Sunday, January 25, 2015

Patriots Coach Bill Belichick Blames 'Deflategate' on Weather Condition

Carolyn Williams
Published: January 24,2015 




 
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick came out Saturday with a new potential cause of the 'Deflategate' scandal: the weather.
Belichick called a surprise press conference Saturday, the International Business Times reported, and said the weather outside was colder than in the locker room where the balls were filled with air.
The team conducted a series of atmospheric and pressure tests over the past week, and Belichick, claiming he was "not a scientist," shared the results of these tests during the press conference, Sports Illustrated said. Belichick noted the tests uncovered human wrongdoing was not a factor in the deflation, but rather science.
(MORE: Another Winter Storm Will Bring Snow from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast) 
He said the team's internal testing revealed ball pressure drops 1.5 pounds per square inch when the footballs are taken outside, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Unfortunately, the teams internal testing will more than likely warrant scrutiny from NFL officials, as the testing is not peer reviewed or published, and an independent party has not replicated the test's results, Sports Illustrated reported.
However, Bill Naughton, chair of the physics department of Boston College, said weather clearly had a role in the controversy, and it was impossible for it not to have, according to NESN.com.
(MORE: Boston's Natural Gas Pipes Leaking High Levels of Heat-Trapping Methane) 
The coach compared the situation to the change in tire pressure when newly-inflated tires are left outside overnight.
Belichick defended the team against any wrongdoing, saying, "We did everything as right as we can do it."

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