PatSunday
Third String But Playing on Special Teams
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2007
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Alaska Times back in 2002 sent out a reporter to record the procedure the referees go through in a Division 3 college football game. It may be old, but hopefully this shows what happens.
"Are any of the footballs properly inflated?" - one official asks, incredulously.
"This one's about 12.5, close enough" -- answers the referee holding a $10 ball gauge.
Notes from the video:
1) Very common to have under-inflated balls. The referees had a sink of 6+ balls to pump up. That's just for round 1!
2) Over-inflated balls are present, too. The video shows the referee releases a LOT of air out of one of the balls multiple times to get it down.
3) Close enough? Good enough. That's the lesson.
4) The equipment is a $10 gauge with markings for soccer, football, volleyball, with little guarantee of reliability or margin of error. Could be off by 1-2 PSI if the sticker with the markings is attached or printed off-alignment. These are generic $10 devices on Amazon, probably $5 each when bought by the league.
5) There is probably no process for calibrating the device when it's new or every year.
6) No sports league, amateur or professional, of any sport has ever fined a team or reversed a win due to a small (or large) reduction in ball pressure. Especially if the referees approved the balls, but even in other cases. If I'm wrong, I'd like to know.
What is the NFL process?
Based on the media's reports and the long investigation, we know that ANY discrepancy is suspicious and likely due to tampering. THE NFL IS NOT A RANDOM SPORTS LEAGUE. If there's smoke, there's fire...
Before we send this to ESPN and Sports Illustrated, I made up the first sentence.
This video is by MMQB from Sports Illustrated, not Alaska Times.
This video is from Nov 2013, 13 months ago, not 13 years ago.
This video is from an NFL Chicago Bears game, not a college game.
http://mmqb.si.com/2015/01/22/deflategate-video-how-nfl-officials-check-game-ball-pressure/
"Are any of the footballs properly inflated?" - one official asks, incredulously.
"This one's about 12.5, close enough" -- answers the referee holding a $10 ball gauge.
Notes from the video:
1) Very common to have under-inflated balls. The referees had a sink of 6+ balls to pump up. That's just for round 1!
2) Over-inflated balls are present, too. The video shows the referee releases a LOT of air out of one of the balls multiple times to get it down.
3) Close enough? Good enough. That's the lesson.
4) The equipment is a $10 gauge with markings for soccer, football, volleyball, with little guarantee of reliability or margin of error. Could be off by 1-2 PSI if the sticker with the markings is attached or printed off-alignment. These are generic $10 devices on Amazon, probably $5 each when bought by the league.
5) There is probably no process for calibrating the device when it's new or every year.
6) No sports league, amateur or professional, of any sport has ever fined a team or reversed a win due to a small (or large) reduction in ball pressure. Especially if the referees approved the balls, but even in other cases. If I'm wrong, I'd like to know.
What is the NFL process?
Based on the media's reports and the long investigation, we know that ANY discrepancy is suspicious and likely due to tampering. THE NFL IS NOT A RANDOM SPORTS LEAGUE. If there's smoke, there's fire...
Before we send this to ESPN and Sports Illustrated, I made up the first sentence.
This video is by MMQB from Sports Illustrated, not Alaska Times.
This video is from Nov 2013, 13 months ago, not 13 years ago.
This video is from an NFL Chicago Bears game, not a college game.
http://mmqb.si.com/2015/01/22/deflategate-video-how-nfl-officials-check-game-ball-pressure/
