Crimson Red Sports

The NFL found the New England Patriots used deflated footballs during the AFC Championship, according to a report from  Chris Mortensen of ESPN. According to the report, the league sources say the NFL determined 11 footballs used by the Patriots were under-inflated by two pounds each. Per NFL rules, footballs are required to be inflated between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch.

So, the Colts' players couldn't tackle because the balls weren't inflated?

(https://espngrantland.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/patsrun2.gif)

Exactly. And how would this benefit the Pats since the used the same footballs?


 ???

Sources told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter on Wednesday that the Colts had concerns about underinflated balls after their regular-season game against the visiting Patriots on Nov. 16.

During that game, Indianapolis' Mike Adams twice intercepted Tom Brady and gave the balls to the Colts equipment manager to save -- and both times there were concerns about the balls feeling underinflated, sources told Schefter.

"The same thing win, that always won... and we just have a different bunch of excuses if we lose"

"The same thing win, that always won... and we just have a different bunch of excuses if we lose"

Maybe if they had firmer, tougher balls they would have tackled better.



 :eyeroll:











 :angel:

I'm guessing the balls were inflated in a warm room and lost pressure in the cold outside.  The rules appear to allow inflation when warm.

Problem with the cold weather theory, though, is that it was 51 degrees in Foxborough that day, so it wasn't like it was 25-30. For me, this is just another example of the Patriots doing whatever they can to get an edge.

The ref's touch the ball between every play. Were they in on it too?

A big to do about nothing. This will blow over as soon as both teams show up in Glendale and the media circus begins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd3D2gsPUR0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd3D2gsPUR0

I thought I heard the announcers say it was 20 degrees.


 ???

I thought I heard the announcers say it was 20 degrees.


 ???

I don't think Saban and Belichik are really anything alike, other than being very driven. Living up here, we get mostly NFL coverage, so I get to see a lot about all the teams up here on the east coast, especially when it is a team that Ravens fans hate. Belichik is not nearly as warm a person as CNS, and is even most hostile with the media than CNS. He also has this aura of "win at all costs" that I just don't see in CNS.

Of course, I could be biased because I HATE the Pats and Belichik.  >:( >:(

Dear Sir,

As a physicist, and having listened to Belichick's press conference earlier today, I can tell that what he said made a lot of sense from a scientist's point of view.
When the football is rubbed and squeezed, work is being done on the ball, and it will get hotter.  If you want, describe the heating as due to friction.  When the rubbing stops, the ball will cool back to the environmental temperature.  The time constant for cooling depends basically on the materials used in the ball, but pigskin is likely a very poor thermal conductor, which would mean longer times, other things being equal.
The air inside the ball, only a few grams in weight, will equilibrate with the walls of the football quite rapidly — seconds.
If the ball is still warmer than the environment when given to the referees, then they will be deflating the ball back to the requested 12.5 psi. By the way, just inflating the ball with a pump adds some heat to it. That is because the air is squeezed until the pressure in the pump is higher than the pressure in the ball before the air goes into the ball. The squeezing heats the air, quite a bit, but the air doesn't have a lot of mass.
So, now when the ball equilibrates with the environment, by cooling, the pressure will decrease, according to the Ideal Gas Law, particularly if the environment is significantly less warm than the environment where the ball was inflated and then checked by the referees. Obviously, it was a lot colder on the football field, and got even colder later in the evening.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-patriots-balls-could-deflate-2015-1#ixzz3Px7GCvVy

pigskin is likely a very poor thermal conductor