No FB expert here but if they inspected them at 1/2 time and they failed why wasn’t something done at that time?
You would think that when the official who hands the ball to the offense just before the play would have noticed something if the football was missing a little air.
Where and at what temperature were they inspected prior to the game and at half time? Has anyone ever heard of NV=PRT?
The officials replaced the balls at half time with properly inflated balls. The Patriots then scored another 4 touchdowns in the second half with properly inflated balls.
The Colts never scored in the second half.
They reinflated them at half time and the Patriots went on a tear, scoring 21 points in the 3rd quarter to their 17 in the first half. According to an NFL official, this morning, the only time they were not in the view of the officials is a 10 minute window while the ball boy had them before the game (10 minutes before kick off). I find it very hard to imagine it could have been done without the complicity of the official. Aside from that, they handled the balls all the first half and did not notice?