Prize

........... Recipient of the 2010 MacDougal Irving Prize for Truth in Market Manipulation ...........

January 23, 2015

Underinflating Footballs


     National Football League game balls, we're being told, are inflated to pressures between 12 1/2 and 13 1/2 pounds per square inch (psi).  Thing is, that arcane fact happens to reach our ears because the Patriots got accused of stomping the Colts 45-7 this weekend through under-inflating their game balls by some 2 psi. 

     Apparently a team's game improves by 5 touchdowns and a field goal when you set the gauge to 10 1/2 instead of whatever.  Clearly, this brings up one simple question.

     Why didn't they tell everyone to set the damn contraptions to 10 1/2 in the first place?