Posted on 01/21/2015 7:44:52 PM PST by randita
If only the press had as much curiosity about what is going on with the current administration in DC as they do with how much air is in the footballs in Boston.
You would be amazed...even in Pop Warner football, teams insist on using their own footballs. Starts very young.
They haven't been caught yet. I don't think they can be, because I don't think the league can PROVE that they gave properly inflated balls to the Patriots.
They would have to have a sign-over to the Patriots, and a combined checking of the balls at that point, and they'd have to have some signature from the Patriots that they had checked the balls with the referees and the balls they received were at the proper inflation.
If they had such a document, we'd already know about it.
Agreed. They haven’t been caught yet. But the nfl is not a courtroom so the burden of proof is much lower. We’ll see how it goes.
The NFL isn’t a courtroom, but they can be taken to one if they make an unprovable accusation.
I just listened to Brady and he denies any tampering with the ball that he’s aware of. The same with Belichek (sp?).
One thing Brady did say is that the official inflation took place something like 5 hours before half-time, so that would be 3-4 hours before the game starts.
A ball must be inflated, iirc, from about 12.5 - 13.5 pounds of pressure. If inflated at the 12.5 level 3 hours before in a hot room and then taken outside to a very cold field, then I would not be surprised to find it in the 11’s.
Yes. But Mike and Mike reported that all of the balls given to the Colts were within specifications. If that’s true, it’s very damaging evidence.
That’s why it’s important that they cannot prove they gave the same to the Patriots.
Nor can they say that they measured the Colt balls while they were on the cold field. Probably much later and inside again.
Also, think about it. 12.5 to 13.5 is ok. If yours are at 12.5, the lower end, are they ok? Yes. If the other team’s are at 13.5 are they ok? Yes.
If they lose a pound of pressure in the cold, one ball would be in limits and another would be out of limits.
So, do they do all 24 balls at the same time with one person doing all of them?
Agree - I would contrast this to another sport, golf. I a golfer has non-conforming equipment, too many clubs in the bag - they are disqualified. Doesn’t matter how many strokes they were ahead by, whether it was done by the caddy without their knowledge - the player is responsible.
If the NFL wants integrity, they have to have a punishment that will force teams to verify they are following the rules in the future
I don’t think they really want that kind of integrity
I believe all balls are measured at the same time and marked by the officials.
Also the head of the physic department at MIT said that it was impossible that the deflation in this case was caused by weather.
Wonder why it's a different set of physical laws at work for the inflatable kayaks we use on the creek out back?
“I asked our equipment guy to pump one football up to 13 pounds per square inch and another to 11 psi,” [12 year NFL QB Joe] Theismann told USA TODAY Sports. “I wanted to physically handle the footballs and see if I could tell a difference in them. And I couldn’t.
“If you just pick a football up that is 13 psi and another that’s 11 psi, no one would know the difference. Because you don’t grip a football tight anyway to throw it.”
Theismann explained that a quarterback’s throwing grip is akin to the light grip required for a touring pro’s golf swing.
From Boomer Esiason in the Cincy paper this morning:
“I used to argue with (punter) Lee Johnson all the time about balls. I wanted them one way, he wanted them another. We played with balls right out of the box. Peyton Manning lobbied the commissioner so quarterbacks could be allowed to scuff up balls. The argument then was you could scuff up baseballs, you could put the hockey puck in the freezer to keep it from bouncing all over the place. A lot of this (has) more to do about people hating the Patriots and trying to attach Spygate to this. Quarterbacks have been doctoring the ball for years. ESPN is putting the narrative on this and everybody else is making a mountain out of a complete and utter molehill.’’
“If only the press had as much curiosity about what is going on with the current administration in DC as they do with how much air is in the footballs in Boston.”
Exactly what I have been screaming about since I heard Brady’s press conference!
Also, if using uninflated balls made it easier to score touchdowns, then why put air in the footballs in the first place?
They don’t use the same ball.
Yes they do and I saw it for myself. Brady throws the ball and it gets intercepted by the other team. Same ball.
After the interception, the Colts used their footballs. The balls are marked with the team’s logo so they don’t get mixed up.
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