I wonder if deflated footballs explains why the Patriots have been this suspiciously good with fumbles. This is eye opening:

 

 
<a class="bbc_url" href='http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/?p=2932'>http://www.sharpfoot...om/blog/?p=2932</a>

Interesting hearing a QB and a receiver talking about the advantage of a deflated ball.

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What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is agoin' on here???

I think the deflated balls are causing global warming.

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So Mark Brunell likes to brush his balls, Rodgers likes small balls because he has small hands, and kickers don't like their balls messed with.

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Whether someone has a liberal, or conservative viewpoint, a authoritative figure should not lock a thread for the sole purpose to get the last word in all the while prohibiting someone else from being able to respond.

So,, if the report by the NFL (to this point) is true, and the balls were under-inflated during the 1st half and re-inflated for the 2nd half,, that means:


1st half Patriots scored 17 with Brady throwing an INT.

2nd half Patriots scored 28 (4 TDs).


Hhmmm,, interesting.

The Patriots laid out the Colts in the 2nd half with properly filled footballs?

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The NFL's Perfect Little Scandal: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20...andal.html

 

I hate Belichick as much as the rest of you but you're blowing this out of proportion. Plenty of big name players are scoffing at the criticism of this

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So,, if the report by the NFL (to this point) is true, and the balls were under-inflated during the 1st half and re-inflated for the 2nd half,, that means:


1st half Patriots scored 17 with Brady throwing an INT.

2nd half Patriots scored 28 (4 TDs).


Hhmmm,, interesting.

The Patriots laid out the Colts in the 2nd half with properly filled footballs?

What's your point? You can cheat as long as you don't do as well?

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TravC59, aka JacksJags. @TravC59 on Twitter
;
; "This is really good, you want a bite, Honey?"

The NFL's Perfect Little Scandal: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20...andal.html

 

I hate Belichick as much as the rest of you but you're blowing this out of proportion. Plenty of big name players are scoffing at the criticism of this

Just as many are way on board. Typical of anything like this in sports/life.

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TravC59, aka JacksJags. @TravC59 on Twitter
;
; "This is really good, you want a bite, Honey?"

I would like for someone to do the following experiment:

 

Place a football in a room with 78 degree temperature for 1 hour.  Inflate it to the proper amount of air.   Put it in a refrigerator for one hour.   Check the air pressure.  

 

If someone has already done this, please provide a link if you can.   Thanks. 

 

I know that the air pressure in my tires is greatly affected by the air temperature.   I can inflate them to 33 PSI in 90 degree weather, and it can drop to 28 PSI in very cold weather if I don't put any air in.  

 

I bought a car and the tires were inflated to 50 PSI when they were supposed to be 33 PSI.   I believe it was because they shipped the car in from a much colder location and then forgot to check the pressure before giving it to me in Jacksonville. 

 

Of course, it's always possible the Pats had this figured out, and intentionally inflated the balls in a warm room before handing them over to the officials, knowing the cold air in the stadium would deflate them.  

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I would like for someone to do the following experiment:

 

Place a football in a room with 78 degree temperature for 1 hour.  Inflate it to the proper amount of air.   Put it in a refrigerator for one hour.   Check the air pressure.  

 

If someone has already done this, please provide a link if you can.   Thanks. 

 

I know that the air pressure in my tires is greatly affected by the air temperature.   I can inflate them to 33 PSI in 90 degree weather, and it can drop to 28 PSI in very cold weather if I don't put any air in.  

 

I bought a car and the tires were inflated to 50 PSI when they were supposed to be 33 PSI.   I believe it was because they shipped the car in from a much colder location and then forgot to check the pressure before giving it to me in Jacksonville. 

 

Of course, it's always possible the Pats had this figured out, and intentionally inflated the balls in a warm room before handing them over to the officials, knowing the cold air in the stadium would deflate them.  

Air temp is affected by weather. It has already been proven that the balls would not have lost the amount of pressure they did in the time there was at the temperature that day.

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TravC59, aka JacksJags. @TravC59 on Twitter
;
; "This is really good, you want a bite, Honey?"

I would like for someone to do the following experiment:

 

Place a football in a room with 78 degree temperature for 1 hour.  Inflate it to the proper amount of air.   Put it in a refrigerator for one hour.   Check the air pressure.  

 

If someone has already done this, please provide a link if you can.   Thanks. 

