Did NFL's inattention to PSI lead to Deflategate?

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So Jim McNally dubbed himself “The Deflator.” Which NFL official (or officials) could answer to the nickname “The Inflator”? Some? All? None?

We can’t know and the investigation by Ted Wells didn’t bother to try and find out. But one unintended consequence of Wells report is that it shows just how lax and haphazard the pregame measurement of ball pressure was to the league’s officials.

Pressure gauges used by officials aren’t calibrated for consistency, as we see in the Wells Report’s listing of the halftime PSIs.

Head referee Walt Anderson is praised for his professionalism, in part because he does his own ball gauging before games instead of delegating the responsibility. He is said to be “one of the few” officials who doesn’t slough off this task to an underling.

Not in the report but mentioned by a former NFL official with whom I spoke was the tendency of some officials to merely do a “squeeze” test and not use a gauge at all.

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers spoke about trying to slip past officials footballs that are overinflated. That he presumably has been able to slip ‘em through shows a less-than-diligent effort by officials to do the gauging.

No surprise. Given the way the responsibility is routinely passed down the line, it’s more probable than not the person saddled with it doesn’t give it his undivided attention.

It also logically follows that if there are officials doing squeeze tests, balls that don’t pass muster in the opinion of the tester would be given a dose of air. No measurement taken.

Prior to the AFC Championship Game, official Greg Yette “purposely overshot” the 12.5 to 13.5 PSI range on two Patriots footballs when he added air to them because Anderson found them -- on his gauge -- to be under the 12.5 PSI range.

Wells notes parenthetically in his report that “(…it is hard to be precise when adding air.)”

The potential for overinflation seems obvious. Even routine. Which is how a football might end up at, say, 16 PSI.

Who would care? The quarterback. And --– by extension -- the equipment manager charged with preparing the 24 selected balls to the quarterback’s specifications.

The text messages in the Wells Report look like crap.

The ones where officials locker-room attendant Jim McNally calls himself “the deflator” and alludes to overinflating balls to agitate Brady. The ones where equipment assistant John Jastremski speaks of giving McNally the needle and appears to reference Brady’s concern about McNally feeling stress to “get them done.”

It defies logic to think that there wasn’t manipulation or at least monitoring of ball pressure being done after the balls left the officials' oversight.

But was McNally charged with deflating footballs every chance he got to get them under 12.5 PSI? Or was he the guy asked by Jastremski (at Brady’s behest) to return the balls to 12.5 if the officials -- in their less-than-attentive inspection --pumped them up too much?

On page 53 of the Wells Report, you’ll find McNally reminding Anderson that 12.5 is the target.

“At some point during the process of gauging and marking the footballs, Jim McNally, who came and went from the Officials Locker Room over the course of the afternoon, requested that Anderson make sure that the Patriots footballs were set at 12.5 PSI. According to Anderson, McNally said something to the effect of 'remember, Walt, Tom likes them at 12.5,' though he could not recall McNally’s precise working. A number of other game officials heard McNally make this request. Anderson said he did not think much of the request at the time because he had heard McNally make similar requests in the past. In particular, Anderson believes that McNally may have made the same request when Anderson had most recently officiated at Gillette Stadium for the Patriots game against the Denver Broncos on November 2, 2014.”

To me, that establishes concern from Brady via McNally that the officials take care with the ball pressure. Why, unless there were prior occasions on which the balls ended up more inflated than they were when they left the Patriots’ care, would McNally be asked to give that reminder?

He wouldn’t.

Evidence of officials overinflating balls -- and the sense that it was a routine occurrence -- could be seen in one of the text exchanges between McNally and Jastresmki after the Jets game last season. The Wells Report notes that Brady expressed anger about ball pressure in that Thursday night game.

Jastremski said in texts to McNally, “He was right though…I checked some of the balls this morn…The refs f****** us…a few of them were at almost 16. They didn’t recheck them after they put air in them.”

This information shared by Jastremski doesn’t make the occurrence sound unprecedented. And, given the lack of consistent diligence, calibrated equipment and regulation (PSI data is not recorded) of the officials when it comes to gauging the balls, it’s easy to see why the quarterback would be angry that the balls had been manipulated by officials after being turned in at a specific PSI.

The referee for that game was Bill Leavy.

The Wells investigation could have turned inward at that point to investigate how the officials were carrying out this exercise. Were footballs being overinflated past specifications routinely? Was Jastremski’s claim of “almost 16” an exaggeration, was it fact? We don’t know because recording PSI data wasn’t on the NFL’s radar prior to this “scandal.”

And, given who Wells was hired by and the tone of his report, investigation into whether or why Brady had concerns about the balls being overinflated wasn’t going to be broached.

The NFL’s first foray into recording and reporting PSIs occurred during halftime of the AFC Championship Game. The results are less damning than the Wells Report would prefer them to appear, especially when considering the ideal gas law.

If we are to believe that balls measured by the officials at 12.5 PSI prior to the game were relieved of air by McNally during his weird walkabout prior to going to the field, shouldn’t they be a lot softer than the recordings we’re presented?

When checking the Patriots footballs, 16 of the 22 PSI measurements taken at halftime were at 11 or above. Accounting for the ideal gas law and McNally’s alleged/presumed deflations, that means what? A quarter of a hiss? Less than a half-second of deflation?

Or maybe none at all? Maybe McNally was the fail safe for the officials. The one charged with making sure the officials didn’t "f***" Brady, like they did in October against the Jets.

How plausible is it that McNally was given marching orders to -- if possible -- check the footballs for 12.5 PSI after the officials measure (or squeeze them) and add air. And if they are overdone, return them to 12.5 PSI? If possible.

Pretty plausible.

Would this still represent the Patriots tinkering with something after final inspection? Absolutely. Would it be wrong? Absolutely.

If Brady were that concerned with the PSI being messed with, balls being overinflated by officials and not rechecked and a general lack of respect for the equipment, operating through the proper channels would have been the way to go.

You go to the guys in charge of game operations. Guys like Mike Kensil or David Gardi. You go to the NFL’s Competition Committee.

Because, even if officials routinely overinflated balls, let non-conforming balls slip through, kick the responsibility for checking down the line and don’t even have gauges that are calibrated, there may be a day where they decide that ball pressure is very, very important to it.

And any investigation the league does is not going to focus on what the league could have done better.

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