Still nine days to go until Super Bowl XLIX. It has been more than a decade since the NFL made a pre-title game bye week into a permanent fixture on its calendar, and whilst the reasons for having one are sound – granting organisers extra time to iron out any logistical wrinkles and injured players the opportunity to get healthy for the game – this fortnight-long wait for resolution does feel tedious every year.
Plugging the gap with the Pro Bowl has not helped, because a contact sport exhibition in which all participants’ chief priority is simply to avoid getting hurt could never be all that compelling. Making field goals harder and giving each team additional time-outs (more commercials! Hurray!) will not rescue this all-star game. Nor will including Andy Dalton as a seventh alternate at quarterback.
But it is still too soon to start making predictions for the Super Bowl itself, so this week’s Talkboard instead contains a rundown of the big stories that have been doing the rounds since the Conference Championship Games. Before we get into that, I can tell you that EscargotMyCargo continues to lead the way in our Pick The Playoffs contest, having maintained their remarkable run of picking every single game correctly in the postseason. I shall post the overall standings in the comments section shortly.
The Week-Before-Super Bowl-Week storylines
• The NFL news cycle has been dominated since Sunday by ‘Deflategate’. Bob Kravitz, of the Indianapolis television station WTHR, was the first to report that the NFL would investigate the possibility that the Patriots had let the air out of balls during their victory over the Colts. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen then cited league sources as having informed him that 11 of New England’s 12 game balls were inflated “significantly below the NFL’s requirements.”
Under current league protocol, teams provide 12 of their own footballs for use in each game. These must be inflated to a range between 12.5lbs and 13.5lbs per square inch. But beyond that restriction, each team has a great deal of freedom to prepare the balls according to their quarterback’s preferences.
This is no small undertaking. Last November, the New York Times ran a fascinating article detailing how the Giants’ game balls were selected and seasoned over the course of many months, in line with Eli Manning’s preferences. Each ball would not only be soaked and brushed by hand to take the wax off the leather, but also taken to an “electric spin wheel, where it undergoes another high-speed scrubbing.”
All of which helps to explain the indignation some players have felt over this story. Former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart used Twitter to describe the whole story as “ridiculous,” pointing out that “every team tampers with the footballs.”
But what makes the allegations against the Patriots so serious is that all 12 of the balls they provided for Sunday’s game were found to have been properly inflated when referees checked them before kickoff. If these balls were subsequently tampered with, then the NFL’s investigation would presumably be more concerned with the intent to mislead than the ultimate impact on a game that ended in a 45-7 blowout.
The NFL’s recent disciplinary sagas have taught us that it is unwise to preempt the outcome of any league investigation. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has summarily denied any wrongdoing, telling reporters on Thursday that “I don’t have an explanation for what happened,” and saying he had been “shocked” to learn of the allegations against his team on the morning after the game.
“My entire coaching career, I have never talked to any player, staff member about football air pressure,” Belichick said. “That’s not a subject I have ever brought up. To me, the footballs are approved by the league and game officials pregame, and we play with what’s out there. That’s the only way I have ever thought about that.”
It has been widely mooted that the Patriots could lose draft picks if they are found guilty of wrongdoing, but several prominent commentators have argued that this would not be going far enough. Kravitz called on Goodell to suspend Belichick from the Super Bowl in such an instance, while ESPN’s Mike Wilbon suggested that the Patriots should forfeit their place in the game.
Such strident positions are, of course, informed by the Patriots’ past misdemeanours — and most notably the ‘Spygate’ scandal of 2007 — when they were found guilty of videotaping the Jets’ defensive signals. In the Boston Globe, Dan Shaughnessy argued that New England’s legacy had already been fatally undermined:
The Patriots can win another championship Feb. 1 in Glendale, Ariz. Belichick can join Chuck Noll as the only coaches with four Lombardi Trophies, and Tom Brady can join Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only quarterbacks with four rings.
But the most important thing — the Patriot legacy — is lost. The Patriots and their fans will never win the “best ever” argument. Everything is tainted. Footballs (reportedly) have been doctored, headlines have been written, and opinions have been formed.
Locally, the Patriots are revered. Nationally, they are loathed and branded as cheaters, and once again they have handed the hammer to their legion of enemies.
• Not a good news week for the Patriots, then, but at least one of their players emerges from it with credit, after stopping on his way home from the AFC Championship game to help rescue a woman from an overturned car. A statement released by the Massachusetts State Police on Tuesday revealed how officers had arrived at the scene of a crash to find Vince Wilfork checking on the driver. The defensive tackle then proceeded to lift her out of the car with one hand.
• Concerns that Richard Sherman might miss the Super Bowl after spraining his left elbow during the NFC title game have receded after he practiced in full on Wednesday, telling reporters afterwards that his arm was well enough that “if I had to slap my brother, I’d be able to do it.”
This is good news for all those hoping to see him square off for a second time in his career against Tom Brady. Their previous meeting famously ended with Sherman bounding over to the Patriots quarterback and asking “you mad, bro?” at the end of a 24-23 Seattle win, and the Seahawks player has asserted more than once since then that he was only reacting to Brady’s trash talk during the game.
“I think people somehow get a skewed view of Tom Brady that he is just a clean-cut, does-everything-right [guy] and never says a bad word to anyone — and we know him to be otherwise,” Sherman said this week. “In that moment of him being himself, he said some things and we returned the favour.”
• Gary Kubiak held his first press conference as head coach of the Denver Broncos, but left us none the wiser as to the likelihood of Peyton Manning returning to the NFL next season. Although he confirmed that he had spoken “at length” with the quarterback, Kubiak would offer no commitment firmer than “we’re gonna get together and sit down.”
One thing the coach did do, however, was rubbish the notion that his past preference for mobile quarterbacks would make it impossible for him to work with Manning. “It’s easy to build a playbook for him,” Kubiak said. “I mean, he’s been the master at it for many, many years, and you’re talking about a Hall of Fame player, Hall of Fame person.”
Since then, the Denver Post columnist Woody Paige has claimed that Manning intends to return, but will not be able to make a final decision until he undergoes a physical examination in March, writing that:
Those close to Manning — and who spoke for background on the condition of anonymity — claim that he still is relaxing with his family but would like to continue playing; he must await tests results on his repaired neck — and, obviously, the calf injury that prevented him from playing in the Pro Bowl; and there are several upside reasons for at least one more comeback in his career.
Foremost is getting to his fourth Super Bowl, and winning his second.
• Also encouraging for Manning: his new head coach actually knows his name. The same cannot be said for Chicago’s Jay Cutler.
Super Bowl XLIX on the Guardian
Our build-up to the big game has already kicked off with Les Carpenter’s fine piece on Russell Wilson, as viewed through the eyes of his uncle, Ben, who has taken on a paternal role since the quarterback lost his father, Harry, in 2010. We will have much more coming from Monday, including news, profiles, features and more from Arizona.
On Super Bowl Sundayl we will have rolling live coverage of all the build-up as well as the game itself. And after that, enough reports, analysis and video to keep you going right through the offseason. (Well, the first few days of it, anyway.)
You can keep up with all of it on our dedicated NFL page, on Twitter @GdnUSsports or on Facebook. Look forward to seeing you there!
