on Schottenheimer's old staffs have said its been done for a long time. A more technological approach to stealing signals in real time.

And the rules on the books in the 90s were ambiguous. So rules were changed. What I have yet to see is that the strictures that Ray Anderson put into place for 2007 (shooting coach video only from 3 designated locations) in a memo to teams were actually the active interpretation of the rules that were in the manuals prior to that date. No one that I know of has turned up a manual from before 2007 that contains the stricter language (the copy everyone throws around is from 2000 I think, and it is indeed ambiguous). This is the argument you get from Pats fans on message boards, that Anderson went beyond what the rule book said.

And this is exactly the territory that Belichick lives in. No sign says the road is closed, so he heads down it.

That is not to say he is innocent. He clearly attempted to disguise his video guys, so he was trying to avoid being caught. And he also very clearly and very stupidly, continued with the practice even after Anderson made it verboten in the offseason before 2007, the season they were caught.

So I don't think this was a huge edge. Some of his former coaches said aide-de-camp Ernie Adams actually was wrong more often than he was right after his tape review. But whatever edge it provided, I expect he maximized the benefit. That is one definite advantage having singular control over the franchise gives you.

Rastak
09-19-2015, 09:16 PM
I agree on why mention it now. Seems pretty strange.