Are you ready for some football?

Parent Cafe
1961

I did this calculation, a 35-40 degree temperature swing would cause about a 0.8-1.0 pound drop in pressure, depending on the actual temps involved. For small temperature changes the pressure change is linear with the temperature change as measured from absolute zero (the Rankine scale).

Basically, P1/P2 = T1/T2

For example, if P2 is 12.5, T2 is 75 (the indoor temp), T1 is 35, then P1 = 11.56, i.e. a drop in pressure of 0.94 psi.

In a dome though, like in the first Indy game, this would not be a factor.

ETA: this assumes of course that changing the pressure does not significantly change the volume of the ball.

1962

Thanks lergnon. It doesn’t appear to me that Belichick is throwing any players under the team bus. I enjoyed his explanation and I’m sure his next comment will be “I’ve said all I am going to say about it and it’s out of my hands”.

1963

I love Richard Shermans take on this,

"“You know, they were trying to suspend Marshawn for gold shoes and that really affects the game if you suspend Marshawn,” Sherman said. “But then you’ve got balls being deflated and that’s (another) issue.”

1964

Noted poor sport Marshawn Lynch violates the sponsor agreements that make the NFL money. If noted poor sport Richard Sherman wants to get paid, he should be sticking up for the league. Noted poor sport Lynch was fined $20k this week for making an obscene gesture after scoring in the last game. Per NFLNetwork, this happened earlier in the year too.

Here is the entirety of the Q&A with Belichick:

Q: Aside from the NFL investigation, in your own investigation, did you find if anyone willfully [altered the footballs]?

Belichick: I’ve told you everything I know. I have nothing. I don’t have an explanation.

Q: Not withstanding what you’ve said here today, there are a lot of people questioning your integrity, who say you’re a win-at-all costs …

Belichick: I’ve told you everything I know.

Q: What do you say to critics who are challenging your character, which seems to go well beyond the sport of football?

Belichick: I’ve told you everything I know.

Q: Any message to the fans who are watching this and are upset by all this?

Belichick: I’ve told them everything I know. There’s nothing else I can add to it.

Q: I would assume you’ve had conversations with Tom [Brady] about this specific issue and what happened …

Belichick: I have no explanation for what happened.

Q: Coach, why do you think these controversies continue to follow you?

Belichick: I don’t have an explanation for what happened.

Q: As many Super Bowls as you’ve been to, you know distractions come with the territory. What do you say to your younger players who don’t have the experience being in the spotlight like this, and some of the older players?

Belichick: None of them are involved with this.

Q: How do you keep them focused with all of this going on?

Belichick: None of them are involved in this.

Q: Does Tom Brady handle the ball after inspection with his ball boys?

Belichick: Those are all questions that should be directed to the league, and that’s part of what they’re doing. That’s not what I’m doing.

Q: Is it possible that someone on your sideline, even though you maybe didn’t know about it, might have deliberately altered a ball?

Belichick: I don’t have an explanation for what happened. I’ve told you all that I can tell you from my point of view. Anything coming from the investigative side from the league needs to be directed towards them.

Q: Why do you want to overinflate the balls unless you think it happens naturally?

Belichick: So that there is no opportunity for a small margin of error that would put us under the specifications.

Q: Do you see any circumstance that 11 of 12 footballs could have deflated by accident?

Belichick: I don’t have an explanation for what happened.

Q: Knowing that you care about what’s going on, what has it been like for you once you found out about the investigation, and what’s it been like trying to deal with everything going on?

Belichick: As I said, I’ve learned a lot about the process. I had no idea how the balls got from the officials locker room [to] the field, and so forth and so on and all that. That’s not something that I have ever thought or concerned myself about game day. I’ve concerned myself with preparing and coaching the team. So some of the things that have been talked about that have happened, I’m totally unaware of.

1965

Lergnom, Lynch’s crotch antics are inappropriate, but why does his desire to avoid the press make him a poor sport? Looking at Belichick’s answers in this morning’s press conference, the coach is as fairly uninformative in his own responses to questions as Lynch is. But I don’t see the league attempting to fine Belichick for not being chummy with reporters. As for the cleats thing, my understanding is that the league rule is that cleats can be black or white, or must match the team’s colors (except when the players are browbeaten to wear pink to support the league’s publicity campaign for it’s favorite charity). Lynch wanted to wear gold cleats, which doesn’t meet the shoe color criteria. All of his cleats are Nikes, which of course has a major apparel deal with the NFL.

1966

My post was not about Lynch’s antics, nor about Sherman being a poor sport in your opinion. The quote just sheds light on the hypocrisy in the NFL with regards to punishing players. As long as you dont cost us money, nothing to see here, but as soon as you cost us money, we will mete out a punishment, and there probably will be no rhyme or reason to it.

With regards to deflategate, with the lopsided score, it probably wouldnt have made a difference in this last game. However, you can bet they were doing it when they played the Ravens, and it wouldve made a difference in that game. Furthermore, Belichick has been caught cheating before, so I dont trust him. And you can bet your bottom dollar, the Pats have been cheating more times than this, as these are the only times they have been caught.

1967

Years ago, LC Greenwood of the Steelers had some gold colored shoes that were different from the rest of the team. On one broadcast, either Madden or Alex Karras referred to him as looking like the “wicked witch of the west”.

1968

I feel bad for 1) the Baltimore Ravens and 2) Robert Kraft, who doesn’t seem like the type of guy to me who wants to be associated with multiple counts of cheating by his employees-- even if it means winning (I tend to be somewhat naive).

