One factor that NO ONE ever seems to mention

[Gumby]

simple honest to goodness mechanical failure!

The patriots footballs were, per org's own accounts, run through industrial washers and dryers and the rubbed with other material.

Subsequent to that they were put in play and 250-350 lb men fell on them and beat the heck out of them.

How unreasonable is it to suggest that SOME of the variance didn't come from SLOW leakage out the valves during that play as a long-term result of the previous preparation.

The UNACCOUNTED FOR variances are so small (.1-.4, psi) and only in a few balls, that this could easily explain it.

BUT OF COURSE, NFL is not looking for explanations, but a means to justify their idiotic initial rush to judgement (because they had no clue about gas law)

 

[eom]

you really don't need to explain discrepancies of that magnitude.
we're talking about a tenth of a pound here or there --- supposedly, colts said they want their balls at 13, but anywhere from 12.9 to 13.05 is acceptable, and these old guys are measuring stuff with 2 gauges that read a half pound apart.
it's like measuring a grain of sand with a ruler.

the facts of this case are that the entire league might be cheating on any given week depending on which gauge some guy grabs out of his bag.

edit: and according to the texts one ref pumped an extra 4 pounds into a game ball in a jets game and didn't even notice.
the pats were cheating that day, too, but with a ball 3 pounds over.