del, I'm not dumping on you, but read this open-mindedly...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...yan-clark-doesnt-buy-their-deflategate-story/
After watching the Patriots in preseason practices, Ryan Clark doesn’t buy their Deflategate story
The Redskins-Patriots preseason practices offered both teams a briefly more interesting experience, different from the occasional monotony of training camp. Apparently, they also offered a window into whether the Patriots have been truthful in explaining away their deflated footballs.
Redskins safety Ryan Clark — now back in his perch as an ESPN analyst and commentator — brought up those preseason practices on ESPN Radio Monday, when asked to assess the explanations offered by Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.
“I really liked Tom Brady,” Clark said, discussing their meetings in Richmond. “I didn’t like him before, because I was a Steeler. But I talked to him for like 30 minutes [in August], and I was like ‘Man, he is a good dude.’ I even called my wife, I was like ‘Man, Tom is a good cat.’
“But I watched a guy run a route at 14-and-a-half yards and not 15, and get scolded and get reamed and screamed at,” Clark went on. “I watched guys line up in the wrong place and Tom go nuts because [the guy] wasn’t where he was supposed to be. I saw after practice, where everybody ran together, everybody stretched together in a circle – grown men, that Bill Belichick had this much power and this much control over.
“So you mean to tell me those two people — that won’t let you run a route at 14-and-a-half yards if it’s 15, that won’t let you stretch by yourself, that won’t let you condition by yourself after practice — are gonna let a ballboy – not the head equipment guy, a ballboy – stick pins and needles in balls and deflate em? I don’t buy it.”
Which is why you can count Clark among those skeptical about New England.
“I hate to say that they’re cheating, but if it keeps coming up that you may be cheating, eventually one of these things has to stick,” he said.
Later, Clark discussed Belichick’s explanation to the press in more depth.
“Belichick doesn’t care,” Clark said. “He truly does not care what people think of him. He doesn’t care that you may think he answered the questions a certain way. I don’t think he even cares that he’s being considered a cheater. The bottom line with him, he’s going to everything and push the rules in every way in order to win football games and find ways to win them.
“I guess in some way, as a competitor, it’s commendable,” Clark went on. “But as a football player and somebody who’s competing against them, you want a level playing field, in all aspects of it. And it doesn’t seem like they want to do football that way. And for me, if I was Roger Goodell, or if I was part of the NFL, ‘the Shield,’ I would feel like he’s laughing at me. He’s spitting in my face by the way he’s answering these questions.”
But despite Robert Kraft’s protestations, Clark does not believe the NFL is liable to crack down on New England.
“You know, I think the guy that hit on it the best was Richard Sherman,” Clark said. “And I know sometimes people probably tune him out because he says a lot of things. But he wasn’t even really concerned about the balls. When asked would they be punished, he was like ‘Well you know, the commissioner’s taking pictures at Mr. Kraft’s house before the game last week.’ The New England Patriots are posting these things.
“And I’m a member of the [NFLPA’s] executive committee, and I would always talk [about] that, and Roger would be like ‘I work for the players,’ this and that. He’s never at a player’s house. The players don’t have a meeting with Roger Goodell during the year. He’s re-elected and elected by the owners….And so from a player’s standpoint, when you see the Jim Irsays and you see the New England Patriots do these things, it is difficult to deal with. It does frustrate you. Because players are disciplined harshly and immediately most times when they have these things happen.”
Clark’s frustrations extend to the fines levied on Marshawn Lynch for grabbing his private parts, even as the NFL markets photos of such displays.
“It goes back to them selling James Harrison’s hit on Colt McCoy, selling the picture and suspending him for those hits,” Clark said. “I mean, the NFL man, they do what they want to, you know? They do what they want to, and whether it’s hypocritical to us or to anybody else who pays attention, they don’t really care.”
Dan Steinberg writes about all things D.C. sports at the D.C. Sports Bog.
