Deflate-gate? Report: Patriots being investigated for using deflated footballs

[HUGGY]

They did before they changed the rules allowing teams to provide their own balls too. Yet before then the Patriots were on par with the league average and had been for years. The moment the rules were changed then suddenly they perform at three standard deviations better for six straight seasons? Granted correlation does not equal causation, but that's pretty damned suspicious.

Link or its nothing but bullshit.

I don't think he needs to link.

I give him credit points for an excellent presentation. His graphs were far more believable than Belichick's science class.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Really? That's assuming that all the balls started at the same pressure. That's assuming that the official who was supposed to check the balls actually DID! Here's a radical concept...perhaps someone who was supposed to do his job...didn't! Perhaps the referee picked up some balls...gave them a squeeze and said..."Yup...feels OK to me! Let's go play some football!!!"

Or the footballs were taken in from the cold at half-time, the Pats were checked first and as the footballs warmed up to the indoors room temps, they tested less and less under pressure till the last one passed. And the Colts footballs all passed because the footballs had all warmed up by then.

Does anyone know what the air temperature was in the room and also for the footballs when the pressure was checked? There is no NFL standard for these two variables.

Uh huh....and then the moon's gravity centered over 11 of the balls but not the 12th enhancing the effect, and the tidal forces were pulling on each end of the balls making it even worse, and then there was a CME that disrupted the Earth's magnetic field in such a way that those 11 balls lost a couple more psi....dude....just stop it.

Someone let the air out of the balls. Good Lord.

Moron, air temperature affects the air pressure of the footballs.

Fuck, how do you people let jealousy shut down your brain so badly?

 

[JimBowie1958]

They did before they changed the rules allowing teams to provide their own balls too. Yet before then the Patriots were on par with the league average and had been for years. The moment the rules were changed then suddenly they perform at three standard deviations better for six straight seasons? Granted correlation does not equal causation, but that's pretty damned suspicious.

Link or its nothing but bullshit.

I don't think he needs to link.

I give him cre

Lol, who the fuck are you to say he needs no links?

Eat shit, mother fucker.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Ya ...Ya... Belichick is stretching the laws of physics into magical areas where they only apply to his team's environments yet leave the Colt's out in the cold and of out of the known universe.

Dude, air temperature affects air pressure and vice versa. That is how refrigeration works.

And it isn't magic, it is science, dick.

 

[JimBowie1958]

I give him credit points for an excellent presentation. His graphs were far more believable than Belichick's science class.

Then you are an idiot.

 

[HUGGY]

Really? That's assuming that all the balls started at the same pressure. That's assuming that the official who was supposed to check the balls actually DID! Here's a radical concept...perhaps someone who was supposed to do his job...didn't! Perhaps the referee picked up some balls...gave them a squeeze and said..."Yup...feels OK to me! Let's go play some football!!!"

Or the footballs were taken in from the cold at half-time, the Pats were checked first and as the footballs warmed up to the indoors room temps, they tested less and less under pressure till the last one passed. And the Colts footballs all passed because the footballs had all warmed up by then.

Does anyone know what the air temperature was in the room and also for the footballs when the pressure was checked? There is no NFL standard for these two variables.

Uh huh....and then the moon's gravity centered over 11 of the balls but not the 12th enhancing the effect, and the tidal forces were pulling on each end of the balls making it even worse, and then there was a CME that disrupted the Earth's magnetic field in such a way that those 11 balls lost a couple more psi....dude....just stop it.

Someone let the air out of the balls. Good Lord.

Moron, air temperature affects the air pressure of the footballs.

Fuck, how do you people let jealousy shut down your brain so badly?

Of course it does...Just only Patriots footballs. The Colts footballs are immune to the New England laws of physics.

 

[HUGGY]

When Bill Nie the science guy says it then I'll believe it.

Till then ....

 

[HUGGY]

I'm just an idiot helping my team by keeping the conversation going.

