PSI this weekend

[ivanvamp]

If anyone feels like doing a test that would be great, I understand the IGL but I would be curious how it actually occurs in real life (as opposed to paper) with the ball being not just a piece of leather but also with the inner bladder. I'm not an IDL doubter in any way but if would be useful to have real numbers. I live in CA so I don't have the appropriate temperature fluctuations that you guys do.

I haven't done a test with a real football, but I live in New England and I have two stories to share.

Story #1. I set the pressure in my truck tires at around 38 psi. When the weather gets really cold, I'll get a light that goes on and a long annoying sound that tells me that my air pressure in my tires is too low. I'll look at it and discover that the pressure is below 30 psi. How does that happen? Obviously the cold weather decreases the pressure in the tires. The same principle obviously holds true for footballs.

Story #2. The other day my son was leaving his dorm room with his friend to play intramural football. The friend hates the Patriots and Tom Brady and thinks they're all a bunch of cheaters. They took the 15 minute walk from their 75 degree dorm room to the 35 degree football field and when they started throwing the ball around, this friend said, "What happened to the ball? I pumped it up all the way back in the room." To which my son, an avid Pats' fan, simply said, "It's amazing what happens to the air pressure in a football when it's cold outside." Zing.

We've all experience the same thing leaving a basketball in a cold gym or cold garage or cold car. It gets flat. It always happens. Always. Why? Because it's a law of physics. We all - anyone who's ever lived in a cold weather environment - have experienced these things. That's why it's just beyond my ability to understand how nobody said right from the beginning that of COURSE the pressure in the footballs will be lower!

 

[chasa]

anyone expecting the league to be gentlemen and do the right thing, are out of their god damned minds.

nothing will be done.

 

[SVN]

Why doesnt NBC/Fox do their own unofficial test on the sideline.? Costas and co who talked so much BS can do that see what happens .

 

[upstater1]

What I'd love to see happen: the NFL attempts to compensate for the pressure drop by overinflating the balls inside to 14.5 PSI. Then they go outside and take another reading and see the drop to the acceptable range within the first 10 minutes.

Now the teams have to contend with freezing cold slippery balls that are at around a proper inflation point or a little below, but since NFL teams are so used to playing with very deflated balls in freezing conditions, it throws off the entire game and we see nothing but bananas football and craziness.

 

[ivanvamp]

anyone expecting the league to be gentlemen and do the right thing, are out of their god damned minds.

nothing will be done.

Agreed. And that shows what a total, utter, complete sham this whole thing is.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Why doesnt NBC/Fox do their own unofficial test on the sideline.? Costas and co who talked so much BS can do that see what happens .

They won't.

 

[Armchair Quarterback]

According to the league, it was just the Panthers who were putting balls in front of heaters.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Sorry....should have added a ..

 

[oldrover]

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

 

[Big-T]

How about this from the Seattle Times:

Seahawks brace for cold, hard truths about football in freezing Minnesota

Check that, they bring up the ball!

 

[Silver Blue&Red]

I don't expect the NFL to release any PSI measurements since they know the answers will make them look bad. But what is stopping us fans from doing their own measurements during the Divisional round playoff game and posting them onto twitter, facebook, message boards? I believe that the exact model of meter was specified in the Wells report. So someone goes and buys that meter inflates a football to 12.5 in a bathroom and then observes the results throughout the game.

....or better yet, TB'S and the PA'S legal team perform the tests under an unbiased investigative crew. Filmed and documented. Bring that along to the appeal. But, I'm not holding my breath

 

[LightSkinSmurf]

At what point will EVERYONE just finally say, you know what, this whole thing is just a colossal dump truck full of crap?

There will be no point when this happens.

 

[Dr Pain]

How about this from the Seattle Times:

Seahawks brace for cold, hard truths about football in freezing Minnesota

Check that, they bring up the ball!

They have the math wrong.
See Martin Schmaltz' pressure calculator for an online calculator which is accurate. 13.5PSI at 68 equates to 9.87PSI at 0.

If the balls starts at 12.5 they would be 8.99

 

[BradyFTW!]

I'm still convinced that the NFL will do one of two things. Either:

1) They release a bunch of measurements during offseason in which all of the balls are in legal range during every month of the year. In order to arrive at this, they measure balls only on sufficiently warm days.
2) They do what they did last time, and don't account for how long the balls have been indoors. Measure them on a cold day, Bring them inside for 10 minutes, then once they've been in for long enough they'll measure them then and use that as 'proof' that the Pats cheated.

I think 2 is the way they'll go. Lying by omission, misrepresenting facts, and creating misleading numbers seems to be their specialty.

 

[turkeyneck]

I think 2 is the way they'll go. Lying by omission, misrepresenting facts, and creating misleading numbers seems to be their specialty.

They will avoid saying anything for as long as they can get away with it. Their fallback position, if they must address the matter at all, will be as you say.

 

[TB_Helmet]

If anyone feels like doing a test that would be great, I understand the IGL but I would be curious how it actually occurs in real life (as opposed to paper) with the ball being not just a piece of leather but also with the inner bladder. I'm not an IDL doubter in any way but if would be useful to have real numbers. I live in CA so I don't have the appropriate temperature fluctuations that you guys do.

Just put the football in your fridge and let it sit there for a while.

 

[raduray]

One advantage of Brady suing the NFL for defamation is that the NFL's measurements (or lack thereof) would be revealed during the discovery process.

 

[MitchKumstein]

According to the league, it was just the Panthers who were putting balls in front of heaters.

Yup, the Panthers were caught red-handed tampering with footballs during a game. And yet Cam Newton is the one taking shots at Tom Brady:

 

[DaBruinz]

They have the math wrong.
See Martin Schmaltz' pressure calculator for an online calculator which is accurate. 13.5PSI at 68 equates to 9.87PSI at 0.

If the balls starts at 12.5 they would be 8.99

That's not surprising.. Their claim that people only lose 10% of their body head through their head is false also.. Body heat leaves through the areas that aren't covered. If the players weren't wearing helmets or putting on caps after taking them helmets off, they'd be losing as much as 80% of their body heat that way..

 

[RhodyPatriot]

Will have cold weather games all playoffs. THE MEDIA should be doing PSI checks on footballs.
There is NOTHING stopping the national Manning media (except fear of the truth) or even the local mediots from bringing footballs to Gillette next Saturday (that will be a more comparable weather situation to past years Colt game that zero degrees in Minny this Sunday), record the PSI indoors and then take them outdoors, pick them up and handle them/toss them around every so often and at halftime bring them back inside, let them sit for a few minutes and then check the PSI.
Really surprised this hasn't been done yet.