If 49ers wanted to change kickers, it can’t be Cundiff
Posted by Darin Gantt on January 21, 2013, 2:21 PM EST
At this point, the 49ers almost have no choice but to stick with kicker David Akers.
But if they did decide to bring in another one, their first choice is off the table. Billy Cundiff, who was signed to light a fire under Akers’ seat earlier this month, would be ineliglble to return, according to Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com.
For the same reason disgruntled running back Brandon Jacobs was effectively stashed once the playoffs began (since waiver claims aren’t filed until after the Super Bowl), Cundiff can’t come back to play for the 49ers after they released him Friday.
Akers hit the upright with a 38-yard field goal yesterday, the latest in a series of shaky performances this year, which will doubtless undermine whatever bit of confidence they had left in him.
Posted by Darin Gantt on February 1, 2015, 7:17 PM EST
AP
Tom Brady’s willing to play small ball, and the Seahawks finally yielded a play.
Brady just hit Brandon LaFell for an 11-yard touchdown pass to give the Patriots a 7-0 lead.
With cornerback Jeremy Lane doubtful to return with an arm injury, Brady was picking on backup cornerback Tharold Simon. Julian Edelamn got inside Simon for a 23-yard gain on a crossing route, setting up the score.
Brady took one shot over the top to Rob Gronkowski (which could have easily been called for offensive pass interference when Gronk clubbed Kam Chancellor in the head), but otherwise the Patriots are willing to dink, dunk and run their way downfield.
The Seahawks haven’t completed a pass yet today, and they’re clearly going to need to find something through the air soon.
Posted by Michael David Smith on February 1, 2015, 7:01 PM EST
AP
Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane made a big play in the first quarter of the Super Bowl, but it may have been his last play.
Lane landed awkwardly on his left arm after intercepting a Tom Brady pass and stayed on the ground for a few minutes. He eventually had an air cast put on his arm and then walked to a cart, where he rode to the locker room.
The Seahawks announced that Lane is doubtful to return to the game.
Lane was the subject of some scrutiny during the run-up to the Super Bowl after he said he doesn’t think Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is a good player. By picking off a pass in the first quarter, Lane showed that he can play as well as talk. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like he’ll get to show anything else today.
Posted by Mike Florio on February 1, 2015, 6:54 PM EST
AP
Yes, the Super Bowl has begun. But the #DeflateGate controversy will continue. In addition to the flurry of reports that emerged on Sunday regarding the pending investigation, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s interview with Bob Costas of NBC’s Football Night in America has become yet another piece in a puzzle that will, at some point, be pieced together into a picture that reveals cheating or not cheating.
The full interview appears below. The last question is the most important one, with Costas giving Brady a clear chance to say that Brady had no prior knowledge of any intentional tampering with the footballs.
“What I hear you saying is,” Costas said, “no matter what may or may not have happened, you had no prior knowledge of it.”
Brady didn’t simply agree with what Costas said and move on. Brady offered a lengthy explanation.
“I — you know, look, I’ve talked about that in the past, and I don’t want that to continue to be a story about this particular game,” Brady said. “All the facts will come out after the Super Bowl, and however those facts come out, you know, that will be news to me as well. So that process will all take place at some point. I’m excited about the Super Bowl, and that’s where my energy is. I think there was a little bit of an energy drain, like I said, with my emotions and feelings being involved earlier in the week, but, you know, I’ve got to be able to move past those things and compartmentalize those things, and be mentally tough enough to go out there and try to shine through.”
Like so many other aspects of this controversy, those inclined to believe the Patriots will claim that Brady essentially denied having prior knowledge by saying “however those facts come out, you know, that will be news to me as well.” Those inclined to suspect cheating will say Brady’s failure to offer an unequivocal denial could be aimed at providing a safe harbor in the event that, for example, someone has confessed to deflating the footballs and has claimed Brady knew.
Either way, the issue will linger for as long as it takes for the NFL to conclude its investigation, to generate a report, and to impose discipline, if any. Chances are that, regardless of the outcome, the issue will linger well beyond the moment the NFL officially closes the books on #DeflateGate.