Can't hurt.











The Seahawks.

 

[ChrisL]

Ya ...Ya... Belichick is stretching the laws of physics into magical areas where they only apply to his team's environments yet leave the Colt's out in the cold and of out of the known universe.

No matter what science lecture Billy Boi thinks he is presenting and all of the glib movie references he dredges up the fact he can't get around is that the colt's balls were all within regulation and 11 out of 12 Patriots balls were 10% out of specs. That may not seem like a lot but it is cheating plain and simple.

You are forgetting. The Colts sucked and weren't on offense NEARLY as much as the Pats, and there was NO celebrating by spiking balls in the end zone by the Colts. The amount of times you handle your balls plays a role, as well as 300-pound men handling them. They are MUCH stronger than you and your silly little science geek friend.

 

[ChrisL]

Really? That's assuming that all the balls started at the same pressure. That's assuming that the official who was supposed to check the balls actually DID! Here's a radical concept...perhaps someone who was supposed to do his job...didn't! Perhaps the referee picked up some balls...gave them a squeeze and said..."Yup...feels OK to me! Let's go play some football!!!"

Or the footballs were taken in from the cold at half-time, the Pats were checked first and as the footballs warmed up to the indoors room temps, they tested less and less under pressure till the last one passed. And the Colts footballs all passed because the footballs had all warmed up by then.

Does anyone know what the air temperature was in the room and also for the footballs when the pressure was checked? There is no NFL standard for these two variables.

Uh huh....and then the moon's gravity centered over 11 of the balls but not the 12th enhancing the effect, and the tidal forces were pulling on each end of the balls making it even worse, and then there was a CME that disrupted the Earth's magnetic field in such a way that those 11 balls lost a couple more psi....dude....just stop it.

Someone let the air out of the balls. Good Lord.

You are stupid. Did you ever think for a second that MAYBE they hadn't yet USED the 12th ball? Maybe they had used the other 11? You have absolutely NO common sense, and I think it is quite clear that you WANT the Patriots to be cheaters. You are a hater, but that's fine because I don't like or respect you much anyway.

 

[Papageorgio]

Well just to get some personal expert perspective on this I called my brother who is an aerospace engineer and deals with atmospheric pressure on a daily basis. Even better he is not a football fan so doesn't care a bit about the result. According to him (I will give you the bottom line and a direct quote) "...as an aerospace engineer I could write you a very complicated and detailed explanation backed up with physics to explain every part of this perfectly, but in reality it would require an absolutely perfect storm for it all to come together and it would have such low odds of happening it would be practically impossible. The fact that one of the balls behaved differently in the same environment and under the same controls is highly suspicious and the Patriots' success rate in regards to ball protection since the rules changed in the NFL is outrageously suspicious. In short, I can use math to prove they didn't cheat, even though the likelihood that they did cheat is about 99.99%".

On the question of physics I will take his word.

I want to SEE your math, please. Put out or get out.

You misunderstand. I did not ask my brother for math, nor did he provide any. He was pissed enough that I bothered him on a Saturday asking a football related question as it was. His point was that he could write an equation to show anything someone wanted. As he put it "pay me enough and I will write you an equation showing how an elephant can stand on a teacup without it breaking".

His point was that math would only be required to prove the improbable rather than the other way around because basic common sense tells you all you need to know. I will spell it out for you a bit more slowly.

We have an experiment repeated twice. In each experiment 12 balls were handled the same way and in the same environment. All were inflated to 12.5 psi. The balls were then introduced into the same colder environment and the difference was measured. In the first run 11 of the balls dropped 2 psi and one stayed the same. What that means it you somehow have a situation where the laws of physics are working one way in 11 of the balls and a different way in the 12th ball. So you repeat the experiment and this time none of the balls show any change.

The only thing that has remained constant is the reaction of the 12th ball that showed no change in both experiments. In the second run the other 11 balls re-enforced the results of the only thing that was constant in both experiments...the no change reaction of the 12th ball. Hence a naturally occurring phenomenon is probably not the issue.

