‘F’ in Science: NFL Admits Not Knowing Balls Lose Air Pressure Naturally

A transcript released of testimony given before Roger Goodell in the Deflategate appeal reveals that the NFL remained ignorant of the Ideal Gas Law and the influence of temperature on ball pressure when the league busted the New England Patriots for playing with balls beneath the league’s minimum pressure levels in the AFC Championship Game.

In the hearing before Roger Goodell, the man the commissioner tasks with overseeing game operations, which include the object used to play the game, conceded his ignorance that natural factors could deflate footballs.

Jeff Kessler: Okay. So prior to this game, okay, had you ever heard of the Ideal Gas Law?

Troy Vincent: No, sir.

Jeff Kessler: Do you know if anyone in the NFL Game-Day Operations had ever discussed the impact of the Ideal Gas Law in testing footballs?

Troy Vincent: Not with me.

Jeff Kessler: You had never heard of that?

Troy Vincent: I hadn’t.

Vincent answers, “No, sir,” when Tom Brady’s lawyer Jeff Kessler asks, “Now, at the time that was true, did you know that the footballs were automatically going to lose pressure if it was cold outside compared to how warm it was inside? Was that ever something you thought about prior to this game?” He admits that the NFL had never even measured pressure at halftime or postgame, a concession that further affirms the NFL’s ignorance of the influence of weather conditions on pressure.

Troy Vincent, the man who handed down Tom Brady’s four-game suspension, serves as the NFL’s executive vice president of operations. The NFL described his responsibilities as “officiating, integrity of the game, on-field discipline, game operations, player personnel, and college relations.”