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Apparently you were not paying attention to Bill's press conference completely.
The process of breaking in the balls for better tackiness actually artificially raised the PSI by 1 lb , is what they just discovered this week, follow along here, then he said they give the balls to the ref, he makes sure it is 12.5 let's say. Now a couple hours go by and the balls are brought out to the field, since they have had time to acclimate for 2 hours in that controlled enviroment for a while after the rub down or whatever, they have gone back to the 1 psi less by gametime. They play the game in 45 degree weather wet and cold and lose another .5 psi. He said that, I heard him say a total of 1-1/2 lb . That is what they could come up with to explain a loss of pressure. Nobody let any air out.
That brings to question, after the refs made sure the balls were 12.5 psi minimum 2 hours before the game, why did they not check them right before the game? That would have accounted for 1 lb of air missing, but they did not and they did not correct them. We are talking about footballs here. weather change accounts for the other half pound.
I believe every word Bill said.
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Well, let's get all this straightened out here. We've taken care of the physics; we all agree that about .5 psi would occur due to cold. How about the issue of legal responsibility? As far as I know, the regulations state that the balls are to be at a pressure of 12.5-13.5 psi AT THE TIME OF THE GAME, not two hours
before when the refs check them. That means that, REGARDLESS of whatever the Patriots did with the balls before the game, they are LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE
for ensuring that the balls are at the right pressure at the TIME OF THE GAME. This means that is UP TO THE PATRIOTS to check them AT THE TIME OF THE
GAME to make sure they are in compliance. If they are not, then they have to notify the officials and make appropriate re-inflation measures with the officials.
The Patriots have used their procedures for quite a while, and have had ample opportunities to check what they did prior to game time to see what corrections
needed to be made. The fact that 11 out of 12 balls were under-inflated indicates that they DID NOT perform any appropriate checking at game time. Consequently, while they may not have been deliberately deflated, nonetheless the team would still be guilty of negligence, EVEN IF EVERYTHING BELICHICK SAID IS TRUE. Does this make sense, folks?