Could it be some form of physical defect? Leaky valves or perhaps the inner bladders of the first 11 were damaged due to initial over inflation? Perhaps but if they leaked in the first half they would leak in the second half too. So physical defection of the balls is probably not the case.

Ok what about a psi gauge that is not correctly calibrated? Possible, but provided it was left alone and not tampered with between experiments the gauge would show similar results. So that's probably not the case.

So what else is left? Human intervention which, either by accident or intent, resulted in the deflation of 11 balls in the first experiment only. In other words, someone let air out of the balls.

It's really not that tough

Now in said experiment, the officials, professionals mind you, could not determine that they were deflated? I have to think that the officials did not care, knew it all along or were in on it.

I have an uncle who is a finish carpenter, he can walk in to a kitchen and tell you I'd anything is off by as little as a sixteenth of an inch. I can't see it but he is a pro. I know a tile guy, he can walk into a room and tell you it it is out of square. I had a friend who worked in the post office, he could simply lift a package and tell you what it weighed within an ounce, another was a baggage agent, he could lift a bag and tell you the weight within a few ounces.

This leads me to believe that this goes on a lot, officials aren't that dumb, and if just by catching it, you can tell its light, an official squeezing it can tell it light. It is not that hard for pros, to be that sensitive to little minute things.

 

[ChrisL]

Well just to get some personal expert perspective on this I called my brother who is an aerospace engineer and deals with atmospheric pressure on a daily basis. Even better he is not a football fan so doesn't care a bit about the result. According to him (I will give you the bottom line and a direct quote) "...as an aerospace engineer I could write you a very complicated and detailed explanation backed up with physics to explain every part of this perfectly, but in reality it would require an absolutely perfect storm for it all to come together and it would have such low odds of happening it would be practically impossible. The fact that one of the balls behaved differently in the same environment and under the same controls is highly suspicious and the Patriots' success rate in regards to ball protection since the rules changed in the NFL is outrageously suspicious. In short, I can use math to prove they didn't cheat, even though the likelihood that they did cheat is about 99.99%".

On the question of physics I will take his word.

I want to SEE your math, please. Put out or get out.

You misunderstand. I did not ask my brother for math, nor did he provide any. He was pissed enough that I bothered him on a Saturday asking a football related question as it was. His point was that he could write an equation to show anything someone wanted. As he put it "pay me enough and I will write you an equation showing how an elephant can stand on a teacup without it breaking".

His point was that math would only be required to prove the improbable rather than the other way around because basic common sense tells you all you need to know. I will spell it out for you a bit more slowly.

We have an experiment repeated twice. In each experiment 12 balls were handled the same way and in the same environment. All were inflated to 12.5 psi. The balls were then introduced into the same colder environment and the difference was measured. In the first run 11 of the balls dropped 2 psi and one stayed the same. What that means it you somehow have a situation where the laws of physics are working one way in 11 of the balls and a different way in the 12th ball. So you repeat the experiment and this time none of the balls show any change.

The only thing that has remained constant is the reaction of the 12th ball that showed no change in both experiments. In the second run the other 11 balls re-enforced the results of the only thing that was constant in both experiments...the no change reaction of the 12th ball. Hence a naturally occurring phenomenon is probably not the issue.

Could it be some form of physical defect? Leaky valves or perhaps the inner bladders of the first 11 were damaged due to initial over inflation? Perhaps but if they leaked in the first half they would leak in the second half too. So physical defection of the balls is probably not the case.

Ok what about a psi gauge that is not correctly calibrated? Possible, but provided it was left alone and not tampered with between experiments the gauge would show similar results. So that's probably not the case.

So what else is left? Human intervention which, either by accident or intent, resulted in the deflation of 11 balls in the first experiment only. In other words, someone let air out of the balls.

