Pressure and NFL football
The spelling of Deflate-gate is up for debate (Deflategate? Deflate-Gate?) but science isn’t up for debate, not simple science such as the science of putting air into footballs, and causing air to come out. Belichick’s team is being investigated by the NFL after 11 of 12 footballs it used in their 45-7 win over the Indianapolis Colts were found to be underinflated by 2 pounds (they should be 12.5 to 13.5 pounds per square inch).
The win got them to the Super Bowl but the controversy is throwing them off. Quarterback Tom Brady and teammates that have been asked about the deflated footballs have pleaded innocent. They would prefer to focus on the Seattle Seahawks and next Sunday’s Super Bowl.
The coach decided to step in and take heat of his players. His first strategy, last Thursday, was to say he knows nothing about the process of the footballs being readied for games, not a thing about the balls they used in that game or other NFL games he and his team have played. He knows nothing about the entire affair. Nada.
Belichick takes football inflation
That didn’t blow off the heat, many don’t believe he doesn’t know anything about the footballs, and so Belichick decided to go on the offense again. He spoke to the media Saturday and this time explained the science, sort of, of NFL footballs, the inflating and deflating of, and the concept of “rubbing” the footballs. We’ll go to that and then end, abruptly for his comment is short, with Bill Nye The Science Guy:
Here, uninterrupted, is coach Belichick on footballs (warning: it is complex and dangerously close to babblegab):
“We found that once the footballs were on the field over an extended period of time, in other words, they were adjusted to the climatic conditions and also the fact that the footballs reached an equilibrium without the rubbing process, that after that had run its course that they were down approximately 1½ pounds per square inch.
“When we brought the footballs back in after that process and re-tested them in a controlled environment, then those measurements rose approximately one half pound per square inch. So, the net of 1½, back to a half, is approximately one pound per square inch.
“Now, we all know that air pressure is a function of the atmospheric conditions. If there is activity in the ball relative to the rubbing process I think that explains why when we gave them to the officials and the officials put them at let’s say 12.5…once the ball reached its equilibrium state it’s probably closer to 11.5.”
Bill Nye beats down Belichick
Got that? Some have trouble with it, this pundit included. At any rate, now we’ll see what someone who studied science and knows its principles has to say. As promised it would come at the end and be abrupt. So here is what Bill Nye The Science Guy had to say about Belichick’s explanation of the deflated footballs:
“What he said didn’t make any sense.”
Which is another way of saying that Deflate-gate isn’t over yet. Not by a long shot, or by a long pass.
