Peter King: Footballs were tampered with by human

SaCaCh said:

I think this is much more a case of Occam's Razor. The simplest answer is probably true.

No one really gives much thought to any of this, they spend .001 percent of their time worrying about the football and not think about them again...

Why are we assuming the balls are inflated before the game. they may just inflate them once when they first open them and then use them in practice for days or even weeks ahead of the game and never check them again as long as the "feel" right. Our balls may be left in an outside facility as opposed to the Colts traveling and their footballs always staying inside. This has always been a very loosely policed thing that only came to light due to bitterness and now the league is seeing that because of that there isn't the ability to make an actual cut and dry case. They don't want to make a ruling that they know will be reduced again because of their over reaction. Kraft was willing to fall on the sword the first time, he obviously has decided he won't again.

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this is pretty much what I said at the beginning. The pats hand the balls off to the refs underinflated. The refs did not check them with a gauge. They probably don't usually bother to. Irsay made this an issue. It never mattered until he said it mattered. The NFL has to investigate because an owner complained about tampering. Irsay leaked this to the media to pressure the NFL into action.

The Brandon Five said:

Incorrect. You need to use absolute pressure, not gauge pressure. Add 14.7 to the two measurements.

14.7 psi (atm) + 12.5 psi (gauge pre-game) = 27.2 psi
14.7 psi (atm) + 11 psi (gauge half-tine) = 25.8 psi

27.2/25.8 = 1.054....

You also need to use absolute temp
Temp outdoors = 7 deg C = 280 deg Kelvin

280 deg Kelvin * 1.054.... = 295 deg Kelvin = 22 deg C (72 deg F)

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Sorry, based on what I linked previously I'm pretty sure you're just over complicating it...

Galeb said:

I love the Big Bang Theory, but the sheer number of Occam's Razor and Schrodinger's Cat references that have been used since is getting tiring.

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Well I for one have never seen the show so I apologize.

Sticky Caulk said:

I think what he is saying is that the Pats balls were refilled after the first half and did not drop again. Which doesn't make sense either, but who knows. These guys have made so much **** up at this point.

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Assuming this is true there are still variables in play. Hypothetically lets say the Pats balls were filled in a 75 degree room and tested, then checked on the sideline at the 1/2 and found to be below the psi threshhold, then refilled on the sideline and checked again after the game. This would explain the lack of a pressure drop between 1/2 time and games end, no?

Actually, come to think of it, where they were filled shouldn't even matter. If the ball is full of 11 psi of cold air and you add 2 psi of warm air (assuming they were refilled inside) 11/13ths of the air in the ball was cool, and stayed that way.

As to why the Colts balls stayed the same I assume they brought them with them to the stadium, maybe on a bus in a storage area...... so when tested they may have contained cool air and continued to over the course of the game.....

Of course all of this is speculation, my basic point is there are more variables here than any of these nitwits can see.

SaCaCh said:

Well I for one have never seen the show so I apologize.

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No need to apologize, it's not a big deal. You've probably seen it here as Occam's razor has been used at least 3 times on this forum in 2015.

Here is the one question I have. If we are to believe the rumors, that the NFL was tipped of prior to the game (apparently by the Colts and Ravens) why would the NFL allow the Pats to possibly go through an entire half OF AN AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME knowing they were cheating? Can you imagine if in the first half Brady (with tampered balls) threw 4 tds and in the second half (with normal balls) threw 4 ints and the Pats won by 3 points. Then the NFL has just implicated themselves in knowingly allowing the Pats to cheat. Even the NFL front office are not that dumb. It makes no sense at all.

And to those who claim there were trying to catch the Pats in the act, then they could have easily checked the balls 10 minutes before game time and avoided getting themselves into a sticky situation. Whenever I go food shopping, I use a scan it machine. And probably 1 out of every 4 times and employee comes up at check out and scans a few items to make sure nothing was stolen or not scanned. Im pretty sure the NFL has the ability to take a pressure gauge onto the field and check 3 or 4 balls 10 minutes prior to game time.

Until the NFL comes out with their findings, I personally am treating everything I read as complete BS. And if the NFL did have prior knowledge of this then they should have a very detailed report of what the balls psi was prior to the game. If they felt there was a possibility of charging the Pats again with cheating, they would have left no stone unturned and covered their arses completely.

I do believe the Pats had under inflated balls. I just think they already under inflated when they gave them to the refs for inspection. And the refs just did not do there job in pre inspecting the balls. Much like Aaron Rodgers has claimed to have done in the past.

reflexblue said:

This is my initial suspici
Todays nfl is all about money letting the patriots be portrayed as the 'bad guys' and seattle the good it draws in the people who are less than casual fans. This story has been on news programs day and night, in the last few days its been a feature story on all the major and minor news outlets so Every One knows about the story. Its free pub,people that never watched or cared about football will tune in. this =$$$$$$$$$$$

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Great points! I guess there were many reporters present for Brady's question/answer session that aren't even sports reporters. Some woman from CNN actually asked Brady, "Tom, what would you tell the children?"

Which would be a classic CNN perspective! Tom should have replied, "Who cares about the children?"