 

I know that the air pressure in my tires is greatly affected by the air temperature.   I can inflate them to 33 PSI in 90 degree weather, and it can drop to 28 PSI in very cold weather if I don't put any air in.  

 

I bought a car and the tires were inflated to 50 PSI when they were supposed to be 33 PSI.   I believe it was because they shipped the car in from a much colder location and then forgot to check the pressure before giving it to me in Jacksonville. 

 

Of course, it's always possible the Pats had this figured out, and intentionally inflated the balls in a warm room before handing them over to the officials, knowing the cold air in the stadium would deflate them.

Wouldn't the colts balls deflate too then?

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What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is agoin' on here???

Wouldn't the colts balls deflate too then?

 

Not if the Colts' balls were inflated in a cold room.   From what I understand, the two teams are each responsible for supplying the balls they will use, and the two sets of balls (God, I can't believe I am using those words to you, but anyway), are inflated separately by the two teams. 

 

If the Pats intentionally or unintentionally inflated their balls using warm air, then when the air in the balls got colder, they would deflate somewhat. 

 

But if the Colts inflated their balls using colder air, they would not deflate as much.

 

I'm saying, if the Pats balls were inflated to 12.5 PSI in a room where the air temperature was 80, and handed the balls to the officials, they would measure 12.5 PSI until the air in the balls got colder from being outside on the field.   Then they would deflate.  

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Here's a plays per fumble chart since 2010:




That's a pretty big jump, and makes you at least wonder if Deflated Balls might have something to do with it.

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I was wrong about Trent Baalke. 

Here's a plays per fumble chart since 2010:


That's a pretty big jump, and makes you at least wonder if Deflated Balls might have something to do with it.

From that same article:

"The 2014 Patriots were just the 3rd team in the last 25 years to never have lost a fumble at home! The biggest difference between the Patriots and the other 2 teams who did it was that New England ran between 150 and 200 MORE plays this year than those teams did in the years they had zero home fumbles, making the Patriots stand alone in this unique statistic."



Very interesting.

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What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is agoin' on here???

The Advanced NFL Stat guys also notice a trend. Right after the 2007 rule change that allows teams to use their own balls at away games, the Patriots** fumble a lot less!

 

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witch hunt

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Coughlin when asked if winning will be a focus: "What the hell else is there? This is nice and dandy, but winning is what all this is about."

I was of the mind set that this was no big deal, but that article lays out a pretty good case for it actually being a pretty big deal.  Not sure how the NFL can proceed though until there is evidence beyond the shadow of a doubt that someone actually did something.  One can reasonably assume that they've been deflating balls since 2007, but there is no evidence of it since they were only just tested during the AFC Championship.  I would guess this was kept very close to the vest by Belichick and Brady.  You wouldn't want this widely known with the amount of turnover on a roster each year and someone moving on to another team squealing about what was going on in New England.

 

I'm a little shocked the NFL let it even get to this point.  You'd think they'd rather just send the Patriots a private "cease and desist" order than to have the story continue to grow and become a distraction like it has become.  Maybe they subscribe to the notion that there's no such thing as bad publicity or maybe they didn't want any other issues to be mishandled and blow up in their face.

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For the Patriots? Even that doesn't really matter.

The patriots would disagree

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Belichick seemed very sincere and very convincing during that unscheduled press conference.

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Of course, it's always possible the Pats had this figured out, and intentionally inflated the balls in a warm room before handing them over to the officials, knowing the cold air in the stadium would deflate them.  

 

That's an interesting theory and it would allow them to have followed the rules yet still get the desired outcome of a deflated ball via mother nature's help if they were in fact desiring a ball that was inflated below the threshold of a legal football.  I actually wouldn't have a problem with what has transpired if this is how it actually went down.  If the rules don't cover something like this scenario then they need to be worded better and good for the Patriots for figuring it out and exploiting it.  

 

If they did purposely deflate the balls by hand, that's a bit different.

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Belichick seemed very sincere and very convincing during that unscheduled press conference.

 

LOL, I thought Belecheat and Brady both looked nervous, like they were trying to cover something up...  

 

Another thing..

 

Regarding the fumble thing...  During the AFC Divisional game against the ravens, the Pats put the ball on the floor like 2 or 3 times, but each time the ball was scooped back up by the pat returner...  A more deflated ball won't bounce so vigorously, thus making it easier to pick back up if you were the fumbler...

 

I did find it interesting, and frustrating during that Ravens game how each fumble was recovered right away by the patriots...  A deflated ball would lend credence to the reason why...

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