The Pressure of Football

Staff Reporter Sam Smith

Indianapolis Colts vs. New England Patriots. What is your view on the game? Do you think that since the Patriots had slightly deflated footballs, that the game was a cheat? Or do you think that the decreased air in the footballs had nothing to do with the score? I recently talked to our school gym teacher, Mr. Fakes, a former football player who had quite an opinion and pretty good reasoning regarding this issue.

I started by asking him what he thought of the game. He replied, “with or without an extra pound of air in the footballs, there’s really not any big difference at all.” Mr. Fakes laughed and then added, “unless there was helium in them.” Then he handed me two footballs that he went out and bought personally to show me what the “difference” was. He had me hold one that was 10 psi (pounds per square inch) and one that was 12 psi.
Without telling me which one was which, he asked me which had the lighter pressure. I could not tell the difference, so he began to tell me how some quarterbacks just like to have a little bit of a grip when they hold the ball.

This led to my question of why doesn`t the NFL just change the rule of how much psi a ball must have? If there is not much difference in how they feel, then why can`t the football’s pressure range from 10.5 psi to 13.5 psi  instead of 12.5 to 13.5? Mr. Fakes said, “Well it all kind of comes back to the rule book. For instance like the socks, hat and t-shirt rule. If a player wears the wrong socks to a game, they get fined. If a player wears the wrong hat on the field or even if a player wears the wrong shirt under their jersey on the field, they will get fined quite a bit of money. Some rules are pointless, but people find the smallest things to nail you with if they aren`t a fan. A few weeks ago when the Ravens played the Patriots, there was a complaint about how their footballs were underweight. Even the Colts had complained that their footballs weren`t in weight range before they played the Patriots in the playoffs. So why didn`t anyone do anything about it then? Why didn`t anyone make a deal out of it before this past week? Probably because it was so close to the Superbowl, which is obviously a bigger deal. But why not do something beforehand if the Patriots were bound to go against the rules?  Which leads to more questions. What if they find the footballs to be slightly deflated again this weekend just because maybe, their quarterback likes it that way? Or the even bigger question, how will people react if the Patriots win the Superbowl?” The Fetch will be watching.