What’s always puzzled me about this is, if a QB can throw a football better with a little less air pressure, why not let all teams’ QBs use a ball inflated to grip and throw best for them?
Are the the NFL rules intended to make the QBs less effective and efficient?
see:
http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=12221498&ex_cid=espnFB
It’s all about the texture of the ball. They’re even using power tools on the things to strip off the coating and rough up the surface. Note at the end where nobody measures the pressure.
The tighter restriction is on kicking balls, which are only allowed to be worked for 30 minutes under the eye of an official before the game - since working the balls makes them bouncier.
Pressure was never actually an issue until a *ref* overinflated a bunch of balls by 3 PSI so the balls were actually a different size and stretching at the seams.
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/sports/football/eli-mannings-footballs-are-months-in-making.html
I knew NFL teams prepped the footballs, but didn't know it went to such extremes as shown in your links. It does make it seem even sillier that the league would concern itself about whether the air pressure was the same for the footballs used by individual QBs on every team.
It's not like baseball where monkeying with the ball really can give a pitcher an advantage since the opponent has to hit the thing with a bat.