Two of the game balls the Pittsburgh Steelers used against the New York Giants in Week 13 were reportedly under the allowable air pressure limit set by the NFL, but no one seems to care.
On Sunday morning, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reported that the Giants became suspicious that the game balls the Steelers were using were under-inflated following a pair of turnovers. The Giants informed the NFL of their concerns, though the league said Sunday that no formal complaint was filed and all proper procedures were followed prior to the game.
According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the two balls the Giants brought to their sideline were, in fact, below the minimum inflation level of 12.5 PSI. One reportedly measured at 11.4 PSI and the other at 11.8 PSI.
When asked about Glazer’s report, Ben Roethlisberger joked that the Steelers were using Nerf balls. Mike Tomlin said the NFL can feel free to investigate because the team did nothing wrong. So the quarterback cracked a joke and the coach insisted his team follows the rules. Sounds familiar, huh?
The Giants-Steelers game kicked off at 4:25 local time. The temperature that day was a high of 40 and a low of 32, so it was pretty chilly. Could the deflation in the balls have been explained by science? Most likely. But if the NFL admits that, it risks admitting that the same could have been true with the Patriots and millions of dollars were wasted on Ted Wells and his “independent” investigation.
In reality, the two situations are not all that different. Yet, virtually no one is accusing the Steelers of being shady and making a huge deal out of a PSI measurement. Tom Brady recently mocked his Deflategate suspension in a commercial (video here), and everyone is conveniently taking the “not this again!” approach with the latest ball tampering accusation. Would that be the case if the Patriots were being accused again? We highly doubt it.
