New England Patriots ‘Deflategate’ nothing more than an example of physics
The New England Patriots are being accused of skirting the rules to gain a competitive advantage in the AFC Championship game.
In other news…water is wet.
For the record, I could care less about the New England Patriots and whether or not they participate in or win another Super Bowl.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady strikes me as a bit of a whiny child at times, and head coach Bill Belichick has all the warmth and cuddliness of a rabid badger.
But that doesn’t make them cheaters. It makes them a**holes.
However, here we find ourselves in the midst of yet another episode of “How the Pats Cheat” because they managed to steamroll an obviously out-gunned opponent in the Indianapolis Colts.
Yes…it’s #Deflategate (because god forbid we have any type of scandal to which we don’t attach the surname “gate”).
Less than 24 hours after the Patriots dismantled Andrew Luck’s Colts, we started hearing about the possibility that there were under-inflated balls used by New England during the game.
You know, I’ve heard a lot of things in my day, but I really never thought I’d hear anyone accuse Bill Belichick of having under-inflated balls.
But back to the game. A game played in New England. In January. Outdoors. In the cold (although a somewhat balmy 51 degrees by New England standards at kickoff). So could this be true?
The NFL has “investigated” and found that 11 of the 12 balls used by the Patriots were under-inflated by two pounds per square inch below the NFL standards (This is the same NFL who investigated the New Orleans Saints and Ray Rice, keep in mind).
So, if the balls are all inspected and approved before the game, and then placed into a bag on each team’s sidelines, when would Belichik’s minions have an opportunity in front of no less than 45 different cameras (as bragged by the NFL Network) and 70,000 people to deflate balls?
And what exactly is the chain of custody for NFL footballs post-game, and do we have a “B” sample that wasn’t handled by a rogue courier of some sort? Was every ball used in the game tested, and when? Was a comparative study of the balls thrown by Andrew Luck done as well?
As for scandals and cheating, it seems there are still a lot of unanswered questions. But that doesn’t mean that the balls weren’t legal.
Let me introduce you to something known as the science of physics surrounding gaseous compounds and temperature change.
For those of you who drive a more modern car with air pressure sensors in the tires, did you ever notice that how when the first temperature drop of the year occurs, your warning light appears to let you know that your tires are low on air pressure?
Why? Because as temperature drops, molecules contract, particularly those of a gas which are not as dense as liquid or solid. So, as the molecules contract at a higher rate than the solid surrounding them, you get…deflation.
Maybe the NFL should check with Bill Nye as part of their “ongoing investigation”.
You can check this out to get a better picture of how cold weather affects the ball.
So basically what we’re dealing with here is a natural occurrence in cold weather. If you inflate a ball in a locker room maintained at a constant 72 degrees, and then take it outside for a nice 20-degree drop, some deflation is inevitable.
I’m not saying that this phenomenon is unique to this past weekend’s AFC Championship game. I’m saying it probably happens in every game played outdoors in colder weather, only there aren’t a bunch of moonstruck nuts trying to concoct a conspiracy theory in every one of those games…just in one that happens to involve the Patriots and a shot at the Super Bowl.
Hey look, if you want to hate the Patriots, then you aren’t in a very exclusive club. But seriously, to manufacture such a ridiculous thing as deflated footballs as a reason behind a 44-7 whitewashing is as trumped up as handing a ticket to that poor guy for eating his cheeseburger while he drove (and yes, that’s a real thing).
It didn’t matter. Don’t believe me? Ask one of the guys who got spanked.
Not much room for interpretation there.
NFL fans want to turn a blind eye towards steroids and other performance enhancing drugs because it makes the game better, faster, more vicious and violent. But let the laws of physics enter into the equation, and suddenly we’re talking about the integrity of the game?
Please.
If deflated balls give a competitive edge, then you can bet your tax refund that Bill Belichick isn’t the only coach in the league who knows that fact and uses it to his advantage. He’s just the only one who gets called out for it because…well, like I said earlier. He’s an a**hole.
So the Patriots won again. Go ahead…hate. Boo and hiss Emperor Belichick all you like. Create your amusing memes and toss barbs Tom Brady’s way. That’s part of the modern NFL experience, right?
But let’s not go off the deep end on this whole cheating thing. Mash your sour grapes into wine and enjoy the Super Bowl.