LogFAQs > #962284733

Emeraldegg posted...

Also other QBs at the time readily admitted they like to push the boundaries of what is allowed because they like their balls a certain firmness.

I'm not aware of this ever happening, just certain QBs like Rodgers saying he liked his to be as inflated as possible (which is not the same as saying you want your equipment guy to abscond with the game balls disappearing inside a bathroom to inflate them beyond the legal limit). As with every cheating scandal New England has found themselves in, Pats fans then twist what happened to pretend that "everyone was doing it" even when their opponents weren't.

I don't heavily blame them so much though because the league is incredibly inconsistent about actually enforcing their rules, so I can see why they figured they could get around some of them without much fuss.

Like for example, it used to be a rule (or at least supposedly was) before they changed it that offensive players couldn't carry the ball carrier forward, but every season o-linemen would push their guy forward for extra yardage, and I have never once seen that called.

Mike Tomlin once came off the sideline to trip Jacoby Jones on a return to stop him from scoring a TD, and by rule, the refs should have awarded Baltimore a touchdown, but they didn't.

Point being while it doesn't absolve the perpetrator, it is fair to question how much of a rule something really is when it isn't being enforced, and that's entirely on the NFL for muddying the waters in the first place.