The issue is not the Colts’ balls. Maybe they over inflate because Luck likes them hard
I’m sorry. I couldn’t get past this sentence.
I must actually be a 9 yr old boy.
Wasn’t there a noted discrepancy at the Colts / Patriots game in Indy as well (indoors)? There was another intercepted ball in Indy that was saved and noted to feel soft.
However . . . as the NFL will have the balls of both teams securely in their control (sorry, couldn’t help it) it won’t be an issue for the Super Bowl, whether accidental or intentional.
Bill Nye the Science Guy does not buy Belichick’s explanation:
Of course he is a homer 
My now almost 21 year old D used to watch a lot of Bill Nye as a toddler and one of her classic quotes at the age of 2 was to answer one of my very mom-like “why do you suppose?” queries with the classic Science Guy answer of “differentials in air pressure!”
Now . . . on with the morning! Sunny and 60 degrees today - time to get up and out and get some yard work done.
Lergnom, Occam’s Razor.
Let’s say you’re right, Lergnom, and the Colts overinflated their footballs, and all 12 of them magically and uniformly deflated during the first half, to exactly the required pressure. Let’s also say that the Patriots’ idiosyncratic preparation deflates the footballs. Why don’t they compensate for that, and make sure the footballs meet regulation? And how did they end up with that one perfectly inflated ball?
Um.
NFL fines Marshawn for ball checking, but they are ok with making money off the photo of same.
http://www.nflshop.com/Seattle_Seahawks_Collectibles/Seattle_Seahawks_2014_NFC_Champions_Framed_20_x_24_Collage_with_Piece_of_Game-Used_Football_-_Limited_Edition_of_100
Wow! Now I have seen it all. What about the kids who might hang that on their bedroom wall?!
As Sam the Eagle would say, “Shocking!”
First, there’s no indication teams pay any attention to ball pressure so there’s no reason for any team to think about what the ball is inflated to during the game. They hand them to the officials over 2 hours before the game and the officials check them. It probably ends there for every team in the league.
Second, I love when people cite Occam’s Razor without knowing what it is. And I love to be pedantic!! It isn’t “I pick what seems right to me.” To use it here is equivalent to saying, “The crops failed. Must be a witch.” Occam’s Razor is about the number of assumptions used when comparing arguments. In this case, we can do a rough count beginning with “the balls were different”:
- The balls were different in this game. We don't actually know if this is true because this may happen all the time.
- The balls aren't different in other games. (See? There's an assumption in 1 that requires 2.)
- There is no physical explanation possible other than cheating. (This is a version of 1 and 2 but adds the cheating assumption.)
- The Patriots are lying, meaning both the owner, coach and QB are lying.
- The evidence presented by the Patriots is a lie.
By contrast, the other chain of assumptions is:
- The balls may have been different in this game. We don't know if this is true because we've never, it seems, tested balls in various games in various weather. We don't even know how many balls have been pulled from use in the past.
- There may be a physical reason.
- The Patriots evidence may be true.
- The Patriots may not be lying.
This isn’t an academic level listing of assumptions but you can see there is no clear way to apply Occam’s Razor and that’s true for two reasons: at the base level, we don’t even know if the ball difference is actually an issue for this game or something that occurs in football and there’s no way to tell from counting assumptions which line of argument is simpler. Some people might argue that assuming a conspiracy is more complicated than a physical reason, but that’s not Occam’s Razor either.
Third, I loved - LOVED - Richard Sherman’s comment that the Patriots won’t be punished because the commissioner is buddies with Robert Kraft. That’s the kind of thing the NFL has fined people for. But I loved it because it shows the vast gulf between the players and the league and the commissioner who works for the owner.
Fourth, I reiterate my comment that Goodell is a lousy CEO. They should have said, “We’ll look into this after the Super Bowl” but they instead let stuff leak out and then said it will be over in 2 or 3 days and that fed a level of hysteria a good CEO would have seen. Lousy management in crisis situations. Yet again. I’m sure the owners are pissed about the way he has mismanaged every single crisis situation in recent memory.
Forget Occam.
The Pats use Gillette’s Razor.
Ok, now a report is coming out that a league source is saying that maybe all those balls weren’t 2 psi under:
1 pound is easily explainable by the weather.
And rather than the league telling the Patriots to make sure their balls were right, and prevent any potential scandal, they were actually laying a trap for the Patriots to try to catch them in the act of something.
The NFL is going to wind up with an even bigger black eye before this is all over.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/25/nfl-bears-plenty-of-blame-for-deflategate/
^^^Is this the sports equivalent of the Rolling Stones Magazine debacle?
All this speculation now because “one league source” has come out and said it “may have been closer to one pound?” Well that’s a lot of vague speculation from an unnamed source.
Honestly, I am just ready for the Superbowl. It doesn’t sound as if there is enough evidence to prove anything, if anything did actually happen, so unless the NFL is going to step up and do something about this, it seems like a dead horse is being beaten.
The balls provided by the Pats were from a manufacturer’s defect lot.
They should have been recalled.
The whole thing is just weird. There were indications that they weren’t inflated correctly before as noted by both the Colts (indoor stadium) and the Ravens. It doesn’t sound like a one time discrepancy. However, I agree that the NFL has bungled this just about as badly as it has bungled everything else this year. The NFL seems to want the Super Bowl to not be impacted by any findings (understandable) so they are dragging their feet in a way that almost does more damage. I can’t wait until Tuesday! Now if only the press would ask Marshawn about his balls too. Do you suppose if they asked and he answered truthfully he would be fined for obscenity yet again?
^ That would be hilarious.
The league has already said that if he grabs his crotch in the SB, the refs will flag him for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The Ravens thing is even weirder, because it was a kicking ball they were complaining about, and no one other than the refs ever touch those footballs. They are under the control of the refs for the entire game, with the refs bringing those balls to the game.
Reports were that Sherman was coaching him up for Tuesday. Sherman and Baldwin already did one sidekick interview (the famed “cardboard Doug” skit) so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they’ve got something up their collective sleeves to get through Tuesday with the wallets intact.