Report: NFL investigating deflated football Steelers used Thursday night

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Has Deflategate come to the preseason?

The NFL is investigating after the Steelers were using a deflated football during the third quarter of Thursday night’s preseason game against the Eagles, according to Howard Eskin of WIP.

Eskin, who was working the game as the sideline reporter on the Eagles’ broadcast, said he saw the football in question and it was “like a marshmallow.”

The incident took place during the third quarter while Mason Rudolph was playing quarterback for the Steelers, according to Eskin.

In the AFC Championship Game in January of 2015, the NFL concluded that the Patriots had used a deflated football. After a lengthy investigation, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was given a four-game suspension and the Patriots were docked two draft picks and fined $1 million. Whether the NFL would pour similar resources into investigating a deflated football thrown by a backup quarterback in a preseason game remains to be seen.

109 responses to “Report: NFL investigating deflated football Steelers used Thursday night

  1. of course they won’t spend the money because it doesn’t have anything to do with persecuting the Patriots. You still deny the ideal gas law because it doesn’t fit into your “hate the Pats” narrative. I get such a good laugh at this site. So many negative reporters with the “be the first to report” mentality, so little truth and accuracy. Gotta love the BS generated here.

  2. Let’s be honest here. They already caught Pittsburgh and NYG red handed messing with ball pressure and did nothing. Expect more of the same. Deflategate was a lie, a bag job, a total setup as payback for Brady smartmouthing the Ravens after NE schooled them in a playoff game. The only thing missing is the lying gutless coward Mort tweeting out bad intel then refusing to correct it leaving us with no choice but to believe he was in the tank. That a double standard exists should surprise no one.

  3. If true could a team be anymore stupid? There are two things that need to come out of an exhibition game, your evaluation of players and health.

  4. So that’s now Twice the Steelers have had this happen
    For the record it’s stupid but this again will prove it was way way overblown when it happened with the Patriots

  5. Steelers and Pats are the most disgraceful franchises in all of sports. From tripping players to taping practices, they can never play fair. I’d be ashamed to be a fan of these scumbag organizations.

  6. the rooneys own the steelers right?

    nothing will come of this……correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Rooney shook Goodells hand and said “good job with the deflategate thing.”

  7. Ha HA HA, I can tell you the result of the investigation right now. Nothing!!! t’s not New England, so it doesn’t matter.

  8. According to Patriot fans, it wasn’t intentional it was just science. Sadly the majority of them can’t even spell science but they sure are experts on ideal gas law, just ask’em! LMAO!!

  9. Steelers vs Giants December 2016, the Steelers were accused of this. Ben even joked about using nerf footballs. It was deemed deflategate II. Writers said since it was not the Patriots involved it was written off as the ideal gas law effect and everyone had a good laugh. Again, this is not the Patriots so nothing to see here

  10. It’s the Steelers, it’ll be ignored or explained away with some bogus excuse. Certainly no investigation or punishments will arise. Now, if it were the Patriots…

  11. I get that it’s a preseason game and it ultimately doesn’t matter. However, if the NFL wants to attempt to save face and is serious about “protecting the integrity of the game”, they better treat this the same way.

    One could argue this is even worse since the weather was warm and the ideal gas law wouldn’t be a factor like it was in the AFC Championship Game.

  12. Why does the NFL not just provide footballs to ensure standardization? Doesn’t seem that burdensome of a responsibility, and it’d eliminate this conversation from popping up 3-4 times a season. First preseason game, QB who’s never played a down at the NFL level before last night. Not exactly high stakes enough to seriously believe someone’s going to be cheating using a method that everyone’s looking out for by now.

  13. Not again. Please, not again. Who cares what PSI they use? Still gotta throw it and catch it.

  14. Should be simple to compare these incidents to the 2015 league wide psi data to see if they are just coincidental wait— right! Never mind.

  15. My god. Not this again. I don’t have a whole lot of love for the Steelers in recent memory as a Pats fan, but can someone please explain to me what benefit a team would get from deflating a football (PERIOD, really) during a PRESEASON GAME??? NFL is run by absolute morons.

