[nolemmings]

It is incredibly weak to suggest that a league that fines its players for wearing the wrong colored socks, gloves or wrist bands does not take seriously a rule that directly impacts on the fairness of competition. Yes, the NFL could mark each ball with a number before the game, measure the psi and log it, then do the same at halftime. At halftime or after the game they could then preserve any balls that were found to have deflated in a controlled atmosphere and under quarantined conditions, so that any team accused of deflating them could have its “atmospheric” experts come in to perform their own measurements without fear of a “contaminated” environment. Only then can we conclude the league is serious? Actually, all balls will need to be quarantined, including, say, those used by the Indianapolis Colts, none of which lost more than 1.0 psi (if they lost any at all) while nearly all of the Patriots’ balls fell by more than that, so we can listen to people guess, contort and postulate how different handling and other conditions explain away the apparent contradiction. Only then can we conclude that this is a serious rule and that it was violated.

How about just having the footballs delivered by armored truck to the field, where they are measured before all who care, then given to the custody and control of only NFL-employed ballboys for handling during the game? It may well now come to pass that the league will insist on a uniform psi for all teams, that it will inflate the balls itself to exactly that specification, and there will be no discretion for individual teams’ tastes. Your QB doesn’t like the level of pressure, get over it or get a new QB. Part of me wonders why this has not happened already. Pitchers don’t get to take a bag of hand-selected balls out to the mound with them, the Spurs don’t grab a rebound and then ask for a different basketball while they are on offense, etc. Seems like a fair resolution to me.

I have not heard one current or former player or coach ever cop to changing the inflation of footballs before or during a game. Most QBs will admit that the lower inflated balls would be easier to throw in certain or maybe all conditions–this from Tarkenton is typical:

Q: What are your thoughts on `Deflate-gate,’ Fran?

A: “This has been going on for a lot of years. We always rubbed the balls down and got them ready when I played. But we didn’t, in my era, deflate the balls. When you deflate the balls, it’s easier to throw it and easier to catch it. And you don’t fumble as much.

“It is wrong. And the NFL has said nothing. Nothing.”

Despite the fact that most QBs consider it advantageous to have the balls under-inflated and most also conceded to have “worked up” the footballs, you would think it would have occurred to them to outright deflate them. Yet it seems none did. Why not, one could wonder, especially if the league did not consider that a serious rules violation. Perhaps the players thought it would be cheating (see Tarkenton) and/or that the league could consider it so. You think?