2 doesnt seem relevant. The only thing relevant was the PSI before and during the games. The issue is how that was measured before and during the game.
Not so. Post-game air pressure readings might have helped exonerate the Patriots. They also would have highlighted the fact that the NFL, through its ignorance of ideal gas law, imposed an unfair competitive disadvantage on Brady and, by extension, the Patriots by forcing Brady to play with overly inflated footballs during the second half of the AFC championship game.
It’s a bit complicated, but I think this issue is important. The Exponent Report says that from a pre-game starting point of 12.5 PSI ideal gas law would predict—assuming Exponent’s game-time environmental assumptions are correct—that the air pressure in the Patriots’ footballs should have measured between 11.32 and 11.52 PSI at the end of the first half, when the temperature was 48F. The higher pressure figure assumes a starting temperature in the Referees shower area of 67F, while the lower pressure number assumes a starting temperature of 71F. For the sake of simplicity, let’s split the difference and assume that according to Exponent the Patriots’ footballs should have had an average air pressure of 11.42 PSI at the end of the first half.
After the Patriots’ footballs were tested at half-time and found to be inadequately inflated, senior officiating supervisor Alberto Riveron instructed the officials to inflate the Patriots’ footballs to 13.0 PSI. Ideal gas law would predict that the air pressure in the footballs would rise after being warmed up in the Referees locker room at half-time. In keeping with this law, Exponent’s experiment indicates that the average air pressure of the Patriots’ wet footballs should have increased by approximately 0.3 PSI and their dry footballs should have increased by approximately 0.5 PSI during the first 8 minutes they were in the Referees room. Again, for the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that Exponent is saying that, on average, the air pressure in the Patriots’ footballs should have risen by 0.4 PSI during the first 8 minutes they were in the Referees room.
With this information we can determine that (1) if Exponent’s environmental assumptions are correct and (2) if the Patriots’ footballs were, on average, inflated 8 minutes after being brought into the Referees locker room at half-time, the air inside the Patriots’ footballs should have had an average temperature of approximately 58.15F when they were inflated to 13.0 PSI. And with this information, we can determine what the internal air pressure of the footballs should be at other temperatures.
The Exponent Report says that the NFL checked the air pressure of the Patriots’ and Colts’ footballs “shortly” after the game, but, somewhat suspiciously, does not say what those readings were. If by “shortly” it means a few minutes after the game, then one would expect the air pressure in the Patriots footballs to be around or slightly below 13.0 psi. However, if they had allowed the footballs to dry out and warm up in the Referees room for a couple of hours to get the Patriots’ footballs as near as possible to their pre-game state and then taken air pressure readings, the readings might have been very revealing. If Exponent’s environmental assumptions are correct or inaccurately slanted in favor of the Patriots and the assumption about the timing of the half-time testing made above are correct, one would expect that the average air pressure of the footballs to be close to or below 13.83 PSI at 72.5F (the average temperature of the Referees locker room). If, on the other hand, Exponent’s environmental assumptions were inaccurately slanted
against the Patriots, then one would expect, given the above timing assumption, that the average air pressure in the footballs would be greater than this. Of course, one can alter the assumption about when the footballs were inflated at half-time and see if the post-game air pressure falls above or below the level one would expect under Exponent’s environmental assumptions.
Since the Colts’ footballs were not touched, it also would have been interesting to see what the average air pressure in them were after their footballs warmed up under the same conditions as the Patriots’ footballs. If the post-game air pressure in their footballs were greater than 13.0 PSI, this would suggest that the air in their footballs was slightly cooler than the air in the Patriots’ footballs when they were tested pre-game. This would account for why the Colts’ footballs did not lose as much air pressure during the game as the Patriots’.
By not taking possession of the footballs and testing them later, the NFL allowed these potentially extremely valuable pieces of information to disappear.
