Another note (and again, forgive me if this has already been noted), but one thing I haven't heard mentioned in the media, is that footballs are made of leather, and leather, like wood, expands when it gets moist, or wet, and contracts when it dries. Some Indian tribes used to spread-eagle their prisoners with wet rawhide tied to stakes and let the drying rawhide pull their limbs off. So it is a well known fact. And of course, the ball will be dry before the game, indoors where the relative humidity is low, and when it brought out and used in wet (very wet) weather conditions it will relax. This will allow the air inside to expand (as the contained volume grows) and this will contribute to pressure drop. BB alluded to this effect when he noted that the balls lost 1.5 psi, and then returned relatively quickly to nearer to what they started at, but not quite - because it takes a long time for the leather to dry out. A day at least, I would guess ...
So, the wetting of the leather, and the drop in internal pressure due to the colder temperatures on the field, and even changes in bar0metric pressure between the time when the balls were checked by the officials and half-time, all could have contributed to the observed change in pressure, as could have differences in the instruments used to measure the pressure (was the same pressure gauge used for both measurements? Was it the same one used for measuring the Colts balls? Did the same official do the measuring in both cases? And finally, were the Colts balls also checked at halftime, or were only the Patriots balls checked because the Colts asked the officials to do so?) All of these questions will hopefully be answered, in time, when the league releases the results of their investigation. But at this point I see no reason to think that the Patriots did anything illegal.
SharksOfVegas
