Deflategate: Is it cheating?

[frankfrank]

I've heard arguments saying that the underinflated footballs, which were used by The NE Patriots, gave all players on all teams the same advantage.

I disagree...The Patriots had that advantage in ALL of their home games. Because any opposing team will play a New England home game only ONCE per year, any opposing team has the shared advantage only once, at most.

Some teams do not play in a New England home game at all in a given year, because there are simply "too many teams to go around." Those teams never have the advantage for even one game, though The Patriots have** the football advantage for roughly one-half of ALL their games.

(**Or, now that the secret is out, I guess I need to say HAD.)

 

[nycguydowntown]

it doesn't look good---I agree with a Pats fan that this whole thing has taken the wind out of the sails and ruined everything---even if they win the Super Bowl it won't matter---I felt sorry for him as he is a real fan and this whole thing has massively depressed him--as it should.

 

[frankfrank]

Not to mention that, HOWEVER MUCH advantage underinflated footballs give, it was a *SECRET* within the Patriots and, therefore, opposing teams would not know right away that the footballs are any different, so whatever advantage there was to share, they wouldn't "get it" right away.

Not intimately knowing football physics, I don't really know how much difference it really made, but I heard somebody alleging that the football could become "softer" if it was somewhat scuffed up, which is nonsense...unless the scuffing-up is so aggressive that it starts leaking. The air is self-contained, and the covering is not elastic...AT ALL.

 

[Ninja108]

Yes it is cheating and the excuse every other team is doing it falls flat, as does the justification the Pats would have beaten the Colts anyway.
There is something to be said for playing the game the right way and the Patriots have shown time and time again they have no intentions of doing so.

 

[JackFTwist]

is it cheating? no.

 

[chrisrobin]

is it cheating? no.

Somebody broke the 11th Commandment: Okay to break the first ten, but don't get caught.

 

[T-Rexx]

It is cheating, of course.

But it's also much ado about nothing. Deflating the balls has negative as well as positive consequences (they don't travel as far). And the balls were only deflated for the first half, which was quite competitive (14-10 Patriots at the half). The Patriots played better during the second half, when the balls were at regulation pressue.

It's hard to imagine that this incident affected the outcome of the game. It just means we need to keep an eye on the Patriots as an organization - they're inclined to cheat. But then, we knew that already.

 

[JackFTwist]

it is not cheating

gamesmanship

like Gaylord Perry throwing a spitball

nothing more

 

[bankside]

I thought this was a thread about US financial policy from 2009 to 2014, or European financial policy from 2015 forward. Or Greece's dangerous, stupid, and self-defeating grexit fantasy nightmare.


THAT is cheating...

 

[evanrick]

Anytime Forbes calls it the stupidest controversy ever you know its a huge scam. The patriots will never hear the end of this.

 

[stephen82]

Yes it is cheating, but it's not that big of a deal really. They would have won anyway, and it ended up being a total blowout. But they've been caught cheating before and it makes me wonder how much they've got away with that we don't even know about.

 

[frankfrank]

Anytime Forbes calls it the stupidest controversy ever you know its a huge scam. The patriots will never hear the end of this.

Hey! It's almost as big an issue as flag-burning.

 

[moniker]

Each team is allowed to use its own footballs during a game. There is no detectable difference in the feel of the balls (when you don't know which one you're handling). It may give a psychological advantage to the quarterback if he thinks he's getting even a slight edge (athletes can be very superstitious). A perfect story for the 24/7 news culture, otherwise it's total B.S.

 

[thermodynamics]

The ideal gas law explains most of the pressure loss, but perhaps not all.

 

[frankfrank]

Hey! It's almost as big an issue as flag-burning.

Actually, if things were more logical here, both underinflated footballs AND GAY MARRIAGE would be less of an issue here, than the meaningless and trivial issue of flag-burning.

The ideal gas law explains most of the pressure loss, but perhaps not all.

Wasn't the temperature around 30 or 40 on the day of the game? If a football lost two pounds of PSI from a difference of only about 40 degrees, my tires (which maintain adequate pressure on hot summer days, and don't get dangerously pressurized from the friction of driving) would be going flat in the winter. That just doesn't happen.

I don't know how to use that formula above, but if it's pressure versus temperature, the formula is valid only if Degrees Kelvin are used. On that scale, the difference between game day, and the temperature even in a "hot" equipment room (75 degrees or 24 C), is absolutely trivial.