Tom Brady on Deflate-gate
People are wondering what I think after watching this interview of Tom Brady of the New England Patriots.
Do I believe he is telling the truth?
I do not believe him. No.
He gives many clues in this clip that he is not being forthright, and he makes it worse at the end of the clip when he says he doesn’t want anyone touching his balls!
What do you think…
We initially saw this clip with no sound and my husband said, “I don’t know what he’s saying, but he’s definitely lying!”
He says when the guy asks him if he’s a cheater, “I don’t believe so.” An innocent person would say, “NO!”
That’s the biggest tell of all right there.
So many red flags with his words…”I don’t believe so” – as someone already commented, if someone asks if you are a cheater and you aren’t you say NO there should be no “believe” in the equation. “I feel like I’ve always played within the rules” – once again him saying he “feels” that way in no way indicates this is the actual truth. “I would never do anything to break the rules”. Never is not a reliable word to use in a denial, he most likely would say “I DO NOT break the rules” if he was being honest. This is why I find sports so frustrating to watch because I really think there are many such occurrences of underhanded dealings, misuse of substances, referee interference to prolong a game, etc that I can’t trust that the game is about the best team winning on real talent and teamwork.
Never cannot be judged, in my opinion. Honest people use it all the time in denials.
Yes, I’ve been reading Peter’s blog and he always states that the word is “unreliable”..love to compare against your views for the best perspective. 🙂
I’ll put you on a test…try to find people using the word. If you listen to every account of it, you will find honest people use it to!
Yes when I read Peter’s thoughts on it I really started overthinking how often I use that word. I use it a lot when I’m passionate about making a point, so I suppose I am my own test haha!
I constantly use the words “always” and “never”. Both when speaking and writing. I try to change it sometimes because I don’t understand why I do it, and it tends to make serious attempts to say something sound less worthy.
Here is a woman using it and you KNOW she is not lying…
‘I never saw my son open his eyes or smile, but at least I told him how much he was loved’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11364826/Marina-Fogle-I-never-saw-my-son-open-his-eyes-or-smile-but-at-least-I-told-him-how-much-he-was-loved.html
I know I’m throwing the word “context” around a lot recently, but the example of “never having seen my son open his eyes…” is low stakes and wasn’t an answer to a question, right? (I skimmed the story, so I’m not sure) I feel “never” can be used in many different ways–some are appropriate to the situation and some aren’t. I find “never” in a “Did you do this?” situation more helpful. I’m going to use a high stakes, extreme example: Detective: “Did you rape Jane Doe?” Suspect: “I would never rape anybody.” or even “I never raped anybody.” What?!? Red flag, right? While exceptions exist, don’t you feel we would hard pressed to find someone who was innocent and answered in this way? Did you rape Jane Doe?…No, I didn’t!
I would say, “No! I never raped anybody.” How can you judge that? I fail to see it.
The “No!” makes it stronger, and it’s needed. Your example isn’t substituting never for no. It feels weird to me when somebody asks something very specific, and the answer is less specific (or more encompassing). Instead of responding about a specific time (this instance), never incorporates all time, and instead the specific person, anybody means anybody. I would never (ha!) automatically say that a person is lying because of only this though. I know it’s semantics, but the “no” you added in, I feel is the strong part of the response and almost cancels “never” out. Take “no” out and I feel it becomes a poor response. Would you answer without the “no” to the specific question? That is where it feels weird to me. (Note: Just trying to learn by standing up for some thoughts I have)
careful with the “I do not” instead of the “I don’t” eyes.. otherwise people might not believe you… /facepalm.
Hilarious, Chris! Hilarious!
He thinks this whole thing is funny and passes it off as a silly little thing that happened. Part of his smiling may be, because he and others are making something dirty out of his remarks, but he seems to be enjoying the whole interview. He doesn’t “think so”, really? I think he know so!
Even without all the subtle nuance, the fact that a QB wouldn’t know if the ball felt weird, is preposterous. That IS his ONLY job.
Could not agree more. I would fully expect any good quarterback to be able to tell instantly if a football is not right. Virtually any skilled professional will be able to do it in their own area of expertise.
An important point that I have not seen brought up – slightly deflating the footballs isn’t just funny or pulling one over, it’s actually very valuable to the team. A slightly deflated football is a bit easier to grab, throw, catch and hold. A fully inflated football is a bit more difficult to grab, throw catch and hold. So there is incentive for the Pats or any team to do this.