  16. If the NFL willingly goes down this rabbit hole again they’re even dumber than I thought. It’s like Rodger decided that no publicity is bad publicity should be taken as far as it possibly can.

  17. I wonder if the nfl finds out it was little Ben deflating the footballs how many games he’ll get suspended for taking the footballs into the bathroom. More or less than taking that girl in

  18. We know two things already …

    1) It’s the Steelers so this won’t amount to anything
    2) It was Brady’s fault because he didn’t turn in his cell phone.

  19. This is impossible……… the NFL introduced new standards and monitoring to ensure it never happened again….. along with releasing the PSI numbers they tracked after deflate-gate to prove that science doesn’t exist on a football field…….

    Wait, they didn’t? Strange.

  20. Second time Steelers have done this.
    Giants complained to NFL a couple seasons ago.
    Seems like a long running conspiracy and general awareness on the part of the Steelers……

  21. so what happens when they find that no one intentionally deflated them and that the officials never actually inspected them or even pressure checked them yet passed them as fine for play? what happens when they find that no one bothered to check cause no one really cares?

  22. What’s the big deal? The Steelers are preparing for their upcoming deflated season so it would make sense that would use a deflated football.

  23. Uh O, not another deflategate saga. Mason Rudolph had the smallest hands at the combine, coincidence, I think not. I would suggest to teams that if you are going to cheat please do it in games that count.

  24. Let’s see…The NFL has established that tampering with footballs is the most egregious rules violation that a team can commit. The Steelers have now been caught twice in two years deflating footballs. I gotta think we’re looking at losing a #1 pick, a 7 figure fine, and suspensions for the head coach and QB. Or the NFL will act like this isn’t an important matter and just look the other way, again

  25. I honestly think they need to delete the air pressure thing from the game.

    The refs touch the ball every play. Just squeeze it and if it feels proper, play on. If not, switch it out.

    It’s gotten way too stupid.

    Balls can get a leak during a game. It’s not exactly impossible.

    Setting deflategate aside completely, I think going forward they need to just not care about that so much. It’s too much regulation and too far away from the schoolyard game.

    It has basically no impact as long as the referees check the balls during the game.

  26. Does anyone remember, I think 2 years ago, when there was a question about this with the Steelers? And then the NFL did nothing to investigate further?

    Everyone knows they screwed up the first Deflategate and don’t understand the Ideal Gas Law. I’m not a Steelers fan, but let’s not do this again.

  27. The Colts footballs should never have been compared to the Patriots footballs because:
    • The Colts footballs were outside before the game because the Colts were the visiting team.
    • The Colts footballs were kept in dry bags for most of the 1st half due to a significant imbalance in time of possession for the offense of both teams.
    • The Colts footballs were allowed to warm up indoors while all the Patriots footballs were being measured two times. The officials took so much time measuring the Patriots footballs, that they didn’t have time to measure all of the Colts footballs before the start of the 2nd half of the game.

  28. 2014 – Roger Goodell pledges more transparency
    2015 – Roger Goodell’s said: “The integrity of the game is the most important thing, the integrity of the game is something we will always protect”
    2015 to Today – Roger Goodell is still hiding the PSI report from the 2015 NFL season. That is the exact opposite of both transparency and integrity. There are videos online where anyone can watch footballs drop PSI when placed into refrigerators. Just search for “DEFLATE GATE & WHY SCIENCE SAYS THE PATRIOTS DID NOT TAMPER WITH FOOTBALLS”

    The hidden PSI report would show everyone the same thing. Science is consistent like that. The only thing more consistent than science, is the stupidity of those who continue to believe that someone let air out of footballs on January 18 2015. Then again…maybe that stupidity is science too. Which means that the only thing that is as consistent as science is…Roger Goodell continuing to hide that PSI report from football fans.

