The difference between a 12.5 PSI football and a 10.5 PSI football is not easy to feel (unless you're a pro and squeezing it!)
Mike Greenberg said on his own show this morning, that he was on one of the network morning shows, and they gave him a 13.0 PSI football and a 9.0 PSI football, and even knowing there was a difference, he could barely feel it.
During a game, the refs just focus on placing the ball correctly, so they're not really feeling it carefully.
I’m not convinced, they spend too much time with the balls (especially during the rain when they’re frequently toweling them). But let’s pretend that yes the differences are too subtle to notice. That brings us back to Aaron Rodger’s assertion that there shouldn’t even be a rule, if the difference between a 13 and a 9 is that miniscule why does the league even care?
It’s interesting to me that the last big “scandal” for the Pats involved a rule that really didn’t need to exist and wouldn’t have if the league had allowed defenses radios when they gave them to offenses, and that in the subsequent off season they gave defenses radios. And here we are again with a rule multiple QBs don’t like, and have lobbied for change (Peyton Manning even succeeding), and admit to breaking whenever they can. I want to see what they do with it this off season, will the league again “admit” it’s a dumb rule. This will certainly take the heat off the “through contact with the ground” rule.
As a WR, I could tell the difference in brands, wet, dry, cold and over/under inflated balls.
The refs aren’t handling the balls at speed, so wouldn’t notice anything and they aren’t really gripping them either.
My guess is the Pats like underinflated footballs, therefore use them, rules are for losers.