[Wk 11 vs Oak Practice News]: Malcom Brown back at practice! Branch limited

[mitsudriver]

My bad. You are correct. The gauge pressure remains the same as long as the elevation (atmospheric pressure, to be exact) doesn't change - and the temperature of the air inside the ball doesn't change.

If you filled a football to 13 psig at Gillette and then transported it to Azteca Stadium, the same gauge would measure the football pressure at about 16.5 psi - and vice versa.

Oh great! They'll inflate the balls to 12.5 psi at Azteca Stadium then they'll have the Raiders suspect that the balls were under inflated. Confiscate them. Conveniently have to take them back to NY for testing. Find them very under inflated at their super secret scientific NY lab. Dock the Patriots their next 3 first round picks, fine them $1 billion dollars, and bar Belichick and Brady from the league.

 

[Tony2046]

Oh great! They'll inflate the balls to 12.5 psi at Azteca Stadium then they'll have the Raiders suspect that the balls were under inflated. Confiscate them. Conveniently have to take them back to NY for testing. Find them very under inflated at their super secret scientific NY lab. Dock the Patriots their next 3 first round picks, fine them $1 billion dollars, and bar Belichick and Brady from the league.

Funnier would be if the game temp was close to 0 and the N.Y. office temp was in the 70's they would conclude no one tampered with the balls for all the wrong reasons.

 

[maineman209]

A football inflated to 12.5 psi at 7000 feet will feel the same as a football inflated to 12.5 psi at sea level. Now if they inflated the footballs in Foxboro and unpacked them in Mexico City we will all have to suffer through Inflategate.

Edit: That could be humorously interesting. All the Sharp Analysis and media pundits would have to dismiss all their deflategate reasoning to prove the competitive advantage received from over inflation.

Imagine how confused they'd been if the footballs were inflated in Foxboro at 35f and then brought out for the game in Mexico city at 75f.

 

[Tony2046]

Imagine how confused they'd been if the footballs were inflated in Foxboro at 35f and then brought out for the game in Mexico city at 75f.

18Psi !?! Who inflated these...Aaron Rodgers?

 

[AtomicDawg]

Seems like Branch will be all systems go.



So Uncle Phil is ready to throw some people around.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

Elevations and available oxygen (relative to sea level):

Azteca Stadium = 7280ft = 78% of sea level
Falcon Stadium = 6621ft = 79%
Mile High Stadium = 5280ft = 83%
Gillette Stadium = 289ft = 99%
Oakland Coliseum = -21ft (playing field is 21 feet below sea level) = 100%

----------
So, after 8 days at higher elevations and lower air pressure (almost 3.5 psi lower than at sea level), Ryan Allen should have a much better feel for how the ball actually behaves on punts than Marquette King might.

That's very helpful.

My understanding of the energy-sapping effect of the altitude is very simply that you are indeed taking in about 20% less O2 and yet your body is not compensating by breathing more deeply or more often, since that is an involuntary reflex. Lower blood O2 = lower O2 reserves in muscles = less endurance. Over years (and even to a smaller but significant extent, over days and weeks) your body adapts by indeed increasing your breathing rate or median lung capacity. If you are born at altitude, you have increased lung surface area (more capillaries & alveoli), but that isn't adaptable.

When I go skiing in Colorado I normally get headaches after a day or two (low oxygen causes headaches). If I stay a few more days, the headaches always subside.

Having 8 days to adapt should allow some of these physiological adaptations to occur for our guys. Not to the level of a native or even a long-term high-altitude resident, but at least better than it would be going to altitude the day before.

 

[Ring 6]

Funnier would be if the game temp was close to 0 and the N.Y. office temp was in the 70's they would conclude no one tampered with the balls for all the wrong reasons.

They wouldn’t do that. They understand science they just ignored it because if they didn’t it would have exonerated the patriots.

 

[Tony2046]

They wouldn’t do that. They understand science they just ignored it because if they didn’t it would have exonerated the patriots.

I disagree. Kessler: "Did you know about the IGL? Wells: "No we didn't"

 

[AtomicDawg]

This is awesome.

 

[Ring 6]

I disagree. Kessler: "Did you know about the IGL? Wells: "No we didn't"

You assume he would tell the truth.

 

[Joker]

I interviewed Wells yesterday..

Joker: "Have you been seen in public doing anything since Dehategate?"

Wells: "uh..wait a sec...the connection is lousy here in Papeete...OK, uh yes...I've been doing a little lagoon fishing and swimming with the native girls...sunset sailing...um...learning to island dance. I do check in with my account executive at Chase every day to make sure my millions are being properly managed...oh yeah, almost forgot...I'm sending out Christmas cards made of coconut fiber to all 31 owners in the NFL. Great guys...and extremely generous..."

 

[Mike the Brit]

That's very helpful.

My understanding of the energy-sapping effect of the altitude is very simply that you are indeed taking in about 20% less O2 and yet your body is not compensating by breathing more deeply or more often, since that is an involuntary reflex. Lower blood O2 = lower O2 reserves in muscles = less endurance. Over years (and even to a smaller but significant extent, over days and weeks) your body adapts by indeed increasing your breathing rate or median lung capacity. If you are born at altitude, you have increased lung surface area (more capillaries & alveoli), but that isn't adaptable.

When I go skiing in Colorado I normally get headaches after a day or two (low oxygen causes headaches). If I stay a few more days, the headaches always subside.

Having 8 days to adapt should allow some of these physiological adaptations to occur for our guys. Not to the level of a native or even a long-term high-altitude resident, but at least better than it would be going to altitude the day before.

I'm pretty sure that oxygen is only a part of it. Your body does compensate -- you up your pulse rate and heart rate and breathe more frequently -- and, of course, they have oxygen masks available. (Googling, I ran across an interesting claim that the haemoglobin saturation curve is shaped so that there isn't much drop-off in blood-oxygen levels below about 2300 meters.)

Hydration is very important too (Mayo and Gronk both mentioned being very dry in the mouth, which is actually quite an extreme sign). One reason is just that the air at altitude is drier, so you lose more moisture in exhalation.

But a doctor friend says that there is more to it than that. According to her, the altitude has a diuretic effect. That seems right from my experience (it explains why long air travel is dehydrating, however much water you chug).

And (also my experience) sleep is affected. I sleep much more lightly and fitfully at altitude.

 

[Tony2046]

This is awesome.

 

[Dorito Dink]

This is awesome.

That falcon would never blow a 28-3 lead

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

This is awesome.

Yarak!

 

[Tony2046]

You assume he would tell the truth.

Good point.

 

[Mack Herron]

 

[captain stone]

Better illness than injury I suppose.

 

[patfanken]

Glad Brown is back. We were fast running out of our usual supply of Malcolms.

 

[Wheelman]

Do we think this is Altitude sickness?