Posted on 01/21/2015 2:15:35 PM PST by tcrlaf
Chris Mortensen reports, the NFL has found that 11 of the Patriots footballs used in Sunday’s AFC title game were under-inflated by 2 lbs each, per league sources.
The league says the New England Patriots used deflated footballs during their AFC Championship Game win over the Indianapolis Colts.
They say that 11 balls were under-inflated by two pounds each, according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.
“We are not commenting at this time,” Greg Aiello, the NFL’s senior vice president of communications, said to ESPN.
(Excerpt) Read more at breaking911.com ...
They showed a test on that today for local tv news at a local college (Univ of Indianapolis) and two players were able to discern between the two sets of unmarked balls with 2 psi difference.
Simple logic suggests that IF the Patriots intentionally deflated the balls, Tom Brady must have known. After all, he was the one that would benefit the most. The NFL should call him in this week and give him a choice: (1) If he admits it was done, Brady receives only a fine (others get punished based on involvement); (2) If he doesn’t fess up, and it is proven it was done, Brady doesn’t play in the super bowl and is suspended for one year.
Brady knew. Belichick probably knew.
But deflating the ball 20% below the legal limit isn't the end of the world. The league has specified penalties for ball pressure infractions and they should be enforced.
Why deflate 11 footballs so Brady is using a Nerf ball if he does not get a huge advantage???
Why???????? Why cheat to such an extend ?.
Because it does matter The coach needs to banned from the NFL just likecthe Saint voach was and the team disqualified . Enough of this chesting from this sleazy team .
no they have separate balls - K balls - for that
Brady is a huge sleaze ball.
Simple logic suggests that IF the Patriots intentionally deflated the balls, Tom Brady must have known. After all, he was the one that would benefit the most. The NFL should call him in this week and give him a choice: (1) If he admits it was done, Brady receives only a fine (others get punished based on involvement); (2) If he doesn’t fess up, and it is proven it was done, Brady doesn’t play in the super bowl and is suspended for one year.
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Should the refs be banned also? They handle the same balls as Brady after every down. Why didn’t they seem to know?
Is bluffing in poker “cheating”? IMO, in games, anything that does not risk injury to oneself or another, such as Detroit Lions stomping opponents or Tom Brady having his eye poked, is part of the jostling and psychology of competition. No big deal.
The NFL is now basically a reality TV series. Wouldn’t shock me if it’s scripted to some degree, either - there’s so much money involved, the temptation would be tremendous. I am about through with them.
If Patroits cheated - Give the game to the Colts. Only way to get their attention.
not only did the officials handle the ball every down and every play but they have been doing it for years and years and they should notice if a ball is under inflated.
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The officials do not grip the ball like the QB and pass receivers do.
No, the coach notified his general manager who notified the NFL director of the officials at the game............
“2. If the balls were inflated in a warm room and then taken out into a cold stadium they would naturally loose some pressure.”
That might be the real explanation for the lower (only 2 lbs/in2 lower) ball pressures. Of course, an innocent explanation does not grab the headlines.
A scale could probably work — but, it would have to be quite precise. Air, at 70* F, and normal atmospheric pressure weighs 0.07492 lbs/ft^3, according to “The Engineering Toolbox”. Link here:
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/air-density-specific-weight-d_600.html
You could probably use that site to work out how much less an under-inflated ball would weigh, compared to a standard one.
Just after I pressed “Post”, I thought of a couple of problems with using a weigh scale to test for compliance.
The ball weighs a lot more than the air inside of it, and they aren’t all exactly the same empty weight. You would have to have a precise weight for every empty ball — or for every ball that’s inflated to the right amount of pressure. It would be easier for game officials to just supervise the inflation of each ball.
Also, if you filled the ball with a heavier-than-air gas (CO2, for instance), there would be less pressure for the same weight of gas.
If someone wants to cheat badly enough, there are several ways to do that.
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