  29. Reminds me of the witch-hunt that didn’t hit Packers after Aaron Rodgers admitted in 2015 to a long-running team scheme to improperly inflate balls. And which didn’t hit the Vikings and Panthers after they improperly heated balls, and which didn’t hit Colts after some of their balls were underinflated, and which didn’t hit Colts and Giants after they illegally had needles on the sidelines and used them on Pats and Steelers balls, respectively, and which barely touched Jets who just got a small fine after they got caught in a scheme messing with k-balls…

  30. Steelers feel so inferior to and jealous of the Patriots theyre even copying their ways of cheating.

    Just brutal, how does Tomlin still have a job?

  31. This is not the first time for the Steelers…
    Everyone should remember that 2016 week 13 game where the Giants tested the Steelers footballs on the sidelines and found them to be below league minimum of 12.5 PSI.

  32. JustBlameTrumpOrRussia says:
    August 10, 2018 at 6:48 am
    Steelers and Pats are the most disgraceful franchises in all of sports. From tripping players to taping practices, they can never play fair. I’d be ashamed to be a fan of these scumbag organizations.

    5 33 Rate This

    So either a fan of the Browns, Bengals, Ravens, or Bills, Dolphins, Jets?

  33. According to Patriot fans, it wasn’t intentional it was just science. Sadly the majority of them can’t even spell science but they sure are experts on ideal gas law, just ask’em! LMAO!!
    =================

    The temperature in Philadelphia was 91 degrees at kickoff. According to the IGL, the pressure in the footballs would have gone up, not down. For a football in that game to be “like a marshmallow,” it couldn’t be explained away by science.

  34. johnwaldron8 says:
    August 10, 2018 at 11:10 am
    According to Patriot fans, it wasn’t intentional it was just science. Sadly the majority of them can’t even spell science but they sure are experts on ideal gas law, just ask’em! LMAO!!
    =================

    The temperature in Philadelphia was 91 degrees at kickoff. According to the IGL, the pressure in the footballs would have gone up, not down. For a football in that game to be “like a marshmallow,” it couldn’t be explained away by science.
    ————————————
    Right you are. In fact, the IGL says if those footballs were inflated in a 70 degree room, at 91 degrees they should be hard as rocks from psi increase.

  35. Well its cold enough in August for the balls to deflate. Usually I would say no big deal but this happened last year and was swept under the rug, 2nd time and I am sure it will be swept under the rug again. Goodell and NFL are such tools.

  36. August 10, 2018 at 10:10 am
    The Colts footballs should never have been compared to the Patriots footballs because:
    • The Colts footballs were outside before the game because the Colts were the visiting team.
    • The Colts footballs were kept in dry bags for most of the 1st half due to a significant imbalance in time of possession for the offense of both teams.
    • The Colts footballs were allowed to warm up indoors while all the Patriots footballs were being measured two times. The officials took so much time measuring the Patriots footballs, that they didn’t have time to measure all of the Colts footballs before the start of the 2nd half of the game.

    I’m sorry, it’s obvious they stopped testing Colts balls when they realized they screwed up and came up with the “ran out of time” cover story. I don’t for one minute believe they ran out of time. This was a sting, but not the usual sting since it wasn’t meant to catch a criminal, rather allow a player to be framed. Even if true, to have a higher percentage of colts balls under spec and look the other way was flat out cheating. Let’s not sugar coat ant of this.

    The most despicable moment in NFL history.

  37. onemorethentherest
    Aug 10, 2018, 11:09 AM EDT
    JustBlameTrumpOrRussia says:
    August 10, 2018 at 6:48 am
    Steelers and Pats are the most disgraceful franchises in all of sports. From tripping players to taping practices, they can never play fair. I’d be ashamed to be a fan of these scumbag organizations.

    5 33 Rate This

    So either a fan of the Browns, Bengals, Ravens, or Bills, Dolphins, Jets?

