You're only hurting yourself and your family.
Well, this is a far more mundane subject than bashing Mormonism or Catholicism for some, but there are a couple of things these people could keep in mind (if they actually had one) but people like some posters on this thread aren’t really interested in fact, they are far more interested in emotion, particularly their own stunted ones.
The issue for many of these people is not what was done, it was who supposedly did it. If they would at least man up and admit that was the case, I might have more respect for them, but since they don’t have the footballs to do it, I don’t.
ITEM 1
When the footballs are examined by officials before the game, are they using a gauge, or just going by feel...or...doing it at all? There are accounts by anonymous ball boys around the league (anonymous should be just as valid as the “source” that broke the story to a reporter, right?) who have been in the room with officials say they either don’t check the balls, or when they do, simply pick them up and put them back.
Did the officials record the pressure values anywhere? Do they have a logbook they keep them in? Did they have a little gauge in their pockets? Yes? Gee, where are they? Or do we just have the assertion they were checked and were within limits? What were the pressures when they were checked initially, for each ball? Inquiring minds want to know.
ITEM 2
I know it is asking too much of the people who think that letting some air out of footballs is the most egregious violation of human rights or sports ethics to have ever been committed, but if one of them had a mind (which they don’t) to actually crack a book, would find out that simply inflating a ball to the lower levels of what is allowed by the league (12.5 psi) at 75 degrees (what the temperature likely was inside the room where the “measurements” were taken”) then moving them into a 50 degree environment caused the pressure to drop.
This was entirely predictable using the formula PV=nRT which alone, without any actual testing, predicted the loss of pressure seen. You don’t have to do the whole calculation, all you have to do is assume the gas volume remains constant, the amount of gas remains constant, the moles of gas remain constant, and...big surprise here...the gas constant remains constant. All you have to do is change the temperature from 75 degrees to 50 degrees and be generous, you don’t even have to go to 40 degrees. So the formula then becomes P=nRT/V. Changing the T on top to a lower value does what, if everything else stays constant? All together class: “IT MAKES THE VALUE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE EQUAL SIGN GO DOWN!” Which for the lesser-witted out there, means the pressure in the ball drops.
But to make it even more realistic, to simulate the weather, the balls were made wet with water (because, gee, it was raining that evening) and placed under a towel in the cooler room. This was done because as the leather becomes damp, it becomes more elastic, and the volume of the ball will actually increase even more. When measured again after wetting and cooling, all the balls had lost on average 1.8 psi. And that was only cooling to 50 degrees. It actually got down to 40 degrees in the game.
But, then the geniuses say “Wait! Wait! How come the balls used by the Colts did not exhibit the same decrease in pressure?!” Well, how do we know they didn’t? Did the officials record those values anywhere? How do we know they did? Do they have little log books? And since the Colts are responsible for their own bag of footballs, could they *possibly* have inflated them to the higher end, because some people like them inflated to the upper limit or above it? Aaron Rogers surely does like them that way. Or do we just take their word for it that they measured them?
Given that this is a witch hunt, we know the answer to that. If the people who made this an issue had the balls to stand up and say why this IS an issue, they would be more worthy of consideration.