It's really not that tough

Now in said experiment, the officials, professionals mind you, could not determine that they were deflated? I have to think that the officials did not care, knew it all along or were in on it.

I have an uncle who is a finish carpenter, he can walk in to a kitchen and tell you I'd anything is off by as little as a sixteenth of an inch. I can't see it but he is a pro. I know a tile guy, he can walk into a room and tell you it it is out of square. I had a friend who worked in the post office, he could simply lift a package and tell you what it weighed within an ounce, another was a baggage agent, he could lift a bag and tell you the weight within a few ounces.

This leads me to believe that this goes on a lot, officials aren't that dumb, and if just by catching it, you can tell its light, an official squeezing it can tell it light. It is not that hard for pros, to be that sensitive to little minute things.

That is because, as has been stated several times now, there was not ENOUGH air missing to make a noticeable difference in the feel of the ball.

 

[Papageorgio]

Well just to get some personal expert perspective on this I called my brother who is an aerospace engineer and deals with atmospheric pressure on a daily basis. Even better he is not a football fan so doesn't care a bit about the result. According to him (I will give you the bottom line and a direct quote) "...as an aerospace engineer I could write you a very complicated and detailed explanation backed up with physics to explain every part of this perfectly, but in reality it would require an absolutely perfect storm for it all to come together and it would have such low odds of happening it would be practically impossible. The fact that one of the balls behaved differently in the same environment and under the same controls is highly suspicious and the Patriots' success rate in regards to ball protection since the rules changed in the NFL is outrageously suspicious. In short, I can use math to prove they didn't cheat, even though the likelihood that they did cheat is about 99.99%".

On the question of physics I will take his word.

I want to SEE your math, please. Put out or get out.

You misunderstand. I did not ask my brother for math, nor did he provide any. He was pissed enough that I bothered him on a Saturday asking a football related question as it was. His point was that he could write an equation to show anything someone wanted. As he put it "pay me enough and I will write you an equation showing how an elephant can stand on a teacup without it breaking".

His point was that math would only be required to prove the improbable rather than the other way around because basic common sense tells you all you need to know. I will spell it out for you a bit more slowly.

We have an experiment repeated twice. In each experiment 12 balls were handled the same way and in the same environment. All were inflated to 12.5 psi. The balls were then introduced into the same colder environment and the difference was measured. In the first run 11 of the balls dropped 2 psi and one stayed the same. What that means it you somehow have a situation where the laws of physics are working one way in 11 of the balls and a different way in the 12th ball. So you repeat the experiment and this time none of the balls show any change.

The only thing that has remained constant is the reaction of the 12th ball that showed no change in both experiments. In the second run the other 11 balls re-enforced the results of the only thing that was constant in both experiments...the no change reaction of the 12th ball. Hence a naturally occurring phenomenon is probably not the issue.

Could it be some form of physical defect? Leaky valves or perhaps the inner bladders of the first 11 were damaged due to initial over inflation? Perhaps but if they leaked in the first half they would leak in the second half too. So physical defection of the balls is probably not the case.

Ok what about a psi gauge that is not correctly calibrated? Possible, but provided it was left alone and not tampered with between experiments the gauge would show similar results. So that's probably not the case.

So what else is left? Human intervention which, either by accident or intent, resulted in the deflation of 11 balls in the first experiment only. In other words, someone let air out of the balls.

It's really not that tough

Now in said experiment, the officials, professionals mind you, could not determine that they were deflated? I have to think that the officials did not care, knew it all along or were in on it.

I have an uncle who is a finish carpenter, he can walk in to a kitchen and tell you I'd anything is off by as little as a sixteenth of an inch. I can't see it but he is a pro. I know a tile guy, he can walk into a room and tell you it it is out of square. I had a friend who worked in the post office, he could simply lift a package and tell you what it weighed within an ounce, another was a baggage agent, he could lift a bag and tell you the weight within a few ounces.

