elandadem
Practice Squad Player
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2007
- Messages
- 222
- Reaction score
- 2
Thursday, Bill Belichick stepped up to the podium and said the pressure to which the Patriot’s footballs are inflated has never been a concern of his and they should ask Tom Brady. Outside of New England Patriots fans, no one believed him.
Later on Thursday, Tom Brady stepped up to the same podium and said that he likes his footballs a certain way, they are the way he likes when he hands the balls back to the Patriot’s equipment managers and that is the way he expects them to be, and that is the way they are, when he goes out onto the field. Outside of New England Patriots fans, no one believed him.
Full Disclosure, I am a New England Patriots fan. Naturally, I believe that Tom Brady was absolutely telling the truth; which is why he’s been bewildered. I believe that Belichick believes he was telling the truth, but that he wasn’t being completely forthcoming. And here’s why you should believe it too.
Here’s what I think happened:
Several years ago, perhaps by chance, Tom Brady used a football that was underinflated. Perhaps the Patriots’ equipment management staff was trying to determine what his preferred inflation rate was, or perhaps it was merely underinflated in a practice or game. The where and when is irrelevant. Tom Brady told the equipment manager, or a member of his staff, that was how he wanted all of his game balls inflated. The equipment manager tested the ball and determined that it was inflated to 11.5 PSI (or 10.5 PSI, again the actual measurement is irrelevant). The equipment manager knew he had a problem – Tom Brady wanted his footballs inflated to a level below league specifications.
The equipment manager took his problem to Bill Belichick. Belichick, channeling his best Patrick Stewart, merely told the equipment manager to “make it so.” So he did, the Patriot Way.
The equipment manager, channeling his best Belichick, unpacked the rule and determined that the rule only specified the range of acceptable pressures and deemed any tampering after the balls had been inspected and released by the certifying official to be in violation. The equipment manager knew he was halfway to the answer – he needed to get the footballs to lose enough air pressure, entirely on their own without human intervention (i.e. tampering), so that they would be inflated to the air pressure Tom Brady wanted at the start of the game, and not lose any more pressure. To answer the second half of the question, he does what any self-respecting New Englander would do, he called a physicist at MIT.
The MIT physicist told the equipment manager to take several balls inflated to the Tom Brady Preferred Pressure (TBPP) in the same temperature and atmospheric conditions as were expected for game time into an environment with high temperature and humidity (i.e. a sauna). The footballs were to be left in this environment until they reached a pressure state that was within (preferably on the high end, in case the footballs cooled off too much before being tested) the acceptable pressure range. The equipment manager did this over and over, compiling a table of environmental variables, allowing him to be able to have footballs prepared in any number of weather conditions. On Sunday, the Patriots (including the equipment manager) went through their game preparations the way the always do – including a pregame sauna for the balls.
When Tom Brady announced that he didn’t know that the balls he was using were underinflated, he wasn’t lying because he didn’t know to what pressure they were inflated. All he knew was that they were inflated to the TBPP, as always, and they have always been approved by the referees without question or comment before.
When Bill Belichick said he wasn’t interested in football pressure, he wasn’t lying. The conversation with the equipment manager may have taken place in 2001 and was so insignificant then that he simply doesn’t remember it at all.
The equipment manager found a way to deliver footballs to Tom Brady at the TBPP, that did not violate the letter of the rule – because no one tampered with the balls once they were approved by the officials. Patriots’ fans, like myself, will say case closed; it is what it is – no violation. Patriot haters will say that, if not a technical violation, giving the footballs a sauna violates the spirit of the rule – so the harshest sanctions conceivable are in order.
The NFL is in a bind. Roger Goodell, who is also an attorney, will recognize that the Patriots have taken advantage of a technicality, as they often do. But his lawyer’s mind will have a hard time justifying a punishment when a poorly written rule was not broken. The general public will not be able to draw the distinction and he knows this. How he resolves this dilemma might be readily apparent on the field of play in Glendale.