Posted by Michael David Smith on February 1, 2015, 6:42 PM EST
AP
The Seahawks’ defense got the Super Bowl off to a good start. And so did the Seahawks’ fans.
New England received the opening kickoff but was forced to punt after picking up just 17 yards and one first down. Of perhaps equal importance to Seattle is that the Seahawks’ fans are making their presence known, with crowd noise already a factor. In last year’s Super Bowl, the Broncos were taken aback by their need to use silent snap counts because of the “12s,” and it appears that just as many Seahawks fans have made the trip to this year’s Super Bowl.
But those Seahawks fans didn’t have much to cheer about on Seattle’s first drive, as the Seahawks went three-and-out. Now we’ll see if the Patriots can shrug off the crowd noise, and give their own fans something to cheer about.
Posted by Mike Wilkening on February 1, 2015, 6:24 PM EST
Getty Images
In the lead-up to Super Bowl XLIX, we asked PFT Planet to make a call on 10 proposition bets. Here’s how you voted. Check back Monday when we grade the results:
Posted by Josh Alper on February 1, 2015, 4:51 PM EST
AP
Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor was added to the team’s final injury report of the year with a knee injury that he picked up during practice on Friday.
That injury was reported to be a bruise and coach Pete Carroll didn’t seem too concerned about it on Saturday, but he did say the team would take another look at Chancellor during pregame warmups to make sure that all was well. Chancellor was wearing a brace on his left knee during those warmups for Super Bowl XLIX, which were watched by Carroll, defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and members of the medical staff.
A brace may indicate that the injury is something more than just a bruise, but it doesn’t seem to have much chance of keeping Chancellor off the field. Steve Wyche of NFL Media reports Chancellor told him he’s good to go for the game after what he called an “aggressive” workout on the field Sunday.
Chancellor is expected to play a big role in Seattle’s plans to limit Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, something that’s going to be part of any plan to win a second straight Super Bowl title.
Posted by Mike Florio on February 1, 2015, 4:51 PM EST
As the NFL continues to process the events of two Sundays ago regarding the inflation of certain footballs, the media company owned by the NFL has tried to advance the ball from a news standpoint.
The end result creates plenty of questions — questions that undoubtedly will be answered, one way or the other.
Much of Ian Rapoport’s new report isn’t new. He confirmed without crediting reports from FOX and PFT regarding the surveillance video that shows Patriots employee taking 12 Patriots balls and 12 Colts balls into a restroom. The new information: Rapoport describes the man as “elderly,” and Rapoport says the man was in the restroom for 98 seconds. (PFT previously reported that the man was in the restroom for approximately 90 seconds.) Rapoport also confirmed without crediting the PFT report that the Patriots turned the video over to the NFL early in the process.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Chris Mortensen of ESPN initially reported that 11 of the 12 balls were two pounds under the 12.5 PSI minimum. PFT later reported that 10 of the balls were closer to one pound under the minimum than two. Now, the media company owned by the NFL reports that “[m]any of [the footballs] were just a few ticks under the minimum.”
So how many are “many”? And how much is “just a few ticks”?
Making the NFL media report even more confusing is the fact that, when Rapoport discussed the issue on the air, he specifically said that “a couple, three or four were about a pound under and three or four more were right at the line but a little bit under.”
As one league source with knowledge of the situation told PFT in response to the NFL Media report, “Ian’s wrong.” Apart from the inherent conflict between the written assertion that “many” were “just a few ticks under” and only “three or four” were “right at the line but a little bit under,” it’s possible that both versions are incorrect.
Either way, the truth eventually will be known. As a different source told PFT on Sunday morning, the NFL logged all PSI readings for the Patriots and Colts footballs at halftime of the AFC title game. Assuming that this information makes its way into Ted Wells’ report (and surely it will), the hard numbers eventually will become public.
In the end, it will be more than a little awkward, to say the least, if the official NFL investigation report conflicts with the latest NFL Media report on the investigation.
Posted by Darin Gantt on February 1, 2015, 4:41 PM EST
AP
Patriots running back Jonas Gray had one of the most impressive games of the season.
