A 2 psi deficiency (10.5 psi) would be quite noticeable by anyone handling the ball, including the game officials.
"The Referee shall be the sole judge as to whether all balls offered for play comply with these specifications. A pump is to be furnished by the home club, and the balls shall remain under the supervision of the Referee until they are delivered to the ball attendant just prior to the start of the game."
A game official handles the football immediately prior to each play. If there was a problem, it could and should have addressed it before or during the game.
Cheating’s OK as long as it isn’t noticed until it’s too late to do anything about it. /s
Thanks for the numbers.
What if the bone-dry footballs were at ambient temp in a hot room when they were pumped up to 12.5 psi, and they were then taken out to play in wet 40* weather? I wonder how much the psi would go down when the “hot” 80* air inside cooled down to 40*, especially when going from dry to wet, resulting in more pliable leather?
The wet leather would make the balls feel softer. Wet leather also stretches, allowing the volume of the envelope for air within to be larger, hence the psi drops even lower.
Just some ideas.
A Colts player wearing gloves intercepted a pass and felt something was wrong with the ball but at least two game officials with bare hands handled the ball before the play and noticed nothing?