I agree, any good quarterback will know in a millisecond if the football is out of spec, feels “weird”, etc. That’s his job. Totally agree, and that’s the first reason I’m not buying what Tom Brady is selling.
A few weeks ago Aaron Rogers stated that he intentionally over-inflates all his footballs and if the reff doesn’t catch it, then that’s great for him since that’s his PREFERENCE. He plays better and throws more accurately with an overly inflated football (higher than the legal 13.5 lbs). Should we fine the Packers for this? Maybe take away a couple draft picks? There’s no sting operation here. He openly admits to tampering with the ball every time he plays, in order to gain an advantage. Why is there no media frenzy over this? It’s identical to “deflategate” but just on the other end of the PSI spectrum.
Here’s video proof of Carolina and Minnesota cheating a couple months ago. They heated their footballs. I will dumb this down for people. When you heat a very cold and hard ball, it becomes softer and easier to grip. Isn’t this accusation about Brady deflating his footballs so he could get a better grip and gain an advantage? What is the difference here? There is none. Again…NO MEDIA FRENZY.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000437309/article/nfl-to-remind-teams-not-to-warm-footballs
I am from Patriots country and I love the Pats. It’s always a great game. They take you to the final second typically so it’s exciting. But, I was concerned when this first came out and neither Tom nor Bill B denied it. Tom laughed it off with “now i’ve heard everything and Bill said “This is the first I’m hearing of it, we’ll cooperate fully with the NFL”.. eeeks. That wasn’t a “No we did not” or “No sir”… nothing with “no”. Not good. They should own it and then move on.
How can Bill say “no” to something when he clearly states he knows nothing about it? Essentially your logic is saying that Bill should just lie and say “no” to something he knows nothing about. Consider the possibility that he REALLY didn’t know anything about it and why would he? He’s got MUCH more important things to do as a coach.
The problem is he should know about everything that goes on that is this important. IF this ball was deflated by that locker room assistant who went into the bath room the question would be why did he do that? The only answer i can think of because Tom Brady wanted it done to help him throw better or grip better. At least Tom should have know what was going on with the balls. I am sure any QB would not want anyone touches his balls and if he did want someone touching them he would tell them what he wanted done to them. So if this assistant did touch the balls he was doing so because Tom Brady wanted it done. Therefore if they were innocent they should be able to conclude and say without a doubt no one did anything to the balls because Tom controls how he wants his balls. So if anything was done I am sure Tom control that as well. They are guilty!
Can you explain why that last statement makes him look worse? I agree, it made me instinctively trust him less, but I don’t know the reason, and don’t trust instinct. I noticed that when says he wants people to have a chance to ask questions, he clenches his mouth so that part looked like a lie to me. Looked like an unnecessary lie. He seems a bit scared when he mentions he will try to answer questions.
Ok, so lets talk about things we actually know right now. Tom Brady has some of the biggest hands in football. It’s well known. Just throwing that one out there.
A few weeks ago Aaron Rogers stated that he intentionally over-inflates all his footballs and if the reff doesn’t catch it, then that’s great for him since that’s his PREFERENCE. He plays better and throws more accurately with an overly inflated football (higher than the legal 13.5 lbs). Should we fine the Packers for this? Maybe take away a couple draft picks? There’s no sting operation here. He openly admits to tampering with the ball every time he plays, in order to gain an advantage. Why is there no media frenzy over this? It’s identical to “deflategate” but just on the other end of the PSI spectrum.
Here’s video proof of Carolina and Minnesota cheating a couple months ago. They heated their footballs. I will dumb this down for people. When you heat a very cold and hard ball, it becomes softer and easier to grip. Isn’t this accusation about Brady deflating his footballs so he could get a better grip and gain an advantage? What is the difference here? There is none. Again…NO MEDIA FRENZY.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000437309/article/nfl-to-remind-teams-not-to-warm-footballs
What else do we know? Brady threw relatively poorly in the first half with a “doctored” ball and was nearly perfect in the second half and went 9/9 in the third quarter with a “fully inflated” ball. This defies logic.
Dqwell Jackson (the guy who made the interception on Brady) who supposedly found something wrong with the ball, has indicated people lied about him. He said he did not find anything wrong with the football. He wanted to keep it as a souvenir. Why wouldn’t he? He made a huge interception on Tom Brady in the biggest game of his life! It’s very common to keep a ball in that situation. He also has gone on to say that he finds it odd that at one point in the first half, the Patriots were playing with one of the Colt’s balls. Weren’t the Colt’s balls fully inflated? What does Jackson have to gain by saying this? The Pats just beat the tar out of him and his team. Could it be that Jackson is honest and the manipulative powers that be, really are deceiving us all?
