Why would they be trying to catch the Pats in the act? Why not just properly inspect the balls and make sure they’re inflated properly? That would be the goal of a GM “expressing concern”, making sure the refs do their job. Which the latest leaks (no record of inflation at inspection time) say they didn’t.
OK...think of the jackie robinson little league team that just had its national title taken away because they recruited kids from other LL districts...their own Chicago version of a "dream team"...
Other coaches & admins in other LL districts in Chicago whose players were from those other districts knew it was happening...
...they knew about it as the team was formed...
...they knew about it during ALL levels of tourney play, which is multiple in LL...
...they knew about it in August AFTER they won the national championship...
It really wasn't til about November...and then again in December...when an opposing coach whose allstar team lost 43-2 to the Chicago dream team started ... and cont'd making noise about this...'Twas actually an initial investigation in Nov that didn't go anywhere...resurrected in Dec
Now why do I bring this parallel example up?
Because say I'm the Nevada team coach that lost to the dream team in the national finals. And I know about the cheating that's been going on.
I have several choices, & not all are mutually exclusive:
1. I could go to Ntl LL a day before the game
2. I could go to the umps pre game
3. I could go to the umps during the game...who would in turn feed it to the Ntl LL protest committee put together to handle protests immediately...and, btw, NOT a great testimony either to the coach or to LL to do that all by waiting to do it in front of a national audience...
Choice #3 could result in a protest, which due to the lack of info, probably wouldn't hold up. But then the coach would get the "sour grapes" and "is this the ONLY way you can win?" and "why are you discriminating vs. black families?" kinds of accusations...
So if I was such a coach, I might hope that I don't have to do any of these...I'd just hope we'd win, anyway, & eliminate the winning by the back door route.
So, while choice #3 might be a very late last-ditch option, it might be one worth trying if losing, which the Colts were doing at half.
Sounds to me like the Colts opted for something akin to choice #1 as the best option...skipped choice #2...and may have done choice #3...but in a very subtle way so as to avoid it being broadcast live on national TV vs. making a big show of things the way a LL protest would go down.