# NFL: Underinflated Balls? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 21, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515 "2015-01-21T20:17:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 21
**Author:** ![WreckingCrew](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wreckingcrew/32/4080_2.png) [@WreckingCrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WreckingCrew)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/401 "2015-01-31T00:15:13Z")
The NFL might have figured that just declaring them under inflated would be enough, never dreaming that there would be a weather related reason, with science to back it up, that could cast doubt on the cause of the deflation. A doubt that could not be disproved without numbers that they never bothered to write down. Or, they might not have thought it was a big deal until Kravitz’s twitter report exploded at 1 AM. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/402 "2015-01-31T16:45:24Z")
Jeb Lund (aka Mobutu Sese Seko), has a [nice column](http://www.mrdestructo.com/2015/01/everything-stupid-is-alive-and.html) up on his blog about the NFL’s priorities. The piece apparently appeared on Rolling Stone’s website for a short time, and then disappeared. It’s worth a read. It’s not just about the underinflated balls, but he does put them in the context of the NFL’s version of reality. > [@](#): > > Goodell knows that, on a very fundamental level, we watch football to be spared reality. There is no more automatic response to a sportswriter discussing politics or social issues than the cry, “Stick to sports.” Fans have been his willing accomplices in denying the traumas and injustices underlying the games, because we embrace the game primarily for escapism and for the illusion that we can witness morality plays and talent competitions tested in a nowhere place of complete fairness and equilibrium. > > \ > > “Stick to sports” only goes so far. Ray Lewis’ involvement in a double murder can be written off as an aberration and ignored as so much old news. Roethlisberger’s double rape allegations are now old news, but back then, they were distorted by the funhouse mirror of Goodell World until dismissing them seemed almost less than outrageous. By the time the soft-focus pregame features of Super Bowl XLV came along, you had people like Fox’s Curt Menefee actually suggesting that winning the game would complete Roethlisberger’s “redemption season,” while everyone else portrayed being accused of violating another woman as more or less “adversity.” > > This alone explains why you will hear no end of invocations of “deflated balls” this Sunday. Deflating a ball is a crime only in Goodell World, where the fraction of people who give a shit about it is only slightly greater than the people who care about it in real life—which is zero. It’s a crime about the integrity of the game, one that only exists within the game and can only be prosecuted and disciplined within the game. It is the sweetest outrage because it is 100 percent recreational. Most importantly, it’s not a crime, or at least a horror, created by the normative function of the game. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/403 "2015-01-31T17:01:29Z")
We now have the definitive word from none other than Yogi Berra: “If you’re going to cheat, it’s better if you don’t get caught.” ---
**Author:** ![WreckingCrew](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wreckingcrew/32/4080_2.png) [@WreckingCrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WreckingCrew)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/404 "2015-02-01T17:53:55Z")
Oh FFS, the latest on this stupid story. Highlights from the video include that the current report is that of the 12 balls in question, only one ball was two PSI under, a few others were about 1 PSI under, and a few were just a few ticks under the allowed minimum. Don’t suppose the one really low ball was the one from the Colts’ sideline? [http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000466783/article/more-details-on-the-investigation-of-patriots-deflated-footballs](http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000466783/article/more-details-on-the-investigation-of-patriots-deflated-footballs) In a completely unrelated story that broke today: AdamSchefter just reported #Falcons could lose a draft pick as NFL investigates whether they piped in artificial crowd noise in stadium. [https://twitter.com/SeifertESPN/status/561912716659421184](https://twitter.com/SeifertESPN/status/561912716659421184) I assume the world press will spend the next two weeks investigating this crime against humanity. I personally will be sending a registered letter to the NFL demanding a $500,000 fine, loss of draft picks, and requiring that the Falcons play in an empty, soundless stadium for the next three years. Won’t somebody please think of the children! ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/405 "2015-02-01T19:07:32Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > We now have the definitive word from none other than Yogi Berra: “If you’re going to cheat, it’s better if you don’t get caught.” Did he really say he didn’t really say half the things he said? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/406 "2015-02-01T19:23:56Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Did he really say he didn’t really say half the things he said? Sports Illustrated, 1986. > [@Berra](#): > > I really didn’t say everything I said. You can’t make these things up. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/407 "2015-02-07T21:11:46Z")