This leads me to believe that this goes on a lot, officials aren't that dumb, and if just by catching it, you can tell its light, an official squeezing it can tell it light. It is not that hard for pros, to be that sensitive to little minute things.

That is because, as has been stated several times now, there was not ENOUGH air missing to make a noticeable difference in the feel of the ball.

It is very noticeable, it's a 20% variable, it has to be noticeable otherwise the Pats wouldn't have taken the air out.

 

[ChrisL]

Well just to get some personal expert perspective on this I called my brother who is an aerospace engineer and deals with atmospheric pressure on a daily basis. Even better he is not a football fan so doesn't care a bit about the result. According to him (I will give you the bottom line and a direct quote) "...as an aerospace engineer I could write you a very complicated and detailed explanation backed up with physics to explain every part of this perfectly, but in reality it would require an absolutely perfect storm for it all to come together and it would have such low odds of happening it would be practically impossible. The fact that one of the balls behaved differently in the same environment and under the same controls is highly suspicious and the Patriots' success rate in regards to ball protection since the rules changed in the NFL is outrageously suspicious. In short, I can use math to prove they didn't cheat, even though the likelihood that they did cheat is about 99.99%".

On the question of physics I will take his word.

I want to SEE your math, please. Put out or get out.

You misunderstand. I did not ask my brother for math, nor did he provide any. He was pissed enough that I bothered him on a Saturday asking a football related question as it was. His point was that he could write an equation to show anything someone wanted. As he put it "pay me enough and I will write you an equation showing how an elephant can stand on a teacup without it breaking".

His point was that math would only be required to prove the improbable rather than the other way around because basic common sense tells you all you need to know. I will spell it out for you a bit more slowly.

We have an experiment repeated twice. In each experiment 12 balls were handled the same way and in the same environment. All were inflated to 12.5 psi. The balls were then introduced into the same colder environment and the difference was measured. In the first run 11 of the balls dropped 2 psi and one stayed the same. What that means it you somehow have a situation where the laws of physics are working one way in 11 of the balls and a different way in the 12th ball. So you repeat the experiment and this time none of the balls show any change.

The only thing that has remained constant is the reaction of the 12th ball that showed no change in both experiments. In the second run the other 11 balls re-enforced the results of the only thing that was constant in both experiments...the no change reaction of the 12th ball. Hence a naturally occurring phenomenon is probably not the issue.

Could it be some form of physical defect? Leaky valves or perhaps the inner bladders of the first 11 were damaged due to initial over inflation? Perhaps but if they leaked in the first half they would leak in the second half too. So physical defection of the balls is probably not the case.

Ok what about a psi gauge that is not correctly calibrated? Possible, but provided it was left alone and not tampered with between experiments the gauge would show similar results. So that's probably not the case.

So what else is left? Human intervention which, either by accident or intent, resulted in the deflation of 11 balls in the first experiment only. In other words, someone let air out of the balls.

It's really not that tough

Now in said experiment, the officials, professionals mind you, could not determine that they were deflated? I have to think that the officials did not care, knew it all along or were in on it.

I have an uncle who is a finish carpenter, he can walk in to a kitchen and tell you I'd anything is off by as little as a sixteenth of an inch. I can't see it but he is a pro. I know a tile guy, he can walk into a room and tell you it it is out of square. I had a friend who worked in the post office, he could simply lift a package and tell you what it weighed within an ounce, another was a baggage agent, he could lift a bag and tell you the weight within a few ounces.

This leads me to believe that this goes on a lot, officials aren't that dumb, and if just by catching it, you can tell its light, an official squeezing it can tell it light. It is not that hard for pros, to be that sensitive to little minute things.

That is because, as has been stated several times now, there was not ENOUGH air missing to make a noticeable difference in the feel of the ball.

It is very noticeable, it's a 20% variable, it has to be noticeable otherwise the Pats wouldn't have taken the air out.

It's NOT noticeable amount. I already posted a link somewhere in this thread where it says it is equal to the amount of the weight of a piece of paper.