    The Patriots never filmed other teams practices. That was actually the Broncos that did that. Don’t believe me, Google it. Denver Broncos were fined by the NFL for filming part of the 49ers practice. I guess by your logic the Broncos are also a scumbag organization. And if that’s your criteria wouldn’t every team in the NFL fall under the category of scumbags because every team has a had at least 1 player test positive for PEDs. I guess that means that you root for a scumbag organization as well. How can you be a fan of that organization, they’re a bunch of scumbags

  38. Crazy to do this for a preseason game, however logic would dictate that if you were going to use deflated footballs there’d only be two intelligent ways to go about it: 1. You’d save them for very particularly circumstances, like rain or snow where the ball is slippery, or 2. You’d use them EVERY game. Because like anything else you’d want consistency and it would mess with players if one game the balls were deflated but then they were normal the next.

  39. “I honestly think they need to delete the air pressure thing from the game.

    The refs touch the ball every play. Just squeeze it and if it feels proper, play on. If not, switch it out.

    It’s gotten way too stupid.

    Balls can get a leak during a game. It’s not exactly impossible.

    Setting deflategate aside completely, I think going forward they need to just not care about that so much. It’s too much regulation and too far away from the schoolyard game.

    It has basically no impact as long as the referees check the balls during the game.”
    ——————————————————————
    While I completely agree with your premise the NFL can’t do that. They drew their line in the sand saying that air pressure was a significant enough factor in competitive balance to warrant a 4 game suspension and loss of multiple draft picks. If they were to back track now they’d have to admit that it actually isn’t important at all and that they were really just trying to screw the Patriots.

  40. steeldominance says:
    August 10, 2018 at 6:12 am
    I wonder if Mason will destroy his cellphone?
    ——————
    I hope not because without it in the hands of the NFL he’s guilty.

  41. realityonetwo says:
    August 10, 2018 at 6:23 am
    This incident lends credence to the fact that the Patriots cheated.
    =============================
    No. It means the Patriots will never be extended the excuse that’s about to let the Steelers off the hook.

    It also means deflated footballs is far from isolated. Be it due to natural or unnatural means.

  42. jjackwagon says:
    August 10, 2018 at 7:13 am
    According to Patriot fans, it wasn’t intentional it was just science. Sadly the majority of them can’t even spell science but they sure are experts on ideal gas law, just ask’em! LMAO!!
    =================
    What’s more painful is ignoring science. All things being equal I’d take not being able to spell it because in the end the facts are still true even if they aren’t spelled correctly. LMAO

  43. seabrawk12 says:
    August 10, 2018 at 7:33 am
    I bet Rudolph still has his cell phone intact.
    =============================
    Hopefully because if this is coming down to relying on the NFL to use science for proof we’re all screwed.

  44. FoozieGrooler says:
    August 10, 2018 at 9:39 am
    Uhm, doesn’t the home team supply the footballs? Doh.
    ========================
    No. The home team is responsible for bringing the balls from both teams to the field after they are inspected.

  45. And the joker in this deck is that the specification for pressure of NFL footballs comes from nothing more profound than the indication on the back of the box for a football in the 1940s. Research it. What a clown show the NFL offices are.

  46. Just so we’re clear … $5+ million to determine the balls weren’t defective vs a (yet another) phone call to determine the balls weren’t defective.

    Carry on.

  47. What is the preseason for if not to experiment to prepare for the regular season? Pittsburgh knows that the Patriots cheat so they wanted to find out first hand the advantage that they might get.

  48. kd75 says:
    August 10, 2018 at 5:57 am
    Was it 30 degrees in Pennsylvania last night?

    If not there is no excuse…
    =========================
    None except the DEFECTIVE football. I’ve got some crow on the grill for you.

  49. candrwells says:
    August 10, 2018 at 3:21 pm

    None except the DEFECTIVE football. I’ve got some crow on the grill for you.
    =========================
    ANOTHER defective football?

  50. fireroger says:
    August 10, 2018 at 12:30 pm

    Question: Does the integrity of the NFL matter in a preseason game?
    ———————

    It doesn’t matter at all, unless it can be perpetrated on the Patriots.

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