Sportsing
Apparently, there is this football league that exists outside of college and it’s a thing. I’m usually vaguely aware of it from about the first week of January to the first week of February and then we sit around watching commercials for four hours. Any way, today’s news on all of the radio I listened to was all about how the New England Patriots may have deflated their handeggs. I mean, seriously, I turned to Rush Limbaugh to stop hearing about it and he was talking about it too. But he made the point that if people paid as much attention to their government as they do to their favorite sport, we’d probably better off.
And I’m no football expert or anything. But I’m guessing that if you air up a football inside a warm, room temperature locker room then take it outside in MA in January where it’s cold, it’d probably lose some air pressure. I remember how when I lived in Hell err New Jersey as a kid that the basketballs didn’t bounce in the winter.
January 22nd, 2015 at 6:38 pm
Nope. The way they cheated shows that they were cheating. 11 out of 12 were deflated.
The last one was inflated properly because kickers don’t like flat balls the same way QBs and WRs do.
That shows the intent. The cheating cheaters are still cheating, because cheating still has not been punished.
January 22nd, 2015 at 7:02 pm
Actually the kicking balls are kept separate and there is more than 1 per team
Some sports writer actually did the math on how much pressure the cold would cause and the indoor temp would have needed to be 90F to account for the observed pressure drop.
Some ball boy just missed one.
January 22nd, 2015 at 7:12 pm
All this happened in the first half. It was reported to the Refs and the balls were checked at half time. Did they replace the balls with properly inflated balls for the second half? I find it unlikely they would continue to use the same balls and if so this is all on the Refs. If they did change out the balls then what’s the issue? Brady played way better in the second half. Besides that, 45-7?!?! It was a blowout! The balls had nothing to do with that.
Oh and…
I don’t have a dog in this fight. I’m a KC fan. This is just a distraction from other issues.
January 22nd, 2015 at 7:15 pm
Based on the outcome of the game, Brady could have been using watermelons and it wouldn’t have mattered.
And, for the record, I have no dog in the fight but I do root against anything from Massachusetts.
January 22nd, 2015 at 7:18 pm
The outcome doesn’t matter. The cheating does.
If a 30 year old cheats at Candyland to beat a bunch of 5 year olds, it’s even WORSE than if it was close.
They cheat so much they cheat even when they don’t NEED to.
January 22nd, 2015 at 7:31 pm
Do not mock the UltraPlate game.
January 22nd, 2015 at 8:14 pm
If there’s one NFL player that welcomes all of this Deflate Gate hub hub, it’s Seattle’s Lynch.
All he did was grab his crotch after a 4th quarter touchdown and subsequently fined 20-grand by the league for his lewd action.
Me, I agree with above comments. NE could have been using deflated beach balls and still won that game. I don’t hear any Colts players or coaches blaming their loss on the improperly inflated footballs.
Disclaimer: I’m not a Seahawks, Colts or Patriots fan.
January 22nd, 2015 at 8:17 pm
ENOUGH!!! How much do we need to know about their soft balls?
January 22nd, 2015 at 8:23 pm
Of course the Patriots could have won without cheating. That’s what makes the fact that they did so much more egregious.
1. 11/12 Patriot footballs were deflated to the exact same degree. 0/12 Colts balls were deflated, in the exact same weather conditions.
2. The Colts and the Ravens had reported the same suspicion during games earlier in the season, to no avail.
3. The Patriots and their coach are well-known for using any and all tactics to their advantage, whether or not they were permitted or even ultimately helpful (taping the other team’s sideline in violation of a direct order from NFL headquarters).
4. The NFL has a reputation of strictly enforcing policy violations by players, so it should be equally as strict when sanctioning wrongdoing by clubs.
I’m a Redskins fan so no dog here, but Mr. Belicheat needs to be given his pink slip and banned by the league for his team’s continued shenanigans.
January 22nd, 2015 at 8:34 pm
This issue is the Ferguson of Football. Fingers pointing, tongues wagging, conspiracies cited, blame laid…and yet, the NFL has issued no report yet. A nearby state governor, a western U.S. Senator and the Vice President have weighed in on this thing. Folks are ready to hang Brady, ban Belichick, put someone else in the Super Bowl…for what, exactly?
Too much “the report says…” but seemingly no “according to whom?” One ESPN writer, known for bias against the New England team, put out a sloppy article citing “sources” within the NFL with what so far appears to be made-up information, at least according to the player who intercepted the first allegedly-doctored ball. Meanwhile, the NFL officials in charge of such things have said and continue to say, “We have not finished our investigation yet.”
If you are all fired up one way or the other about this football thing and yet do not see the parallels to the furor in Ferguson, then you are part of the problem.