NB: I am not accusing the Patriots equipment manager of anything untoward, illegal, or unethical. In my scenario, he solved a problem, within the confines of the rules, and should be commended.
http://nesn.com/2015/01/patriots-deflategate-controversy-could-be-explained-by-scientific-theory/
Later on Thursday, Tom Brady stepped up to the same podium and said that he likes his footballs a certain way, they are the way he likes when he hands the balls back to the Patriot’s equipment managers and that is the way he expects them to be, and that is the way they are, when he goes out onto the field. Outside of New England Patriots fans, no one believed him.
Full Disclosure, I am a New England Patriots fan. Naturally, I believe that Tom Brady was absolutely telling the truth; which is why he’s been bewildered. I believe that Belichick believes he was telling the truth, but that he wasn’t being completely forthcoming. And here’s why you should believe it too.
Here’s what I think happened:
Several years ago, perhaps by chance, Tom Brady used a football that was underinflated. Perhaps the Patriots’ equipment management staff was trying to determine what his preferred inflation rate was, or perhaps it was merely underinflated in a practice or game. The where and when is irrelevant. Tom Brady told the equipment manager, or a member of his staff, that was how he wanted all of his game balls inflated. The equipment manager tested the ball and determined that it was inflated to 11.5 PSI (or 10.5 PSI, again the actual measurement is irrelevant). The equipment manager knew he had a problem – Tom Brady wanted his footballs inflated to a level below league specifications.
The equipment manager took his problem to Bill Belichick. Belichick, channeling his best Patrick Stewart, merely told the equipment manager to “make it so.” So he did, the Patriot Way.
The equipment manager, channeling his best Belichick, unpacked the rule and determined that the rule only specified the range of acceptable pressures and deemed any tampering after the balls had been inspected and released by the certifying official to be in violation. The equipment manager knew he was halfway to the answer – he needed to get the footballs to lose enough air pressure, entirely on their own without human intervention (i.e. tampering), so that they would be inflated to the air pressure Tom Brady wanted at the start of the game, and not lose any more pressure. To answer the second half of the question, he does what any self-respecting New Englander would do, he called a physicist at MIT.
The MIT physicist told the equipment manager to take several balls inflated to the Tom Brady Preferred Pressure (TBPP) in the same temperature and atmospheric conditions as were expected for game time into an environment with high temperature and humidity (i.e. a sauna). The footballs were to be left in this environment until they reached a pressure state that was within (preferably on the high end, in case the footballs cooled off too much before being tested) the acceptable pressure range. The equipment manager did this over and over, compiling a table of environmental variables, allowing him to be able to have footballs prepared in any number of weather conditions. On Sunday, the Patriots (including the equipment manager) went through their game preparations the way the always do – including a pregame sauna for the balls.
When Tom Brady announced that he didn’t know that the balls he was using were underinflated, he wasn’t lying because he didn’t know to what pressure they were inflated. All he knew was that they were inflated to the TBPP, as always, and they have always been approved by the referees without question or comment before.
When Bill Belichick said he wasn’t interested in football pressure, he wasn’t lying. The conversation with the equipment manager may have taken place in 2001 and was so insignificant then that he simply doesn’t remember it at all.
The equipment manager found a way to deliver footballs to Tom Brady at the TBPP, that did not violate the letter of the rule – because no one tampered with the balls once they were approved by the officials. Patriots’ fans, like myself, will say case closed; it is what it is – no violation. Patriot haters will say that, if not a technical violation, giving the footballs a sauna violates the spirit of the rule – so the harshest sanctions conceivable are in order.
The NFL is in a bind. Roger Goodell, who is also an attorney, will recognize that the Patriots have taken advantage of a technicality, as they often do. But his lawyer’s mind will have a hard time justifying a punishment when a poorly written rule was not broken. The general public will not be able to draw the distinction and he knows this. How he resolves this dilemma might be readily apparent on the field of play in Glendale.
NB: I am not accusing the Patriots equipment manager of anything untoward, illegal, or unethical. In my scenario, he solved a problem, within the confines of the rules, and should be commended.
http://nesn.com/2015/01/patriots-deflategate-controversy-could-be-explained-by-scientific-theory/