 

[ChrisL]

Here is some REAL science, not some internet hack . . .

But here’s a poster on Reddit, supposedly a local science teacher, and his formula sounds logical to even the most removed student of Newton, describing how the elements that night may have played a role. Honestly, it’s the best breakdown I’ve seen yet this week explaining how this whole mess may have come to fruition.

Given the conditions of the game, a ball which meets specifications in the locker room could easily lose enough pressure to be considered under-inflated. Some math:- Guy-Lussac’s Law describes the relationship between the pressure of a confined ideal gas and its temperature. For the sake of argument, we will assume that the football is a rigid enough container (unless a ball is massively deflated, it's volume won't change). The relationship is (P1/T1) = (P2/T2), where P is the pressure and T is the temperature in Kelvins.- The balls are inflated to between 12.5 and 13.5 psi at a temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit (294.1 K). Let's assume an average ball has a pressure of 13 psi. Since these are initial values, we will call them P1 and T1.- The game time temperature was 49 degrees F (278 K). We are attempting to solve for the new pressure at this temperature, P2. We plug everything into the equation and get (13/294.1) = (P2/278). At the game time temperature, the balls would have a pressure of 12.3 psi, below league specifications.Furthermore, given that it was raining all day, the air in the stadium was saturated with water vapor. At 70 degrees, water has a vapor pressure of 0.38 psi. The total pressure of the ball is equal to the pressure of the air inside the ball and the vaporized water in the ball. At 49 degrees, the vapor pressure of water is 0.13 psi. Up to 0.25 additional psi can be lost if the balls were inflated by either the team or the refs prior to the game. Granted, it's unlikely that anyone would inflate balls from 0, but it easily could cost another couple hundredths of a psi in pressure.- For a ball that barely meets specifications (12.5 psi), it's pressure would drop to 11.8 psi during the game... enough to be considered massively under-inflated.

 

[ChrisL]

Pound per square inch to atmospheric pressure (psi to atm) conversion table shows the most common values for the quick reference. Alternatively, you may use the converter below to convert any other values.

1 Psi = 0.0680459639 Atm

Psi is defined as 1 pound of force per square inch. It is the primary pressure unit in united states and widely used in all kinds of applications. 1 pound per square inch (psi) equals to 6 894.75729 pascals.

Atm (or atmospheric pressure) is defined as the force per unit area by the weight of air above that point. 1 atmosphere is about 101.325 kilopascals.

 

[ChrisL]

Well just to get some personal expert perspective on this I called my brother who is an aerospace engineer and deals with atmospheric pressure on a daily basis. Even better he is not a football fan so doesn't care a bit about the result. According to him (I will give you the bottom line and a direct quote) "...as an aerospace engineer I could write you a very complicated and detailed explanation backed up with physics to explain every part of this perfectly, but in reality it would require an absolutely perfect storm for it all to come together and it would have such low odds of happening it would be practically impossible. The fact that one of the balls behaved differently in the same environment and under the same controls is highly suspicious and the Patriots' success rate in regards to ball protection since the rules changed in the NFL is outrageously suspicious. In short, I can use math to prove they didn't cheat, even though the likelihood that they did cheat is about 99.99%".

On the question of physics I will take his word.

I want to SEE your math, please. Put out or get out.

You misunderstand. I did not ask my brother for math, nor did he provide any. He was pissed enough that I bothered him on a Saturday asking a football related question as it was. His point was that he could write an equation to show anything someone wanted. As he put it "pay me enough and I will write you an equation showing how an elephant can stand on a teacup without it breaking".

His point was that math would only be required to prove the improbable rather than the other way around because basic common sense tells you all you need to know. I will spell it out for you a bit more slowly.

