Based on the title and the shear fact that we’re still talking about footballs prior to next weekend’s Super Bowl, Bill Belichick called a press conference to what I’m assuming is their final comments on the whole “deflate-gate” fiasco.
And in a presser about PSI, football stitching and ball texture, Belichick was full of one-liners that will give radio hosts sound drops for months as the New England head coach did his best to explain what happened last weekend against the Colts… including dropping this reference to My Cousin Vinny…
Nonetheless what Belichick had to say really won’t quell the most outspoken against the Patriots, nor does it address how physics ceased to exist on the Indianapolis sideline last Sunday. Yes another attempt at a My Cousin Vinny reference. Take it way Deadspin…
That pro process we found raises the PSI approximately 1 pound. So that process of creating a tackiness, a texture, a feel — whatever the feel is, it’s just a sensation for the quarterback, what’s the right feel, that process elevates the PSI approximately 1 pound based on what our study shows, which was multiple balls, multiple examples in the process as we would do for a game.
It’s not one football. When the balls are delivered to the officials locker room, the firsts were asked to inflate them to 12.5 PSI. What exactly they did, I don’t know, but for the purposes of our study, that’s what we did. We set them at 12.5. That’s at the discretion of the official, though, regardless of what we ask for, it’s the officials’ discretion to put them where he wants. again, that’s done in a controlled climate. The footballs are prepared in our locker room. They are delivered to the officials’ locker room, a controlled environment. It’s whatever we have here is what we have there. When the footballs go out on the field into the game conditions, whatever those conditions are, hot and humid, whether it’s cold and damp, where’s it’s cold and dry, whether it’s whatever it is, that’s where the footballs are played with, and that’s where the measurements would be different than what they are, possibly different than what they are in a controlled environment. That’s what we found.
We found that once the balls, the footballs were on the field over an extended period of time, in other words, they were adjusted to the climatic conditions and also the fact that the balls reached and equilibrium without the rubbing process that after that had run its course and the balls reached an equilibrium, theY were down approximately 1.5 square inch. Bringing the balls in after the process and retested them in a controlled environment as we have here, then those measurements rose approximately one-half pound per square inch, so the net of 1.5 back to a half is approximately 1 pound per square inch to one and a half.
Now, we all know that air pressure is a function of the atmospheric conditions. It’s a function of that. So if there’s activity in the ball relative to the rubbing process, I think that explains why, When we gave them to the officials, and the officials put it out, let’s say 12.5, that once the ball reached its equilibrium state, it was closer to 11.5, but that’s, again, that’s just our measurements. We can’t speak specifically to what happened because we are not — have no way of touching the footballs other than once the officials have them, we don’t touch them for when we play with them in the game. But it’s similar to the concept of when you get into your car and the light comes on, and it says low tire pressure because the car’s been sitting in the driveway, outside, overnight, and you start it up, drive, and the light goes off. It’s a similar concept to that. So atmospheric conditions and true equilibrium of the ball is critical to the measurement. At no time were any of the footballs prepared anywhere other than in the locker room or in an area close to that. Never in a heated room or heated condition. That’s absolutely never taken place to anyone’s knowledge or recollection, and I mean, that’s just — didn’t happen.
Let me preface that I don’t buy for a second that the Patriots didn’t do something to doctor the football during the game. But the extent of their doctoring really seems so insignificant that if people care as much as they do then we should be in for a summer full of scandal in Major League Baseball when a pitcher goes to lick his fingers before delivering a pitch. What the Patriots probably did this past Sunday is something that I would guess all teams in the NFL do. Bend the rules in an attempt to gain an advantage during the course of a football game. Should the Pats be punished? Yeah they should but suspending Bellichick or Brady or even taking away a draft pick would be as ludicrous as this whole non-story really is.
Today’s presser was nothing but a straight troll job by Belichick and the Patriots to address something that really is a huge waste of time and something pushed up by the media in a slow news week before the Super Bowl.