Fair enough...
Since I hadn’t read that, I reserve the right to be a little skeptical about ‘common knowledge’.
But your point is well taken. I would love to see the data from the refs’ testing procedures. Is there any mechanism to identify which footballs were under-inflated and by how much? As many Freepers have identified here, the natural performance of a gas (in this case air) is to “lose” pressure as it cools and “gain” pressure as it is heated. There is a range of normal expectations that can be fairly easily calculated. If the footballs in question, albeit under-inflated, fall within this range of expectation, then so what? It is irrational to expect that a football will maintain air pressure in colder temperatures.
And as for the statement that all 12 Colts footballs remained within the NFL acceptable ranges, this information is only useful if we know what the pressure in these balls was at the time of the original testing.
FReeper lepton and I were discussing this on another thread. The game pressure can be calculated (I did so on the other thread), but IMHO not with certainty.
And that's for two reasons, as I now see it. One, the calculations rely on this being an "ideal gas" situation, and it's not. Two, there are other variables besides temperature and pressure at play here. For example, the football's volume probably changed at least a little bit.
For what it's worth, I strongly suspect that the Pat's cheated. But to prove it, you'd have to repeat the process. Fill another ball up to 12.5 psi, then subject it to the same variables as the originals experienced. Not a trivial thing to do!
If the NFL was smart, and I am not saying that but the NFL should have impounded all of the game balls at halftime in an effort to preserve evidence...I am confident that there were a few other footballs in the stadium that could have been used in the second half.
I have been reading all of this stuff today about how cold weather affects footballs. I grew up and lived most of my life in the land of the Northern Aggressors...Cold weather should not affect the weight of the football. The oxygen molucles may huddle together for warmth causing the ball to seem deflated, but there should be as much oxygen in the ball cold as warm...Have you ever watched an NFL game when it is cold out? A member of the ball boy(adult male who is friends with the owner) team, sits with the balls near one of the gas fueled heaters. So the balls never really get cold as they are switched with every play.
Finally, anybody saying that this had no effect on the game is mistaken...it had a HUGE effect on the game...the Patriots all knew that the balls had been doctored and this allowed them to play with confidence that they had an inside tract in the game and that the, ‘Fix’, was in...