But he’s not going to play in the final one.
Gray was among the seven inactive players for the Patriots tonight, despite his breakout 201-yard game against the Colts in November which landed him on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Posted by Mike Florio on February 1, 2015, 3:52 PM EST
AP
One of the more intriguing aspects of #DeflateGate comes from reports that Ravens coach John Harbaugh instigated the complaints about the alleged underinflation of Patriots footballs by putting the idea into the head of Colts coach (and former Ravens assistant coach) Chuck Pagano prior to the AFC championship game.
Harbaugh, appearing on NBC’s Super Bowl pregame as a guest analyst, rejected the notion that he had any role in the process.
“I heard all that, I couldn’t believe it when I heard it,” Harbaugh told Bob Costas. “It’s ridiculous, it never happened, I’ve been, I never made any call, nobody in our organization made any call. As a matter of fact, just to make sure I had all the facts, I called up Chuck Pagano and asked him, ‘Did anybody else in our organization tip you off about deflated footballs?’ and he said, ‘No way.'”
Harbaugh also said he never even considered ball inflation until it became an issue in the Colts-Patriots game.
“It never came up, it never crossed my mind, it wasn’t even an issue in the [Colts-Patriots] game,” Harbaugh said. “I didn’t even think about it until I read about it later.”
That likely won’t do much to change the suspicion within the Patriots organization that Harbaugh had something to do with the current controversy. Still, Harbaugh insists he didn’t stir the pot, which is consistent with the NFL’s insistence that the issue didn’t come up until Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson intercepted a Tom Brady pass in the first half and took the ball to the sidelines.
Posted by Josh Alper on February 1, 2015, 3:41 PM EST
Getty Images
The Lions have some time to negotiate with defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh before the start of free agency and team president Tom Lewand is optimistic that they’ll put it to good use.
During an appearance on WDIV on Sunday, Lewand said that he thought the team had “a very, very good chance” of reaching agreement on a deal with Suh in the next few weeks. The Lions already have a lot of money committed to quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Calvin Johnson and any Suh deal would push a lot of their money to three players, but Lewand said it was something the Lions could do.
“Matthew, Calvin and Ndamukong have all and very lucrative contracts under the old rookie system and even as Matthew and Calvin have done their extensions,” Lewand said. “So we’ve done that, we’ve lived in that environment. There’s no reason we can’t continue to live in that environment. We plan really well looking out into the future and where our salary goes. I think we can do that, I have no doubt we can do that with Ndamukong and make him a continuing part of the core of our football team. There’s no doubt that there are trade-outs that have to happen along the way. You can’t keep everybody because it’s a hard cap, but if you have a good nucleus of guys then the draft every year comes through and you can keep adding good players to the mix.”
Lewand says that his impression is that Suh wants to play in Detroit, although Suh said near the end of the season that his agent would be making the decision. That suggests it will come down to money, which would be at odds with the decision to re-sign with the Lions before hearing from any of the league’s other 31 teams.
Posted by Mike Wilkening on February 1, 2015, 2:42 PM EST
AP
Welcome to PFT’s Prop Challenge, our daily look at a Super Bowl proposition bet.
Here’s the idea: we present a prop, do some light analysis, then let you decide which side to take — hypothetically, of course. (Previous examples are at the bottom of this post.)
When the Super Bowl wraps up, we’ll tally the votes and see how well PFT Planet did.
Now, let’s get to our final prop, which is courtesy of oddsmaker William Hill U.S.:
Will Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman intercept a pass in the Super Bowl?
Yes: +200 / No: -240.
Let’s consider both sides of the prop.
Pros: A former collegiate wide receiver turned All-Pro cornerback, Sherman has exceptional ball skills, as evidenced by his 26 interceptions in 71 NFL games (excluding preseason but excluding postseason). In his lone career matchup with the Patriots, Sherman picked off New England’s Tom Brady, who is far from easy to intercept. Finally, Sherman has one pick in each of Seattle’s first two playoff games of 2014.