Just so you haters know, the Pats might not be[the team that comes out of this smelling bad](http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/02/05/hurley-failed-deflategate-accusations-means-its-time-for-irsay-pagano-to-be-banned-from-nfl/): > [@](#): > > First, at a press conference last Thursday in Phoenix, NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino spilled the beans that the PSI of the 12 Patriots footballs were never recorded by referee Walt Anderson. Blandino said that balls were measured, and if they were under the low threshold of 12.5, they were simply pumped up with some air. So instantly, the report by ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that said 11 of the 12 footballs were a full 2 PSI under the threshold was essentially debunked. > [@](#): > > And then there’s this: The one football that was 2 PSI under the limit? That was the ball intercepted by D’Qwell Jackson, the pizza man puncher, according to ProFootballTalk. It was the football that was taken to the Colts sideline and then submitted to the NFL to launch an investigation. You’re going to tell me that the Colts didn’t manipulate that football before submitting it? The team that fired off the accusations of cheating didn’t take an extra step or two to make sure they were right by sticking a needle in that football and letting it drain for a few seconds before handing it over to the league and saying, “Hey, the Patriots are using underinflated footballs, so you need to investigate”? Hmmm … As for Bob Kravitz of the Indy Star, responsible for making this a national story: > [@](#): > > So to recap: Irsay took drugs and stepped behind the wheel. He could have killed someone. But Kravitz wasn’t angry. Then Bill Belichick was accused of playing football with footballs that had a little less air in them. Kravitz was irate. > > Here’s what Kravitz wrote after a very compromised source with an ax to grind against Belichick told him that the Patriots used some underinflated footballs: “If Patriots owner Robert Kraft has an ounce of integrity, he will fire Bill Belichick immediately for toying with the integrity of the game for the second time in his otherwise magnificent career. … If Roger Goodell has an ounce of integrity, and he’s not spending all his time going to pre-game soirees at Kraft’s mansion, he will not only fine Belichick and take away draft choices, but suspend the head coach for the upcoming Super Bowl.” And > [@](#): > > OK, I’m sorry, but one more quote from my man Bob Kravitz: “Still, it is utterly amazing (but not really) how far some media will go to defend their city’s team, especially when it wins Super Bowls.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/408 "2015-02-19T14:47:43Z")
Update: In a “correction” worthy of Fox, Adam Shefter of ESPN [quietly and inobtrusively tells](http://blog.masslive.com/patriots/2015/02/deflategate_espn_reports_that.html) what really happened with the ball for the second-half kickoff: > [@](#): > > League Official 1, he’s also supposed to take the balls out of play and then send them off to a charitable endeavor to raise money for a charitable endeavor that the league is embarking upon. Only on this day, and since that day, the league has since fired that employee for allegedly selling off some of those football on the side. So that employee, League Official 1, has been fired since the AFC Championship game. > > Employee 2 noticed that one of the balls – it gets very confusing and technical Bob – but noticed that one of the balls was missing. League Official 1 during the game went to get a different one. So when League Official 2 came in, he tried to replace that football. League Official 1 noticed that the ball was missing, noticed that people knew, he brought the ball back into the game, so then there were two different league officials handing footballs to Jim McNally for use in the game. How about _naming_ the only person actually disciplined over matter, Adam, you ace reporter, you? > [@Shefter](#): > > And so it sounds like a very unique, murky, cloudy situation Not at all, weasel. You fucked up real bad the first time but won’t admit it. Wells said the report would take “several more weeks”. It’s \*been \*several more weeks. Let’s see what other NFL officials get fired (Mike Kensil, can you come in my office for a moment? Great), what penalties Chuck Pagano and Ryan Grigson and possibly John Harbaugh get from the league, and how abject the apologies get and from whom. Oh, wait, it’s Goodell we’re talking about, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/409 "2015-02-19T19:15:51Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Wells said the report would take “several more weeks”. It’s \*been \*several more weeks. Let’s see what other NFL officials get fired (Mike Kensil, can you come in my office for a moment? Great), what penalties Chuck Pagano and Ryan Grigson and possibly John Harbaugh get from the league, and how abject the apologies get and from whom. You’re a little unhinged about this, dude. I can see penalizing the Colts organization if the ball they submitted was tampered with (although I don’t really see any reason to believe that _anyone_ tampered with the balls except the guy selling them on the side), but what do you want to punish Harbaugh for? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/410 "2015-02-19T19:35:40Z")
Rumor has it he had a little bird tell Pagano about something he suspected in losing the week earlier. If you’re looking for unhingedness, read the whole thread. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/411 "2015-02-25T21:42:51Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Update: In a “correction” worthy of Fox, Adam Shefter of ESPN [quietly and inobtrusively tells](http://blog.masslive.com/patriots/2015/02/deflategate_espn_reports_that.html) what really happened with the ball for the second-half kickoff:How about _naming_ the only person actually disciplined over matter, Adam, you ace reporter, you?Not at all, weasel. You fucked up real bad the first time but won’t admit it. Sounds more like a “correction” worthy of NBC News (Brian Williams) or CBS News (Dan Rather). ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/412 "2015-05-06T22:09:16Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Just so you haters know, the Pats might not be[the team that comes out of this smelling bad](http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/02/05/hurley-failed-deflategate-accusations-means-its-time-for-irsay-pagano-to-be-banned-from-nfl/):Hmmm … Or maybe [they will](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2073728-ted-wells-report-deflategate.html). It would appear that you owe some people apologies. Surely Brady has to be suspended over this. Probably Belichick, too, given that he’s now implicated in two cheating scandals. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/413 "2015-05-06T22:41:24Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Or maybe [they will](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2073728-ted-wells-report-deflategate.html). It would appear that you owe some people apologies. Surely Brady has to be suspended over this. Probably Belichick, too, given that he’s now implicated in two cheating scandals. Belichick was specifically exonerated in the report. As were more or less everyone else except for Brady and two equipment guys. (“In particular, we do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Patriots ownership, Head Coach Belichick or any other Patriots coach in the matters investigated. We also do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Patriots Head Equipment Manager Dave Schoefeld.” (Page 122).) I’m satisfied with the report. I’m disappointed in Brady. I’ve got no problem with any discipline handed down to Brady. But this is not evidence of any kind of long-standing institutional cheating ring. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/414 "2015-05-06T23:18:47Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It would appear that you owe some people apologies. For what? Calling them haters? That’s well-supported by the evidence. > [@](#): > > Surely Brady has to be suspended over this. Explain, in your own words and with factual support, why. > [@](#): > > Probably Belichick, too, given that he’s now implicated in two cheating scandals. Not this one, no matter who might have been praying for it, or how hard. Too bad. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/415 "2015-05-07T02:39:09Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > Belichick was specifically exonerated in the report. As were more or less everyone else except for Brady and two equipment guys. (“In particular, we do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Patriots ownership, Head Coach Belichick or any other Patriots coach in the matters investigated. We also do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Patriots Head Equipment Manager Dave Schoefeld.” (Page 122).) > > I’m satisfied with the report. I’m disappointed in Brady. I’ve got no problem with any discipline handed down to Brady. But this is not evidence of any kind of long-standing institutional cheating ring. It’s his watch. Sean Payton had no knowledge of the Saints bounty scandal, AFAIK, but he got a year. > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Explain, in your own words and with factual support, why. I suspect I’m wasting my time here. Still: _because he cheated, as the NFL investigation revealed_. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/416 "2015-05-07T03:40:35Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It’s his watch. Sean Payton had no knowledge of the Saints bounty scandal, AFAIK, but he got a year. First of all, that’s wrong; Payton not only knew, but tried to cover it up. Second, equating a situation which involved several coaches and a whole bunch of players trading money in order to _deliberately injure other players_ to a situation where a couple of guys let some air out of some balls demonstrates a serious lack of perspective. I am comfortable saying the bounty situation was approximately 1000 times worse than this one. So Belichick should be suspended for .016 games. That’s 57.6 seconds. I can live with that. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/417 "2015-05-07T04:54:23Z")
Man, talk about making a mountain out of a mole hole. Worrying about Brady’s sweaty balls. Just shows what happens when a stupid rule is passed. I saw an interview with Fran Tarkenton. Back in his day there was no inflation rule. Each quarterback aired them up like they preferred. It was totally fair because each team did this. They were required to use regulation NFL balls. The NFL couldn’t leave well enough alone and just had to pass a stupid, unnecessary rule. Now you got guys in suits wasting time chasing after balls and worrying about the inflation. geez. This will be loads of fun to enforce from now on. If quarterbacks on both teams inflate the ball to suit their style. Who gives a shit what the pressure is? It’s totally fair. They are determined to overregulate the NFL. Let the players play and the guys in the suits go play with their ties. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/418 "2015-05-07T06:34:59Z")
If he just thought the rule was dumb, then he shouldn’t have lied and stonewalled. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/419 "2015-05-07T07:31:32Z")
They’ll have to fine Brady or something. He broke their stupid rule. I don’t understand why they have to over regulate this game. It’s like all the up roar over the filming of practice. Coaches have spied on the opposite team’s practice since the sport began over a hundred years ago. Now they create this ridiculous crap about inflating a ball. Man up. Play the damn game. Don’t go running to the officials if you lose. Be man enough to say they beat us. Crying about your practices being filmed and under inflated balls. Quit whining and making excuses. They just make a mess with these rules. Get rid of them. Make it fair so all teams can scout practices without breaking a rule. Each quarterback has a unique grip. Each one likes to grip his balls in a way that feels comfortable. Don’t try and force some inflation rule down their throat. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-underinflated-balls/710515/420 "2015-05-07T08:36:27Z")
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