We have an experiment repeated twice. In each experiment 12 balls were handled the same way and in the same environment. All were inflated to 12.5 psi. The balls were then introduced into the same colder environment and the difference was measured. In the first run 11 of the balls dropped 2 psi and one stayed the same. What that means it you somehow have a situation where the laws of physics are working one way in 11 of the balls and a different way in the 12th ball. So you repeat the experiment and this time none of the balls show any change.

The only thing that has remained constant is the reaction of the 12th ball that showed no change in both experiments. In the second run the other 11 balls re-enforced the results of the only thing that was constant in both experiments...the no change reaction of the 12th ball. Hence a naturally occurring phenomenon is probably not the issue.

Could it be some form of physical defect? Leaky valves or perhaps the inner bladders of the first 11 were damaged due to initial over inflation? Perhaps but if they leaked in the first half they would leak in the second half too. So physical defection of the balls is probably not the case.

Ok what about a psi gauge that is not correctly calibrated? Possible, but provided it was left alone and not tampered with between experiments the gauge would show similar results. So that's probably not the case.

So what else is left? Human intervention which, either by accident or intent, resulted in the deflation of 11 balls in the first experiment only. In other words, someone let air out of the balls.

It's really not that tough

Now in said experiment, the officials, professionals mind you, could not determine that they were deflated? I have to think that the officials did not care, knew it all along or were in on it.

I have an uncle who is a finish carpenter, he can walk in to a kitchen and tell you I'd anything is off by as little as a sixteenth of an inch. I can't see it but he is a pro. I know a tile guy, he can walk into a room and tell you it it is out of square. I had a friend who worked in the post office, he could simply lift a package and tell you what it weighed within an ounce, another was a baggage agent, he could lift a bag and tell you the weight within a few ounces.

This leads me to believe that this goes on a lot, officials aren't that dumb, and if just by catching it, you can tell its light, an official squeezing it can tell it light. It is not that hard for pros, to be that sensitive to little minute things.

That is because, as has been stated several times now, there was not ENOUGH air missing to make a noticeable difference in the feel of the ball.

It is very noticeable, it's a 20% variable, it has to be noticeable otherwise the Pats wouldn't have taken the air out.

Another thing that tells me it was not a noticeable amount, is that they had to test and measure the amount of air in the balls. IOW, it was not obvious to them by simply holding them and inspecting them with the naked eye.

 

[Valerie]

...per a league source, the NFL has reviewed the entire process and determined that the balls were properly checked by the officials before the game. Which means that, when the balls left the possession of the referee, the pressure was at least 12.5 PSI and no more than 13.5 PSI.

Second, as to the fact that the officials didn’t notice anything wrong with the balls while handling them after every play, the source explains that a pressure difference of one or two pounds would not be obvious, if the official is not specifically looking for it.


In this specific case, the NFL indeed became aware of the issue in the first half — as previously pointed out by Bob Glauber of Newsday. Per the source, the league opted not to stop the game during the first half but to test the balls at halftime, which they did.

Source Footballs were properly checked before Colts-Patriots game ProFootballTalk

 

[SwimExpert]

You think the officials sit in a freezing cold room to replicate the game time temperature when they check the balls? Or take them all out to the fifty yard line in a driving rain storm to do that job? That's some amusing stuff, Swim!

 

[HUGGY]

Ya ...Ya... Belichick is stretching the laws of physics into magical areas where they only apply to his team's environments yet leave the Colt's out in the cold and of out of the known universe.

No matter what science lecture Billy Boi thinks he is presenting and all of the glib movie references he dredges up the fact he can't get around is that the colt's balls were all within regulation and 11 out of 12 Patriots balls were 10% out of specs. That may not seem like a lot but it is cheating plain and simple.

You are forgetting. The Colts sucked and weren't on offense NEARLY as much as the Pats, and there was NO celebrating by spiking balls in the end zone by the Colts. The amount of times you handle your balls plays a role, as well as 300-pound men handling them. They are MUCH stronger than you and your silly little science geek friend.

I really don't want to visualize 300 lb men handling their balls.