Tom Brady was ripped apart by a sickening media whose primary purpose is to sensationalize, and in this case, humiliate. They do this for money. When they shred someone well, they make more money and they further their pathetic careers. There is no such thing as journalistic integrity anymore.
This was not a press conference. This was a lynching. They were there to destroy someone regardless of facts. There were way more people there than normal. The tone and the rude manner in which they fell over each other and interrupted each as they asked their questions would be unnerving for ANYONE. Tom Brady was NERVOUS. How does anyone act when they’re nervous and under duress? They say and do things they wouldn’t ordinarily say. They say things differently. He had to be defensive from the start. Defensive people sound guilty. His coach was found guilty for cheating in 2007!
Which brings us to…why would anyone break the rules when there has been so much scrutiny on the patriots since “Spygate”? It makes no sense. I will also add here, something about Spygate. Had Belichick done exactly what he did with those cameras in 2006, he would not have been breaking any rule. He was off by one year and he interpreted the rule in a different manner than what the league thought in 2007. Yes, Belichick is a genius but occasionally geniuses fail and they also generally don’t have time to keep an eye on their equipment and every football’s PSI level.
I don’t know if this hack, Renee, wrote the above opener or if it was someone else, but she/he needs to get a clue. You guys can play NCIS all you want but you really do not know or understand the Patriots’ history and how hated an extremely talented team can be. People love football and they love their team. Their is an endless list of teams, coaches, fans who want to put an end to the Pats reign at any cost.
The Pats started their season 2 and 2. Kansas City blew them out! The media jumped all over this and we had a minor frenzy back then. Brady was washed up! Bill Belichick was through! The Pats fought incredibly hard to get where they are this season. They persevered and deserve respect.
Consider the last 5 games the Broncos played. They did poorly. Peyton Manning was badly beaten by a team that the Pats recently destroyed. Is Peyton all washed up? Is it the end for him? Yes, people have talked about it and his possible retirement. Where is the mini media frenzy that Brady got after 4 games and going 2 and 2? Why isn’t Peyton getting trashed the sports media like Brady was?
Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots are not the ones lacking integrity. It’s the media and their opposition, which includes nearly 99% of anyone who doesn’t live in New England. Very few of you here are looking at the larger picture. Most of you don’t have a clue as to what your babbling about.
I see that you are distressed, but do you realize that this isn’t a sports or news website? This is a blog that explores different signs of deception people communicate through their bodies and language. Taking the bigger picture into account would actually defeat the purpose here. Tom Brady’s statement is being used as an example so people can look for different signs and behaviors, not so people can discuss the Patriots or the general status of cheating in the NFL.
The Patriots are playing a respectable role. As foil to the majority’s sense of ethical compunction. In olden days, the people were familiar with the role and called it the “Heel”. Nowadays, in the Facebook age, everybody wants to be “liked”. Fans of the Heel take it personally. You are swimming upstream if you think you can change the way the story is told. Embrace the role you play, Patriot Fan. It’s a vital part of the drama.
Maybe that’s what Brady means by he didn’t break any rules or he played within the rules. If the ref doesn’t catch it, it’s not against the rules. Same as “It isn’t breaking the law if you don’t get caught” logic.
When I first heard about the scandal I thought it was true. Brady likes it in a dome, uses a lot of torque in is throwing motion and I could see it being true that the balls deflated in the cold and rain. I thought they may have given balls to refs that were under inflated and got away with it. I doubted they tampered with them after this point. This is the kind of shady thing BB would approve. Ride the line, get as close as you can. Still not cheating.
After his press conference I said no way. Brady was avoiding some questions no doubt but it was a different situation for him. He was nervous having his integrity questioned and no doubt a little stunned how quickly people turned on him. I failed a lie detector once. Out of a score of +/-15 I scored a -13. Cops told me I wasn’t being truthful. I asked them why would lie about my own address my name and every other question I was asked they couldn’t give me an answer to that but they knew I was lying. Seems you people are just as good as guessing as they were. The only question they would admit that I truthfully answered was whether or not I was guilty and the answer was no but I must have known who did it. I didn’t but they still wanted me to purger myself so they could make a case.
Lie detectors are a joke and so our analysts on TV who think they can tell. You’d have to be a psychopath to not be bothered in that situation.
Starting to look like the Colts set this up. Apology anyone?