The advantage it gives him is because he likes it that way. That’s it.
Just this year, Aaron Rogers stated in an interview that he likes the ball harder than the guideline, and made comments about getting balls through that were overinflated.
That’s without going to the actually notable thing that the Vikings were caught on film doing, which was putting the balls in front of a forced air heater DURING a cold weather game - they got a reminder note not to do that.
The way this works, is that the NFL allows teams to rough up, dirty, and work playing balls for months beforehand to get the balls the way they like them. The team then picks a minimum of 12 balls to submit to officials 2h 15m before the game, at which point the officials check them to make sure they are within specs. Any that aren’t get handed back to be adjusted until they are, and then rechecked. Once cleared as good enough, the balls are kept by the officials until just prior to the game start, when they turn them over to the ball boy. Then, every play, the officials set the ball, and cycle through the supply as needed depending on a variety of factors including just how long it would take to chase down and spot the previous ball, or if the ball becomes overly wet/waterlogged (any change in volume changes pressure), and whether there are still more balls available. Occasionally, they run out of balls.
The team could supply all their balls at 5 PSI, and it wouldn’t be a violation of any rules to do so...they’d just annoy the officials checking them - to the extent that they really bother about a pound of pressure (with a little more than another PSI being from temp differences).
...or are you asserting that the Pats had the ball boys leak air out of all of the balls out there in front of the TV cameras, and we somehow haven’t seen the video being played ad nauseum?
It’s hysterical silliness.
Yea, NE did not do anything. It just so happens that 11 of the 12 were under-inflated. None of the Colts balls were. The Colt defensive player that intercepted the ball knew immediately the ball he caught was under-inflated. Out of the 36 balls available only the 11 of the 12 that NE offense played with were under-inflated.
To deny that NE had nothing to do with it is hysterical silliness.
Once cleared as good enough, the balls are kept by the officials until just prior to the game start, when they turn them over to the ball boy. Then, every play, the officials set the ball, and cycle through the supply as needed depending on a variety of factors including just how long it would take to chase down and spot the previous ball, or if the ball becomes overly wet/waterlogged (any change in volume changes pressure), and whether there are still more balls available. Occasionally, they run out of balls.
Just so you know the above statement is utterly false. The do get to change the balls for their possession for two reasons, scruff them up (so not slick) and to inflate / deflate within limits.
Aaron Rogers stated that he likes to an over-inflated ball and his team over inflates to the limit.
In Super Bowl XXVII, Bucs Quarterback Johnson admitted he paid NFL equipment officials $7,500 to deflate the game’s balls to his liking.
It is all to easy to cheat and NE did.