How the Patriots Exploited The NFL’s Biggest Loophole 📺

Sports creator Default Positive (his real name is Adam) just asked his audience an interesting question. Paraphrased, he’s simply asking if they’d hate him for taking a deal with a sports betting company.

I’m curious to hear your answer; feel free to reply to this email with it. But I have (a lot) of thoughts; I’ll share them at the end.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: How the Patriots Exploited The NFL’s Biggest Loophole

📉 Biggest Loser: What Happened To Russell Wilson’s “Concussion Curing” Water?

🏆 Winner’s Circle: Why Novak Djokovic is “Ear Seeding”

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The New England Patriots just got exposed for exploiting one of the NFL’s biggest loopholes. Let’s break it down.

Background: Earlier this week, a former NFL strategy and analytics coach named Ryan Paganetti went through over a decade of TV broadcasts to uncover what he called “a diabolically clever piece of Patriots gamesmanship.”

Now, obviously, the Pats are no stranger to crossing the line to gain a competitive edge, but what Ryan discovered is not only perfectly legal, but it also gives the team a massive statistical advantage over the rest of the league (and we can prove it)!

Gaining an Edge: After being completed in 2001, the Patriot’s Gillette Stadium opened with a large jumbotron on the venue’s south side, and after looking through thousands of hours of TV broadcasts, Ryan noticed that when opposing kickers lined up for a field goal on this end of the field, the stadium’s video board would display an inverted view of the kick, which would result in a second, slightly offset pair of yellow uprights showing up directly behind the real ones.

(For reference, the image on the right is what it looks like when the Patriots line up for a field goal).

But as if that’s not distracting enough, Ryan noted that in windy conditions, even the orange flags on top of the uprights would appear to point in the opposite direction the wind was actually blowing, making the illusion even more disorienting.

But does this actually distract kickers?

Results: Well, according to one breakdown posted in this same thread, from the time Gillette opened to the end of the Belichick era in 2019, the Patriots had the highest field goal percentage differential out of anyone in the league by more than double.

But if that’s true, then why doesn’t every other team copy them?

Copycat League: Ryan brought this up in his post, saying the Eagles tried to copy the idea during his time in Philadelphia, but the video boards' location made it basically useless.

Which means, in order to pull this off, the Patriots had to intentionally design Gillette Stadium over 25 years ago with this specific plan in mind… talk about championship mentality.

What the heck happened to Russell Wilson’s “concussion curing” miracle water?

Because after claiming that it “helped prevent him from getting a concussion” on this hit, we basically never heard about the product again. But the reason why is actually a lot more complicated than you might think.

Initial Claims: After debuting in 2014 with claims that it could “optimize the body’s natural recovery process” by harnessing “charge-stabilized nano bubbles,” Washington-based company Reliant Recovery Water caught the attention of then-Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.

In fact, after investing in the brand and using it throughout the 2015 season, Wilson made headlines when he claimed the only reason he stayed in that year’s NFC Championship game and played in the Super Bowl after taking this hit was that he drank Reliant Recovery Water.

Wilson also said in the same interview that an unnamed teammate's knee injury healed “miraculously” thanks to the product.

Doubling Down: It’s worth mentioning that neither the science nor Reliant Recovery itself claims that their water can help prevent or treat concussions. Instead, the only studies the company cites were about reducing muscle damage and fatigue — and even those claims are contested by most scientists.

Still, that didn’t stop Wilson from doubling down on his claims, even going so far as to tweet this, while saying that fans would be able to “order it straight from Amazon soon.”

So what happened?

Backtracking: In an attempt to do damage control, Wilson’s agent had to come out and say that his client’s claim had “no real medical proof.” Wilson himself was then forced to back off his claims, saying that he never had a head injury to begin with, but maybe the water helped him recover quicker.

Still, the real nail in the coffin came when Reliant Recovery tried to launch this thing into stores at a price of $3 per bottle, and given the fact that they haven’t made an announcement since 2016 and their website is inactive, it’s probably safe to assume that no one ended up buying this snake oil.

What the heck is this tiny dot on Novak Djokovic’s ear?

It’s called an “ear seed,” but what it claims to do is actually a lot more impressive than you might think.

Holistic Performance Enhancers: Djokovic is no stranger to trying almost anything in an attempt to gain an edge on the tennis court. For example, in just the last two years, he’s gone viral for trying everything from taping a small metal disk to his chest to palm cooling. However, maybe the most interesting thing he’s tried to improve his performance are these “ear seeds.”

But what do they actually do?

3,000-Year-Old: Ear seeding originates in Traditional Chinese Medicine and is a form of non-invasive acupuncture specifically for the ear. According to this 3,000-year-old practice, the ear acts as a map of a person’s entire body. So by applying slight pressure to very specific parts of the outer ear, some people believe that you can achieve the following:

Traditionally, pressure is applied to the ear by attaching Vaccaria seeds with a small piece of adhesive tape. However, as the practice has become more popular, people have started using other materials, including gold, plastic, and herbs.

But does it actually work?

The Verdict: According to a recent article from the New York Times, the effectiveness is understudied, and research that is published is mainly focused on its use to treat symptoms of addiction. In fact, even proponents of the practice admit that recently popularized claims, like getting a “snatched face” or “making someone skinnier,” aren’t real.

But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.

In fact, the U.S. Military is currently studying their use for pain relief and as a possible solution to opioid dependency, and early research suggests that it may be effective at reducing pain by as much as 70%.

Meanwhile, studies are also being done on focus and performance, which seem to indicate that ear seeding can help reduce behavioral problems of children with ADHD.

And honestly, given how low-profile these things are, it seems like, at least for Djokovic, there’s no harm in trying.

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

Adam (Default Positive) actually got some interesting feedback in his comments about whether or not he should take a deal that included “year-changing money” with an unnamed sports betting company.

This one (with 714 likes) stuck out to me the most, though:

“Honesty i think you should respectfully pass… You are a growing channel that people love and people will keep loving so stick to what you started with, positive news. Nothing about sports gambling is positive.”

A few thoughts on this sentiment:

First, this commenter is right. Adam has positioned his page as a sort of “anti-ESPN,” but taking a deal with a sports betting company feels like something an ESPN-type brand would do.

Not to mention, it’s not the kind of content Adam makes. That’s not to say he can’t pivot, but there’s a high likelihood that the more “forced” he feels to make the content, the worse it’ll perform, which could affect the rest of his content.

Now, I’m not in the boat that “nothing about sports gambling is positive.” I’ll happily put $5 on a parlay I made with my friends on any given Sunday, but I do understand the consumer frustration with sports betting ads seemingly taking over their attention.

One final note: I don’t know which sports betting company approached Adam, but I think that matters when deciding whether to take this deal. No creator should ever risk looking like a sellout for a brand no one has ever heard of; that’ll only compound the negative sentiment coming your way.

My final verdict: don’t take the deal. Curious what you all think, though.