Travis In Austin

I was a big Raiders fan too, from '70, when we moved to the Bay Area, until '86 after I was done with school, I would go to several games a year, all playoff games, in both Oakland and LA. My nieces made me switch to Broncos in order to keep the family peace. I have to root in secret for the Raiders these days.

So if this suspension sticks for Brady, will it have any impact on his being inducted in the Football Hall of Fame. They talked of him for sure being inducted prior to this, I would suppose that is true. Why is cheating more acceptable culture in baseball? Corked bats, spitters, scuffing the ball, emery boards, etc. What is the suspension for a corked bat, an emery board? Travis

The NFL is a PR nightmare, I just searched "Patriots Rice NFL" and all the *** sports outlets have an opinion about it. Here is one from Time. The NFL cannot get of its own way. http://time.com/3854871/brady-deflategate/ I read in many places that while Brady can appeal under the players' agreement, Kraft is "stuck" with the decision. I wonder why they are saying that, he can always attack due process in court. Especially if he files it in Boston. I am an Al Davis fan, he kicked Pete's teeth in and wiped the smile right off his face. This of course allowed Colts to pack up in the middle of the night and move to Indianapolis.

The report said you could not tell the difference by touch. The 2 gauges used to check the balls at halftime were about .5 Psi different from each other. The NFL knew about this for several games prior to the playoffs, and Indianapolis made a complaint about it to the NFL prior to this specific game. They did nothing to address it prior to the game. It doesn't excuse Pats, et el, conduct in the least, but I think the investigation and penalties are more about the NFL's mishandling of the Ray Rice situation and trying to regain credibility.

Interesting. I have not kept up with all the investigations and such because we are talking about letting air out of footballs. That would make it the one millionth most important thing in my life. It seems the league will spend a million dollars investigating air in footballs, to find one locker room attendant who texted another locker attendant about an alleged conversation with Brady, and THAT is the big "smoking gun." That is NOT "preponderance of the evidence" in my court room. Someone should be investigating why it took the NFL over a million dollars to investigate one guy apparently deflating footballs! Would you have any concern that Patriot employees were filmed removing their game balls from the secured cage and tampering with them? You obviously are not concerned that said employees texted about tampering with said game balls. Would you have any less concern if the NFL paid me only $300 to arrive at the same conclusion, in my cheap Mexican jalopy driveby investigation? I do know that these game balls get used, and used hard. The NFL decided to run with twelve balls for each team to ensure that balls of a required pressure would be available for the entire game, and in the event of inclement weather, that balls could be removed from service without creating a shortage. If you purchased four new tires from Firestone, and on the first day they were on your truck, you went out and drove the truck to the local Starbucks, and found out all four were down 3 psi below spec, you would be raising holy hell with the dealer. Brady and the Pats knew where he wanted his ball inflated to, and they got them there by hook and by crook. Now they are going to pay. Obviously not a Patriots fan.

What the heck does this mean? "The extra cool thing about this amp is that it has the ability to listen to the room via the principal of reciprocity. The loudspeaker the amp is connected to behaves like a microphone and "listens to the room." That signal is then sent back to the input to be mixed with the forward signal to help generate a more delicious sense of acoustic space by including the room in the final sound in a way other amps can't." "Delicious sense of acoustic space" sounds like something righ out of the Bose playbook. We will tell you how it sounds, but we don't publish specs. It also sounds like a load of crap to me. Isn't he saying that because of reciprocity, the microphone effect, that this exists regardless of whether the amp had feedback designed into it? Will not some speakers act as better microphones than others?

Denton County looks flooded, pulling people out with helicopters.

Kenny Wayne Shepard?

We are under a tornado watch right now, until 5.

Larry, I think they are going to Zion.

I started with Beck "Truth" in 1968. Some great tunes on that disc. He moved into Progressive jazz and you either get it or you don't. His instrumental "A day in the Life" is magic. If you don't like that, you are soulless. I was going to say something along those lines, but chickened out. A a bunch of younger people were around us literally crying. They asked what it was a I and I told them it was the Beatles, they were blown away.

This might help some understand him, this was for his second induction ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The first two minutes are Beck's Bolero, written for him by Jimmy Page. Then JP comes out, and plays backup for his long time friend on a Zeppelin tune and Beck just shreds it. https://youtu.be/xoPUDOgcFWY

What did you think of the instrumental Beatles tune, A Day in the Life? What did you think of the singer, Jimmy Hall?

