[stupac2]

As the story notes, the game balls had to be turned over to the officials two and a half hours before kickoff. So New England couldn't possibly have known that it would be winning, or winning by a giant margin, or that the running game would be the key factor. If the footballs were deliberately underinflated, it was a strategic decision taken before the game, not an ad-hoc devised on the sideline.

It seems to me it's going to be hard to prove this was deliberate rather than accidental. ("Hey, our tire gauge wasn't working right!") But I am also pretty surprised that the NFL would announce this. So, who knows?

I believe the rules are such that the officials are in possession of the balls right up until the start of the game. At that point the only people who could mess with them are basically ballboys, and you'd be doing it with all those cameras around. So, yeah, they could've screwed with them then, but, again, why? The gameplan called for a heavy dose of running, so it really seems like a marginal gain for the potential cost (though I'm not sure exactly how you get caught doing it intentionally). I'm really skeptical that this happened.

Anyway, since we've heard literally nothing about why anyone suspects the Pats' balls were deflated, we don't really know when the supposed transgression occurred. Because of that I was assuming it stemmed from the 3rd quarter mishap where the officials replaced the ball, which the broadcast team said was because it was a kicking ball, but we don't really know.

[stupac2]

As the story notes, the game balls had to be turned over to the officials two and a half hours before kickoff. So New England couldn't possibly have known that it would be winning, or winning by a giant margin, or that the running game would be the key factor. If the footballs were deliberately underinflated, it was a strategic decision taken before the game, not an ad-hoc devised on the sideline.

It seems to me it's going to be hard to prove this was deliberate rather than accidental. ("Hey, our tire gauge wasn't working right!") But I am also pretty surprised that the NFL would announce this. So, who knows?

I believe the rules are such that the officials are in possession of the balls right up until the start of the game. At that point the only people who could mess with them are basically ballboys, and you'd be doing it with all those cameras around. So, yeah, they could've screwed with them then, but, again, why? The gameplan called for a heavy dose of running, so it really seems like a marginal gain for the potential cost (though I'm not sure exactly how you get caught doing it intentionally). I'm really skeptical that this happened.

Anyway, since we've heard literally nothing about why anyone suspects the Pats' balls were deflated, we don't really know when the supposed transgression occurred. Because of that I was assuming it stemmed from the 3rd quarter mishap where the officials replaced the ball, which the broadcast team said was because it was a kicking ball, but we don't really know.