So how did Indy's balls escape the laws of physics? That study only makes it worse for the Pats since:
1) Indy's balls were confirmed to be fine by ESPN and should have been under PSI if the same game variables were imparted upon the ball:
https://twitter.com/mortreport/status/558353913154248704
Simple math - 12.5 minus 1.8 = under the 11.5 minimum.
2) The NFL isn't going to launch a full scale investigation unless there was a significant discrepancy between the two teams' footballs. So this means either the refs fucked up on the initial measurement or the latter measurement or the Pats did cheat and the NFL will try to sweep it under the rug like it always does. Whether the Pats or refs cheated/fucked up, we will never know.
It's really frustrating reading Posts like this. People are making categorical statements without any real numbers or facts. All we know is that the Colts balls were in the specs and the Pats balls were underinflated.
But... that doesn't tell us anything. We don't know how the balls were tested, when they were tested, what the balls PSI were initially and what they ended up with when they were tested. We do know that it is a fact that the Balls would have deflated when they were outside and in the rain (Ideal Gas Law. Check out the HeadSmart study posted earlier).
Ex.
The Colts balls could have been at 13.5 or even over inflated.
The Colts balls could have been stored in the team bus and tested immediately after removing them from the BUS.
The Patriots balls could have been at 12.5.
The balls could have been tested immediately after removing them from the field. Both balls could have dropped 1 PSI. The colts balls would have been within spec and the Patriots balls would have been underinflated. We also don't know what process the Patriots and Colts used to treat the balls before they were inspected and initially tested. The Colts had to travel, so they might have had to do all the treatment before they left and their balls reached equilibrium before the initial Test. Whereas the Pats being the Home team could have been "treating" their balls up to the inspection.
What's frustrating are the people who are commenting when no real information has been released. You are neglecting all the facts that we don't know and making false inferences i.e. Bill Nye. The pats could have cheated, but we won't know until we get the numbers and actual NFL reports not rumors.
This is a going to be a clusterfuck for the NFL. If the reports are true, they should have just warned the league if they believed something nefarious was going down instead of doing a sting. But unless they have hard evidence of someone sticking a needle in the ball, they better hope that they had a scientist helping them with the sting and have solid measurements. I.e. What were the measurements of both balls before hand, where were the balls stored beforehand, were the balls allowed to reach equilibrium before testing them, what were the measurements of the balls afterward, what temperature and atmospheric pressures were both balls tested in, How soon after leaving the field were both balls tested, where were both balls stored during the game, were there damp rags around certain balls.
Edit: Thought about this some more. There is a possibility that the Colts game balls were brought to the Patriots facility in an unheated portion of a bus or truck. Making it likely that that the balls had reached outdoor equilibrium older before being tested. When they were then given to the refs for inspection the balls might have been deflated due to being outdoors and the refs would have further inflated. So even when they were brought back outside, they wouldn't have had deflated as much as the PATs ball. Again this is one theory, maybe not true, but as I said earlier there are just as many things that we don't know as there are things we know from the NFL statement.