Cons: For his career, Sherman has intercepted one pass per every 2.7 NFL games, which could make taking 2-1 on a Super Bowl pick a hard-to-swallow proposition for some. Also, Sherman is dealing with an elbow injury, which could compromise his ability to catch the ball. There’s also the matter of Brady just not throwing many picks. He’s been intercepted once per every 60.6 passes this season.
Now, it’s up to you to pick a side. Will Richard Sherman intercept a pass in Super Bowl XLIX, thus surely creating an Internet meme in the process? The poll will be open until 6 p.m. Eastern or so, as will the other nine props below.
Then, we’ll see how you handicapped the Super Bowl.
Posted by Josh Alper on February 1, 2015, 2:14 PM EST
Getty Images
Back when the story of under-inflated footballs in the AFC Championship game was fresh and new, Chris Mortensen of ESPN reported that 11 of the 12 footballs the Patriots used in the first half of the game were two pounds per square inch under the NFL’s prescribed pressure for balls used in games.
That report became a centerpiece of much discussion about the situation and the Patriots’ possible role in deflating the balls, even after PFT reported last week that only the ball intercepted by Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jacksoncame in two pounds under the 12.5 PSI threshold. The rest of the balls were closer to the line by about one pound.
Now Ian Rapoport of NFL Media is reporting something similar. Rapoport reports that many of the other 11 footballs were “just a few ticks” under the minimum, although those ticks aren’t quantified, perhaps because, as NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino confirmed, the league doesn’t log the PSI of each ball before the game.
While the word on the level of deflation was already out there, the fact that a league-owned concern is reporting it is a notable development as we wait for the league to say something definitive on the issue.
Posted by Mike Florio on February 1, 2015, 2:03 PM EST
The #DeflateGate controversy leaves little room for middle ground on many issues. Either the Patriots tampered with the footballs or they didn’t, and pretty much everyone has an opinion on the issue — regardless of what the facts eventually may reveal.
One key fact that is unrelated to the issue of cheating but nevertheless critical to the broader context is whether the NFL entered the AFC title game intending to try to catch the Patriots in the act, or whether the issue came up during the game itself.
Bob Glauber of Newsday has reported (and reiterated) that the question first emerged during the game, after an interception by Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson sparked a chain of events that culminated in the league office deciding to test the footballs at halftime. Jay Glazer of FOX Sports has reported that the NFL intended to test the footballs at halftime even before the game began.
The latter report speaks to the existence of a sting operation, with the NFL setting a trap for the Patriots and springing it unexpectedly at intermission of the AFC title game. It also means that the NFL would have allowed the Patriots to potentially undermine the integrity of the AFC title game, allowing them to use balls that may have been underinflated.
As mentioned within the last hour during the Super Bowl pregame show on NBC, the NFL privately insists that there was no sting operation, and that the incident first arose during the Colts-Patriots game. While some would call that a predictable denial, the failure of the officials to log the air pressure inside the footballs before the game began suggests that there was no plan — or if there was a plan it was a bad one — to catch New England in the act.
Posted by Mike Florio on February 1, 2015, 1:42 PM EST
AP
Two weeks ago, the NFL began its investigation regarding whether the Patriots deliberately underinflated footballs prior to or during the AFC title game. In the past 14 days, the NFL has not yet interviewed Patriots coach Bill Belichick or Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
Per a league source, neither man has yet to be questioned. Presumably, both will be, eventually.
Ten days ago, Brady told reporters he had not yet spoken to the league about the situation. Belichick has not yet been asked that question publicly.
On one hand, it’s a surprise that Belichick and Brady weren’t the immediate focus of the investigation. On the other hand, investigations of this nature don’t start at the top and work their way down — they start at the bottom and work their way up.
Of course, it’s also possible to start at the top, lock in the stories of the key participants, and then continue from the bottom up. Given that Belichick and Brady have both spoken publicly (Brady also was interviewed by NBC’s Bob Costas, in an item that will air during Sunday’s pregame show), their stories already are locked in, to a certain extent.
At some point after the Super Bowl, their stories will be locked in even more thoroughly by independent investigator Ted Wells.