Tal hasn't been with for a few years, new bass player, she is better, different drummer, that is it, oh and the lead singer from Wet Willie. Saw him last week with ZZ Top, he wailed, like he always does. I saw the Who a few days before that, Pete comes out and says Jeff Beck is here tonight, so the pressure is on. He is a guitarist's guitar player. The lead singer for his first two albums after the Yardbirds was Rod Stewart. Live at Ronnie Lane's is pretty much a jazz show, and if yir not into that it isn't going to fly. There is a track where Clapton comes out and they do Bluebird together and Beck plays slide. Check out who is in the audience for that show, totally into it. He can make a guitar sound like a harmonica, an organ, whatever. He played a Hendrix tune, to perfection, blues, r and b, rock, jazz, and his own progressive stuff. He came out for two songs with ZZ and he and Billy Gibbons tore it up. They played for 20 minutes together, Dusty was a machine, and with Frank, that is a rhythm section that is tough to beat. Plays with his thumb and just goes to town. He plays as such a high level that some of his guitars have an inverted head stock so he can stretch strings differently. He did not utter a single word the entire night. If you have a chance to see him on this tour I cannot reccomend it highly enough. Travis

There is always text messages, unbelievable. I read them, the guy was doing it for signed footballs, shoes and a jersey, for several games.

Unfortunately a great deal, as an attorney for Police Associations, I have to prepare wills for officers as part of their legal coverage, and unfortunately, have to handle their estates. PM me and I can call you. Travis

I'm pretty sure they don't play with each others balls. As I said "Yet to see the evidence". Notice how the QB always has his hands on the centers rear I'm not sure what the NFL standard is on enforcing the rules and punishment. Do they need direct evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, reasonable suspicion, we don't like the guy or??? I'm sure there is something in their policy that explains what is needed before any punishment is administered. That being said, like oldtimer mentioned, it is the NFL. According to the report, the standard is "preponderance of the evidence", which is more probable than not.

I read that too in the media. I will look at the Report and see if it says anything differently.

I believe this year they'll be changing their non profit status. I thought I had read that.

Didn't they punt their non-profit status, I thought I read that recently? Godell makes 35 million a year. Municipalities have funded, not loaned, funded, 2/3 of the cost of the NFL stadiums. Arlington gave JJ 325 million for ATT Stadium which taxpayers in Arlington, hey Chris you out there, pay for with an extra 1/2% in sales tax. We are a sports crazed nation, so it doesn't matter. What is really important, and what I want to know is, who is investigating those calls in the Cowboys playoff game?

I don't think that "digest" I quoted is complete, or is too abridged, it doesn't make sense. Other things I have read say each offense uses their own set of balls but they are all furnished by home team. I think the media, as usual, has the facts all messed up, and so, in turn they are all over the place here. Fortunately, the report is available on line, and they discuss the actual rules, and the evidence, in there. Haven't had time to look at that yet. Travis

It appears, like with baseball, the home team furnishes all of the game balls. Did something happen different for playoff games? Digest of Rules Main Ball The home club shall have 36 balls for outdoor games and 24 for indoor games available for testing with a pressure gauge by the referee two hours prior to the starting time of the game to meet with League requirements. Twelve (12) new footballs, sealed in a special box and shipped by the manufacturer, will be opened in the officials’ locker room two hours prior to the starting time of the game. These balls are to be specially marked with the letter "k" and used exclusively for the kicking game. NFL.com © 2015 NFL Enterprises LLC. NFL and the NFL shield design are registered trademarks of the National Football League.

I agree completely. (with bolded section, I'm not commenting on the body of the post) I'd like to hold Mr. DWI Lawyer's post out as an example of EXACTLY the kind of polite, non-partisan historical observation and comment that ADDS to the community discussion. If I were a mod this wouldn't even raise an eye brow. Thank you, I am just a little "gun shy" in these turbulent times and figured I would express my intentions ahead of time.

So was the one Pat ball that wasn't deflated the one they used for kicking? It would make sense that a kicker wouldn't want a deflated ball, I might be wrong on that, but it would explain why one out of the whole batch was a legal ball.

The more money that is at stake, the deeper the well of word choices that begin to be utilized. "Believe", "generally aware" and "unlikely done without your knowledge." "Substantial evidence." That's going to arbitration. So I guestion is if you are "generally aware" that your lineman are holding, or that footballs are deflated are you a cheater? “With respect to your particular involvement, the report established that there is substantial and credible evidence to conclude you were at least generally aware of the actions of the Patriots’ employees involved in the deflation of the footballs and that it was unlikely that their actions were done without your knowledge,” the letter read in-part.