When would the Patriots get a chance to deflate their footballs?

[pipi_k]

11. They did it

telepathically.

When the offense is in a huddle they mentally target the balls, commanding them to lose air, then when the play is over, regain the lost air before the officials/refs get a hand on them.

Pretty slick!


Seriously, though...

I watched the game again last night (had recorded it) and those balls were being handled by refs all during the game. Now, I had read that it would be easier to feel underinflation in a ball than to see it. If all of those footballs were that underinflated, one would think that some ref with his hands on it would notice.

The one instance where I did see a ball removed happened when an official gave the Pats the wrong ball for the purpose...i.e. they had a kicking ball instead of a regular ball. The ball had to be replaced with the proper game ball.