I would love to see Belichick, Brady, OC, QB coach, equipment people, etc. all get polygraphed. Could ask them specifics about not only the Ravens divisional game, the Indy championship game, but lots of other games and/or timelines regarding deflating footballs. I know you can sometimes fool a lie-detection test but I would still like to see them administer one!

1969

As much as I love the gold cleats I totally get why he couldn’t wear them. It is a slippery slope with players wearing things that aren’t uniform. It just wouldn’t end well on a league wide basis. Sherman’s larger point was the NFL isn’t going to do anything immediate with sanctions if they do anything at all because they don’t want to mess with “the integrity of the game” by drawing attention to and action that puts that integrity into question. It’s easier to be the shoe police.

Sherman also had some words about Brady’s general image and actual demeanor. He isn’t a fan.

1970

When did they measure the pressure of the balls after the game? 24 hours after? And how did they store the balls after the game? And did anyone touch the balls after the game?

This is not CSI science. The longer the balls stay in the cold weather, the lower the pressure the balls will have.

1971

The media is beginning to have a ball, pardon the pun, with this story. It has revived memories of the comical SNL skit with Ana Gastmeyer and Alec Baldwin about local outdoorsman and cook ‘Pete Sweaty,’ whose specialty was Swedish meatballs. One of our local news/talk hosts must have said deflated balls in every other sentence for about 10 minutes during her show this morning.

1972

i agree the NFL is only concerned about the bottom line.
Pretty ballsy for a " non profit" organization.
It’s too bad.
It’s really tainted the SuperBowl, and even their legacy to some.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/01/22/win-lose-patriots-have-sacrificed-their-legacy/XIYx6wws1NpEn1h82kMtwO/story.html
They should have Marshawn in charge of the balls.

I admit I don’t watch many games on television, but I don’t see how Lynch and Sherman are poor sports.
Lynch is obviously horribly uncomfortable w interviews, and Sherman is as extroverted and articulate ( or he can be) as Marshawn is introverted.
That doesn’t make them poor sports.

Some rivalry is to be expected at this level, I’ve certainly seen it at the college level on CC.
As I don’t watch televised sports, I wasn’t aware that they have so many balls on the sidelines and that they are swapped out.
http://www.totalprosports.com/2015/01/21/patriots-deflated-balls-nfl-knew/
I’m more familiar with baseball or soccer where it doesn’t seem as common.

1973

@notrichenough‌ #1957:

You were spot on in your prediction about Belichick’s denials. :slight_smile: Of course, he initially denied SpyGate too, so when it comes to cheating, his word is worth exactly zero.

I think it’s interesting that you hope this was all being done without Belichick’s knowledge, even if it means Brady taking the fall. I’m just curious – why such extravagant loyalty to this coach?

1974

I don’t think he denied SpyGate, he just never admitted to it being more than a misreading of the rules. And ignoring a memo with rules that weren’t official rules, so he (stupidly) thought they didn’t apply. And it’s not like the taping was subtle, it was right out in the open.

It’s not loyalty to the coach per se, but the team. If Belichick truly didn’t know they balls were being monkeyed with, it means that at in institutional level they aren’t dirty.

With Belichick being head coach and defacto president of football operations, he sets the tone. If he is cheating, the whole organization is cheating. It’s the difference between a junior accountant deliberately overbilling a client and pocketing the money, and the CEO making it standard procedure.

It did piss me off in the press conference that he didn’t say anything about the team trying to get to the bottom of it and figure out what happened, but that he is deferring everything to the league investigation. Sorry, but if my organization has shenanigans and is being publicly embarassed, I would also be trying to get to the bottom of it and I would want people to know.

After this press conference, though, if it is determined that he was responsible or at least did know what was going on, I don’t see how he survives. It would mean he flat-out lied in front of the whole country. He is so detail-oriented that I am not sure he is believable when he says he didn’t know how the whole process with game balls works.

Even though in the grand scheme I think this is more in the gamesmanship than anything, and if it’s anyone but the Patriots nobody gives a darn, lying about it will sink him. Everyone knows in America the path to redemption is to apologize and promise to do better.

I am surprised that, if the league was suspicious of something, they didn’t fire off a warning first saying “cut it out”. Unless they did, in which case it is more stupidity than I can wrap my head around.

1975
1976

LOL on Marshawn in charge of the balls! At least he checks them often enough to know what kind of condition they’re in, @emeraldkity4 =))

1977

Stupidity and dishonesty aren’t mutually exclusive, unfortunately. But if in fact the league has warned them, and they did it anyway, I wouldn’t call that stupidity. It’s something else – hubris? We are the Patriots, we’ll get away with it even if we get caught (we survived SpyGate, after all). Or an ethics-free team culture? We are the Patriots, and we do whatever it takes to win. Rules are for lesser teams.

Agree that if it happened, the idea that Belichick was ignorant of it doesn’t pass the laugh test. And I also agree that he shows a telling lack of interest in getting to the bottom of it himself.

I can see that it’s rough being a Patriot fan right now.

1978

It’s true only if NE loses the Superbowl.

If NE wins the Patriot fans will be more excited.

1979

With Belichick’s total denial of any awareness of this situation, along with Pete Carroll’s denial of any awareness of Reggie Bush’s family getting any perks, maybe they should call the game a week from Sunday the STUPOR BOWL.

1980

I don’t follow college ball so I had to google, but it looks like at least in 2010, Carroll admitted that Bush was likely was receiving perks.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/07/14/pete-carroll-admits-that-as-to-reggie-bush-something-happened/