"How we doing?"
I want to take this opportunity to share information
I spent a significant amount of time this weekend learning what I could about letters, air gauges, stitches, ball preparation, etc.
Trying to be as helpful as I can and share what I learned. Having coached for several years, growing up in a football family, being around this game the entire life, it's clear I don't know very much about this area. I've learned a lot more, exponentially more, than I have ever known.
There have been questions raised, and I believe now, 100%, that I have personally, and we as an organization, has followed every rule to the letter, and on behalf of the organization, we have to say something
I've talked to and gathered a lot of information from staff, talked to other people familiar with this subject in other organizations, and we have performed an internal study of the process and there are other things we can do, but i have enough info to share with you
based on the events of today, this is the time to do it, it's impromptu but w/e
first of all, the process
as Tom said, the most important part of the ball for the QB is the feel of the ball, exterior. It's critical and easily identifiable. You can tell how broken in it is, etc. Easy to identify. That's the essence of the prep. We prepare the balls over time, use them in practice, that process
continues right up until balls are given to officials. Thats when theyre finalized
In that process, I've handled dozens of balls over the past week the texture is very easy to identify. The pressure is a whole different story
It's much more difficult to feel or identify. So the focus of our prep is based on feel and texture. Tom went into that and he's the one who can go through it in more detail than I can
We simulated a gameday situation in terms of prep of footballs and where the balls were at various times of the day, and our preparation process for the footballs is what we do, can't speak for other teams, and that process raises the PSI approximately 1 pound. (psi, i assume). The process of creating the feel they want elevates the PSI approximately 1 PSI, based on what our study showed, doing what we would do for a game.
When the balls are delivered to the locker room for the refs, we asked them to bring them down to 12.5. That's what we did in the study, but we don't know what the refs do with them. That's done in a controlled climate. Prepared in our locker room, delivered to official's locker room, which is also controlled environment. When the balls go outside into the elements, that's where the footballs are played with, and thats where the measurements would be different then what they are in a controlled environment, and thats what we found. When the footballs were on the field for an extended period of time and adjusted to temp and reached equilibrium, they were down approximately 1.5 psi.*
When we brought them back in after and retested them in a controlled environment, those measurements rose approximately 0.5 PSI. The net of 1.5 back to a half is about 1 PSI.
Now, we all know air pressure is a function of atmospheric conditions. If there's activity in the ball relative to the rubbing process, that explains why, when we gave them to the officials, if they put them at 12.5 psi, once it reached equilibrium state, it was closer to 11.5. Those were our measurements, we can't speak to what happened on that day. We don't touch them after the officials have them
it's similar to when your car says check tire pressure when its been out and cold
the atmospheric conditions relative to the ball is critical
At no time were any of our footballs prepared anywhere other than the locker room. never in a heated room or heated condition. that has absolutely never taken place to anyone's knowledge. didn't happen.
when you measure a football, there are a number of different issues that come up. Gauges (different types, accuracy, etc.), all footballs are different.
Each ball has it's own characteristics. It's an animal skin, it's a bladder, it's stitching, and each has it's own unique characteristics. When you do the same thing to different balls, there will be variance.
Footballs do not get measured during the game. We have no way of knowing, til we did the study, that this has taken place. When we give them to the officials, they put them to what they put them at, let's say 12.5, the air pressure from then to the rest of the game, we have no knowledge of. It's never been a concern. the concern is the pressure.
We had our QBs look at a number of footballs. They were unable to differentiate a 1 PSI difference in those footballs. They were unable to do it. On a 2 PSI difference, there was some differentiation, but not consistent. They could pick out some of them, but not all of their guesses were right. I can't tell the difference if there's 1 PSI or 0.5 PSI in any footballs.
Anyone who has seen us practice knows me make it harder to handle the ball. players train in conditions some people would say you shouldn't drive in. They're a mentally and physically tough team that works hard and has met every challenge I put in front of them. I know that because I work them every day. Best team in the AFC, beat 2 good teams in the playoffs, best team in the postseason. That's what this team is. I'm proud of this team.
I just want to show you what I've learned. I'm embarrassed to say how much time i've put into this vs. super bowl prep. i'm not a scientist or an expert in measurements, just telling you what i know. Not Mona Lisa Vito of the football world.
At no time was there any intent, WHATSOEVER, to compromise the integrity of the game. We feel we followed to letter of the rules in procedures, regulations, and every game we played in as it relates to this matter
We try and do everything right, we err on the side of caution. it's been this way for years. Anything that's close, we stay away from the line. In this case, we did everything as we could do it. We welcome the league's investigation, there are a number of things to be looked into, but that's not this conversation.
This is the end of this subject for me for a long time, ok? we have a huge game, and that's where this focus is going to go. I've spent more than enough time on this and im happy to share all that i've learned over this week. The matter is very complex, we're not landing a guy on the moon but there are a lot of things that are hard to get a handle on.
Alright, i'll take a couple questions then moving on
Q: Did NFL share...
A: talk to the NFL
Q: you don't know if they documented the pressure at various..
A: Tom, we could talk about this for 2 hrs. If you want to ask the league about what they do, ask the league. I'm just saying what I've learned. That's all I can say, I'm not a scientist nor a league official
Q: Do you feel after this work, you'll be exonerated
A: I just told you what I think
Q: usually this is spent on gameplanning
A: I have spent time game planning
Q: Do you think time's been compromised from gameplanning?
A: It has to be done
Q: it's a combo of atmospheric pressures and trusting the officials inflated the balls to 12.5 is that correct?
A; you can take the atmospheric conditions out of it. If there taken in the same conditions, they should be the same. If you expose them to elements, they'll be different. That's not the issue. Depending on where/how balls were measured, that's a whole different discussion. The prep caused the ball to be artificially high when it was set to the regulation level, then reached it's equilibrium at some point during the game, which was below what was set. anyone who wants to do the experiment, go ahead
Q: You try and err on the side of caution. You were pushing the envelope on video taping, has that changed?
A: The guy's giving signals in front of 80k people, we filmed that like a lot of other people were at the time. 80k people saw the guy, everyone saw us. It was wrong, we were disciplined for it, that's it. We're not going to do that again. We always will err on the side of caution.
Q: did you have any "science people" help with your investigation
A: we talked to a lot of people
Q: How much time spent?
A: didn't log it
Q: are you relieved by what you found?
A: on thursday i said i didn't have answers. We went through everything, im confident in what i've told you.
Q: so is that a yes?
A: i did what i did. I'm not using those adjectives
Q: Do you know what made the pressure rise?
A: You rub it to get to the texture, etc. (Bill's getting really pissed here). Does that stimulate something inside the ball to raise PSI, i would say yes
Q: based on research, what will you do differently
A: that's another whole area here. its a very important question
he finished here