The NFL Never Recorded PSI Levels Before The AFC Championship Game

(PFT) — What was the precise PSI of each of the 12 footballs the Patriots’ offense used in the AFC Championship Game? We’ll probably never know. NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino confirmed today that the NFL didn’t log the exact PSI of each football. According to Blandino, when officials inspect footballs to see if they’re properly inflated, they simply approve them or disapprove them. In other words, although the Patriots did play with under-inflated footballs, the NFL hasn’t kept detailed records of whether those footballs were slightly under-inflated (which could be the result of a change in temperature) or significantly under-inflated (which would indicate that someone purposely let air out of the footballs).

I’m as sick of this as anybody but Pres would probably rip my head off if I didn’t mention it. Recording PSI levels strikes me as something refs would do if it actually mattered at all. I guess my only question is how was everybody saying the Colts balls stayed exactly the same PSI if that wasn’t written down? Did the refs remember the PSI level of every Colts ball from before the game? Or is there a possibility that Andrew Luck likes his footballs more inflated and while the PSI dropped it still fell within the legal limit, whereas Brady likes the PSI on the lower end so when his balls dropped (lol) it fell out of the legal limit? I don’t know, I’m not a scientist like Belichick, just appears to be a bunch reasonable doubt to me. All we know is that there’s no chance the Patriots get in any trouble. Terrible job of logging evidence by the league.