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Another 'DeflateGate' theory. Weather/temperature?
Just spitballin' here.
Every tine we have a cold snap I can be sure that the 'low tire pressure' light will come on when I start my '08 Prius.
Looks kinda like this (!)
Cold causes things to contract, including the air in your tires.
As it would the air in a football.
Is the air pressure checked indoors?
Or out on the field after the balls have cooled down?
Just a thought.
51 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
How much below 59 deg. (if we accept that figure) did evaporation cool the balls further?
BTW, this story just lead on CBS Evening News.
...as it is the difference between ambient temperature and the temperature and elevation/pressure at which the balls were inflated. If the other balls were inflated to pressure at nearly the same temperature as ambient during the game, they wouldn't change much. If the Patriots' balls were inflated at significantly higher temperature (and/or higher elevation) then that difference would result in greater pressure loss. For example:
That said, I don't give a rat's buttocks about football. My balls shrink when it's cold, too.
I think He done it because He wanted the Pats to win.
They are The Chosen Ones.
That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.
Last edited Sat Jan 24, 2015, 12:46 AM - Edit history (1)
"If we use an indoor temperature of 80º, we would get a final pressure of 11.0 (10.99) psi. Using a 90º indoor temperature, we get a final pressure of 10.5 psi.
"So, according to NFL reports, either the indoor temperature when the footballs were inflated was around 90ºF, or something else happened after the footballs were inspected."
We are told that quarterbacks are allowed to "condition" and "warm-up" the game balls in many ways, including sanding, scuffing, soaking in water, and that the 12 balls supplied by each team for their use on offense, and the 12 reserve balls supplied by the home team for use by either side, are inspected by the referees 2 hours before kick-off, and held by them until kick-off.
And that 1 of the 11 under-inflated balls was at 10.5# PSI with the other 10 at ??? amount under-inflated.
And that before the end of the first half the Patriots were using the Colt's (or reserve?) balls because the Patriot's balls were not usable.
And that the Patriots were statistical outliers with far fewer fumbles/play than any other team.
And that Brady not only fought to change the rule to allow visiting teams to play with their own balls, but is on record as preferring under-inflated balls, and to extensive interaction with the ball boys, whom he states he congratulates before every game, and who know how he likes his balls.
So, it seems within the realm of possibility that, if a ball conditioning procedure had been adopted by the Patriots which included literally warming up their balls before being presented for inspection 2 hours before kickoff, perhaps to 90-98 degrees (skin temperature and not noticeably hot) (and perhaps even heating for a prolonged period to a higher temperature so as to thoroughly warm the internal air, followed by cooling the surface to skin temperature 98 degrees before inspection 2 hours prior to kickoff) that such a procedure could have resulted in passing inspection at 2 hours before kickoff at 12.5 PSI, and a slightly lower pressure during most games without resorting to needle decompression.
And that perhaps by miscalculation on a cool game day, or some other irregularity in the procedure, on this particular game day in the 50's, there existed the required 40 degree drop in temperature to account for at least 1 ball dropping to 10.5 PSI, even as the Colts balls, not being "conditioned" and literally warmed up in the same fashion, would not have had the same drop in pressure.
Since a procedure such as this would not involve "tampering" with the ball after inspection, one could imaging that Patriot personnel could rationalize such a "conditioning"/warm-up procedure as a legal conditioning/warm-up procedure not violating the "tampering" rule, which apparently is written to specify tampering after inspection, and might claim no knowledge of Gay-Lussac's law, and deny any knowledge of an effect on pressure of such a protocol.
This certainly may not be what happened, but it does offer a possible scenario that fits with many of the known facts, including Brady's preference for lower pressure balls and Belichick's long history of pushing rules to the margins.
The results of the investigation might be interesting.
... normal locker-room temperature would appear to cause less than 1 PSI drop by the time they equilibrated to outside temperature, perhaps none if the balls were outside for a period before inspection.
But if the balls were "conditioned/warmed-up" so that internal air temperature was in the 90's, then inspected 2 hours before the game before they cooled down, there could be enough drop in pressure by the time it equilibrated to 51 degrees to drop pressure from 12.5 to 10.5 PSI by the calculations in the OP's article.
We don't know what the pressures were for the 10 balls, other than that they were under 12.5 PSI, though not as low as the one at 10.5.
See a possible ball "conditioning" protocol that could perhaps give such numbers in Reply #25.
Some have said "2 #s".
Others, including this,
http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/1/21/7856953/deflategate-new-england-patriots-footballs-nfl-investigation
"When you hear reporters talking about 11 of 12 balls found to be under-inflated by as much as two pounds, that means the air pressure in the balls was as low as 10.5 PSI."
A scientific explanation requires knowledge of not just what the locker-room temperatures vs outside temperatures were (which would be essentially the same for both teams' balls), but also knowledge of what "conditioning" might have been done to the balls. If this included physically warming the balls to upper 90's (skin temperature), for the Patriot's balls, this could require interviewing those that had knowledge of the handling of the balls.
(The scenario in Reply #25 may not be what happened, but seems plausible based on the calculations in the OP's article.)
Addendum: By the way, I am in no way suggesting that the under-inflated balls were not the result of human intervention, only that the human intervention could possibly have taken the form of altering the starting temperature, and allowing physics to lower the pressure after inspection without necessarily relying on needle decompression. Perhaps this worked a little too well on a slightly cooler day, and resulted in being more noticeable. (In terms of whether this seems to be due to human intervention, we seem to have no disagreement....... I had absolutely no knowledge, and was surprised to learn that extensive "conditioning" of balls, including scuffing, sanding, soaking in water, was common practice, or even that each offense had played with their own prepared balls for the several years since the rule change that Brody fought for was passed.)
The only thing I've seen about the rule is that "tampering" with the ball is illegal, punishable by up to a $25,000 fine, or more by discretion.
But that "conditioning" and "warming-up" the balls is not considered tampering, and appears to be extensively practiced.
I've not seen "tampering" defined, but it clearing would include needle deflation.
I would suspect that altering the temperature beforehand to the extent that results in pressure that drops subsequent to inspection would be looked upon as a violation, but that seems less clear-cut, and someone that did that would probably deny intent and deny knowledge of a change in pressure. (But it is hard to imagine that a quarterback known for his obsessiveness about ball conditioning and pressure, and known to prefer deflated balls, would not be aware of the resultant pressure drops.)
So, if this scenario were the case, perhaps they would not want to give that explanation at the outset as that might compromise their ability to claim ignorance of effects on pressure, and claim the ball handlers were simply warming up the ball to condition the surface, and not to set up a subsequent pressure drop after inspection.
Just speculation (which may be not what happened).
My balls ,,,,bla bla bla. Bla 
as discussed in Reply #25.
