When news emerged over the weekend regarding the use of computer chips for determining the clearance within which field goals and extra points are being made, some suggested (sarcastically) that they chips should be used to monitor PSI levels in the footballs.
While that’s not yet happening, it could be. Via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com, the technology exists. The league could monitor PSI in footballs if it wanted, in the same way cars monitor the air pressure in tires.
So why not do it? Thanks to #DeflateGate, the NFL finally learned that the same phenomenon that causes air pressure in tires to drop in cold weather applies to footballs. The NFL also surely learned last year, via PSI spot-checks in cold weather games, that games are played every year in sufficiently cold conditions to cause footballs to drop below 12.5 PSI while in use.
The zeal with which the league presumed guilt in New England and hired Ted Wells to clumsily work backward in an effort to prove it should compel the league to install pressure monitors that would alert the officials as to footballs that stray beyond the 12.5-to-13.5-PSI range. If having footballs outside of the accepted range represents a sufficient affront to the integrity of the game to compel serious punishment of a quarterback and his team, the league should be doing everything in its power to ensure that footballs will always remain within the accepted range.
NFL V.P. of football officiating Dean Blandino will join PFT Live on Tuesday morning at 8:35 a.m. ET. I’ll ask him about the intended use of chip technology and other issues of interest when it comes to officiating games.