NFL still contemplating how it will share PSI data

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With the NFL randomly collecting and recording PSI levels from pregame and halftime this season, there’s plenty of interest as to when that information will be shared.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello stated in an email Friday morning that, “A determination on how it will be shared has not been made yet.”

That the NFL is only contemplating “how” to share the info and not "if" it will is good news.

Deflategate was spawned by distrust of the Patriots both at the league and organizational level. The double-speak, shell games and loaded inferences the NFL, its attorneys, Ted Wells and the law firm of Paul Weiss engaged in during the football investigation left a stain that will take decades to erase in this region.

The NFL needs to be transparent with every measurement taken in 2015 and – while the readings are being randomly collected – they shouldn’t be so random as to not be taken in cold-weather locations in December so that fans, the media and the NFL itself gains a better understanding of how the Ideal Gas Law impacts footballs.

Important to remember in discussing this is that the Patriots footballs, measured prior to the game, were all in the area of 12.5 PSI. At halftime, according to research done for the NFL and included in the Wells Report, the footballs should have measured between 11.35 and 11.55 PSI. Not a single one of the footballs measured at halftime of the AFC Championship game was even one PSI under the estimated low threshold of 11.35 PSI. And, without recorded numbers taken from calibrated gauges, whether that (or any football) was tampered with is impossible to know or prove.

If the NFL does take measurements in places like New England, Green Bay, Minnesota, etc., this winter, we’ll likely see scads of footballs checking in below 12.5 PSI.

In theory, that information would be useful for any NFL owner wanting to figure out exactly why the league office allowed itself to spend more than $10M to find out something Bill Belichick explained to them during a Saturday afternoon press conference in January.

But we’ve already been told the owners just wanted their pound of Patriots flesh, so it will be left for others to figure out what Deflategate taught us.

 

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