IF IT IS TRUE, King's piece is pretty damning

You have the IND balls ok before and after.
You have the NE primary balls ok before and bad at halftime.
You have the NE backup balls ok before, at halftime, and after (I interpret the "all 24 balls" after the game to be IND primaries and NE backups since NE primaries were removed from game at halftime according to reports)

That means that even though NE primary and backups were each used for half the game, primaries deflated and backups didn't. Not good

And while I totally believe refs usually do squeeze test pregame instead of official protocol, if IND really did complain before game (let alone if Glazer's sting report is true), there's no way the league didn't instruct the refs to damn well follow official protocol for pregame testing.

PatriotsReign said:

Great points! I guess there were many reporters present for Brady's question/answer session that aren't even sports reporters. Some woman from CNN actually asked Brady, "Tom, what would you tell the children?"

Which would be a classic CNN perspective! Tom should have replied, "Who cares about the children?"

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Thats what RealWorld would say.

I love how Patriots haters think Peter King is a huge Pats' fan.

Without knowing the evidence, how can anyone ever know whether the balls were deflated by human hands.

Anyway you look at it, it just sucks. Its a distraction from the game, a smear of the whole franchise and we're stuck talking about this crap instead of just enjoying the two weeks leading up to the game. I wish the League would just step up and say something of substance.

IllegalContact said:

the poop keeps getting deeper.........listened to breer this morning on 98.5......he basically said that brady should get the benefit of the doubt and that this should all fall on BB because he's been in trouble before and that that in itself overrides the fact that head coaches almost don't get involved with game balls on game days.

this officially concludes 'deflate-gate' and now has become 'get-belichik-gate'

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It has been that from the start. Everyone wants to nail BB. Unfortunately, it's now turned in to nail TB12 for some people, too.

PlainOldEd said:

As to why the Colts balls stayed the same I assume they brought them with them to the stadium, maybe on a bus in a storage area...... so when tested they may have contained cool air and continued to over the course of the game.....

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Of course the Colts balls stayed the same. If you are going to make an accusation of someone or try and set them up so they look bad, wouldn't you do everything you possibly could to make sure YOU looked good?

It is plausible to say that in order to achieve a desired testing result, the Colts had control over the climate AND the testing conditions and it's timing.

I really think that there is major posturing going on between the Pats, Colts and NFL that we aren't being exposed to.

I believe that the Patriots are challenging the NFL to engage the Colts on the same full-cavity body search that the league wants to do to them....and the NFL is hesitating which is why TB might - or never get the phone call.

reflexblue said:

Thats what RealWorld would say.

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You have to admit, it was a foolish question irrelevant to the game of football and the issue at hand. Maybe "what about the fans?", but don't just toss in "children".

rlcarr said:

IF IT IS TRUE, King's piece is pretty damning

You have the IND balls ok before and after.
You have the NE primary balls ok before and bad at halftime.
You have the NE backup balls ok before, at halftime, and after (I interpret the "all 24 balls" after the game to be IND primaries and NE backups since NE primaries were removed from game at halftime according to reports)

That means that even though NE primary and backups were each used for half the game, primaries deflated and backups didn't. Not good

And while I totally believe refs usually do squeeze test pregame instead of official protocol, if IND really did complain before game (let alone if Glazer's sting report is true), there's no way the league didn't instruct the refs to damn well follow official protocol for pregame testing.

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So someone actively removed 2PSI air from the balls during the game in the 1st half with refs handling the ball all the time ?If the refs noticed it why did they wait till the half to change compromsing the integrity of the game ? I find it extremely hard to do. The fact that no one can make a difference between 10.5 and 12.5 , how did the nfl know to check it.?

The man doing the experimentation here states in the comments that the football rose back up to 12 psi after being left outside the fridge for about 10 minutes.





It appalls me that no one in the media has wanted to do some old fashioned fact finding and make a video of them doing something just like this.

These experiments could be tighten up and improved on, but the logistics of the testing would be extremely easy for them to accomplish.. to say nothing of the fact of how entertaining it might be. Well, for us Patriot fan, Myth Buster geeky types at least.

SVN said:

how did the nfl know to check it.?

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1) colts equipment manager tested the intercepted ball, found it low, told Pagano and Colts complained to ref, refs tested at halftime because they didn't want to have long play stoppage for testing. No need for sting scenario or refs intentionally letting first half go with bad balls.
2) Glazer's sting scenario.

rlcarr said:

1) colts equipment manager tested the intercepted ball, found it low, told Pagano and Colts complained to ref, refs tested at halftime because they didn't want to have long play stoppage for testing. No need for sting scenario or refs intentionally letting first half go with bad balls.
2) Glazer's sting scenario.

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Has anyone suggested the colts paid someone to deflate them? This isn't any crazier than any other of the theories i've read.

PatriotsReign said:

You have to admit, it was a foolish question irrelevant to the game of football and the issue at hand. Maybe "what about the fans?", but don't just toss in "children".

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Yeah, what about the fans is better. Or what about the fans children.

rlcarr said:

1) colts equipment manager tested the intercepted ball, found it low

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Which is pretty implausible from the get go. Pretty much everyone in non-rigged tests (looking at you ESPN for that) can't tell the difference.