Last night, Ian O’Connor posted a column about the Brady Flat Balls scandal. It’s the sort of meat-head nonsense you get from sports columnists these days. The thing is, it contains a lie that has now been obscured with careful editing. The current opening graph is this:
Under his oversized ski cap, Tom Brady could not hide from the fact he was convicting himself in the court of public opinion. The quarterback of the New England Patriots admitted that footballs pumped up to 12.5 pounds per square inch are “a perfect fit for me,” yet swore he did not notice a difference in the AFC Championship Game when most of the balls had significantly less pressure.
The original paragraph and the basis for his entire rants read this way:
Under his oversized ski cap, Tom Brady could not hide from the fact he was convicting himself in the court of public opinion. The quarterback of the New England Patriots admitted that footballs pumped up to 12.5 pounds per square inch are “a perfect fit for me,” yet swore he did not notice a difference in the AFC Championship Game when the balls weighed two pounds lighter.
If you read the comments, people caught it quickly and mercilessly mocked the idiot for not understanding grammar school science. This guy actually thought footballs weighed 12.5 pounds, one pound of weight for every pound of air pressure. Therefore, a fully deflated football would weigh zero and float away.
I’ve had experience with sports reporters in press boxes and interview rooms. Most reporters are surprisingly obtuse. Sports reporters are uncommonly stupid. The only skill they possess is a willingness to spend their lives on the road watching ball games. That and the ability to avoid noticing anything prohibited. These are the same people who failed to notice the use of steroids in baseball, when it was obvious to most fans.
The other thing with this story worth noting is that Ian O’Connor pretends to be an intellectual on TV. Television is entertainment so all of the chattering skulls play a role, like comedians. Larry the Cable Guy is not actually a cable guy and his accent is entirely contrived, along with his act. O’Connor pretends to be the cerebral guy on the stage, despite having a two-digit IQ.
The difference between a comedian and the fake intellectual is the former is honest, while the latter is dishonest. Pretending to be an accountant, dispensing advice for a fee lands you in prison for fraud. Pretending to be an accountant on a news program, dispensing advice for a fee wins you an Emmy. The parade of fake military experts is a good example of how lucrative fraud is on television.
The reason stupid people, like Ian O’Connor, are so common in the news business is narrative journalism. The news business has been dominated by the Cult for decades. Instead of reporting the facts of a story, it is a race to jam the facts into the narrative, which is always based on some left-wing fable.
O’Connor embraces this philosophy and flatters his bosses by pretending to be an intellectual, who embraces their philosophy. That means rising quickly to the top.
Multiply this a million times and you have the modern American news media.
I watch sports, but I don’t get too caught up in it. This flat balls thing is why I keep my distance. Anyone who has played sports knows the air pressure is not precise in a game ball. Even if the footballs in question were under inflated, it must not have been noticeable. If it was, a ref would have noticed it.
But, the meathead jock sniffers need a story.
I’m no fan of Tom Brady, but I find it fascinating that simple high school physics can prove conclusively that he and the Patriots did nothing wrong. Numerous engineering and physics professors have shown the proof. But no one cares, especially the media.
http://people.csail.mit.edu/jleonard/20151104_leonard_unh_deflategate_final2.pdf
[…] as the brainy, thoughtful sports guy, who gives “perspective” to the news. In reality he is as dumb as a goldfish. The average beauty pageant contestant would be embarrassed for him. Ian is too dumb to have […]
The question is not the ball’s performance, but the ability of a player to hold onto it when others are literally trying to whack it out of his grip. We could easily see that a ball with six pound of pressure would be easier to hold and harder for a defender to knock free than one of fourteen pounds of pressure, so it is only a small leap to believe that two pounds makes a small but significant difference in the most important statistic in football, turnovers.
The question is not the ball’s performance, but the ability of a player to hold onto it when others are literally trying to whack it out of his grip. We could easily see that a ball with six pound of pressure would be easier to hold and harder for a defender to knock free than one of fourteen pounds of pressure, so it is only a small leap to believe that two pounds makes a small but significant difference in the most important statistic in football, turnovers. The important word is “believe.” People “believe” in things like Big Foot and… Read more »
I dunno, Z. That’s like saying scuffing a baseball is trivial. It is for me, but not for the big boys. This is one of those things where the result predicts the theory. My theory: the Patriots will have an NFL average for fumbles next year.
Scuffing a baseball actually alters the performance of a baseball, to some extent under the right conditions. A football under inflated by a pound or two has zero impact on the ball’s performance.
This story is a great example of confirmation bias. The Patriots have become the Yankees of the NFL. Everyone is convinced they are evil or cheating or in league with the devil. When something like this happens, every crackpot with the theory comes out of the woodwork.
As sports reporters desperately cry for attention, and reverence beyond their means, and attempt to bring the same “dramatic significance” now touted by cooking shows, “housewife” shows, and “…recent studies have shown that…” reductio absurdums.(absurdi?)
I’ve worked in editorial, including newspapers and sports reporting, for about 30 years. When I first started general-assignment reporting on a daily newspaper, when I was just out of college, I was genuinely stunned at how little I knew. Not only that, but it seemed most of what I did know was wrong. What was semi-amusing is what I thought I knew was pretty much most of this “cult” philosophy and narrative you criticize so much. I was neck-deep in it back in the late 80s. Eventually, I came to realize what nonsense it was. In my experience, TV and… Read more »
..”balls weighed two pounds lighter.” No, no he di ent say that. I nearly spit out coffee over that one. As to the football controversy, meh. Anything on the tube is fiction, including sports and while I do occasionally watch a game I realize what it is, entertainment not reality. I guess this same idiot thinks reality shows are real, black lives matter, and the check is in the mail.
The Patriots are hiding a lie within the safest place to hide one, another lie. Brady doesn’t prefer throwing softer footballs. Aaron Rogers, a pretty good quarterback, admits to liking them over inflated. No, it’s all about the most important single statistic in football–turnovers. And most turnovers are fumbles. League average is one per 105 plays. All teams are within 21 of that. The Pats are at 171 since 2006-7. Brady was obviously lying at his press conference, and he looked really pathetic doing it. Then he started gaining confidence as he realized those dopes were just not going to… Read more »
I’ve seen that fumble business floating around too. The trouble is, the balls are no more or less pliable when under or over inflated by ~20%. SI took some balls and used a gauge to test the ball’s compression. Turns out the difference is trivial. That’s a fairly well known fact, I thought. The leather used for footballs is not glove leather for a reason.