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:08 am
I am 68 years old an still carry a football in the trunk of the car, in case there is an opportunity to toss it with someone. In the summer it is hard, and in the wintertime loses pressure. Anyone who ever took physics or chemistry understands this phenomena. If the Patriots inflated the balls to the correct pressure in a 100 degree room and handed them to the officials, they did nothing wrong. At fault is the protocol. The officials should take custody of the balls and inflate them to the correct pressure at the sidelines, immediately before the game. Regardless I don’t believe these balls made any difference in the outcome of the game.
January 23rd, 2015 at 1:34 am
I’ve heard that steroid use can cause soft balls. Just sayin’
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:15 am
Ball pressure is a big deal to QB’s. Aaron Rodgers was on an interview several weeks ago saying that they regularly overinflate the footballs he uses, and basically dare the refs to catch them. Brad Johnson was on record several years ago saying that he paid $7500 out of his pocket to have the balls ‘adjusted’ to his specs right before the superbowl he won. Much ado about nothing.
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:18 am
There was a quarterback so pretty and tall
Who played a game with a deflated ball
Deflated ball, deflated ball
He ran ’round the field with a deflated ball.
I’m in Chicago. The soap opera around the players and the coaches is the most entertaining part of our NFL team. Which is why I only watch the last remaining honest sport: Professional Mexican Midget Wrestling. (Chihuahua League. The Guadalajara League is questionable.)
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:41 am
I totally agree with Ancient Woodsman. The report is not out, and most of the speculation we’re hearing is just that.
That said, I will say that speculation on the temperature change is often misguided. According to Gay-Lussac’s law of changing temperature or pressure on a constant volume, it would take a severe temperature change to achieve the supposed 2 PSI below the minimum. There is only a 1 PSI drop for every 40 degree drop, so unless they filled and tested the balls in a room that was more than 120 degrees (pregame temp was low 50s, game temps never got below 40), it simply isn’t possible for the weather/temperature to be a factor.
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:04 pm
Could you still find whitefish down on the Jersey beaches in January?
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:30 pm
It’s goddamn football, people, it’s entertainment. What’s the damn difference? I always figured they’d never “let” the Dolts into the stupid bowl without a big enough stadium, and indeed they never went until they built one, just like magic. And I was on the hook for a bit of the cost. I resent that. The whole thing is a scam. If you like watching it, great, but don’t get all het up about a team. It’s not worth a damn thing. Follow congress and pay attention to what those dickheads are doing to you.
January 23rd, 2015 at 6:50 pm
I’ve seen several references to the relation of temperature to pressure with a constant volume, and I’m thinking “but of course the volume is not constant, it’s an inflated ball”.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:12 pm
I’m a baseball fan and I don’t really follow football much so I don’t understand why both teams don’t have the same advantage or disadvantage. Doesn’t the home team supply a case of new footballs at the start of the game and both teams just use the same ones?
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:58 pm
No. Each team plays with its own balls on the field*. Quarterbacks, kickers, and special teams are very picky about their balls. http://nypost.com/2015/01/22/ex-players-react-bradys-cluelessness-unbelievable/
*What they do back at the hotel is a different question.
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:47 pm
@ Douglas2- A regulation football holds a specific amount of air. The volume of air is generally the same from football to football. Since the ball is not elastic like a balloon, once it is inflated to a specific pressure (say 13.5 PSI at 70 degrees), it stays in the same shape and continues to hold that same volume of air. Yes, if we want to pick nits, we could argue that it isn’t actually a constant, because the inflated ball can and will eventually lose pressure, just like car tires or pretty much any inflated item. But for the purposes of this discussion, it can be considered a “constant volume” as its volume over a short period of time (a few days or so) is relatively constant.
January 23rd, 2015 at 11:08 pm
I’ll never understand what folks find so fascinating about watching a bunch of felons with their I.Q. score displayed on their jersey chasing a ball around.
Hell, I could throw a ball to a pair of dogs and have more intelligent participants and better entertainment! 🙂
January 24th, 2015 at 12:29 pm
People are up in arms over coaches and players breaking rules, but not those we,ve entrusted with our delegated powers to administrate our government!!!
January 24th, 2015 at 1:53 pm
I had a conversation with a Sri Lankan immigrant yesterday about the news coverage of this issue. He played high school and college rugby a few years back, and said in his sport the ball pressure didn’t matter as much as the ability to avoid tackles, work in the scrum, and pass to fellow players. To him, American football looks like a slow kids’ game of T-ball.
I think he may be on to something. Rugby is a much more interesting sport to watch than football.
If only Americans would start betting on rugby we could do away with soccer and football, both.