CSI Tom Brady: NFL launches joint investigation of 'forensic' evidence, video and interviews as it's revealed Patriots footballs HAD passed inflation inspection shortly before the game started

[flowers]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2923921/CSI-Tom-Brady-NFL-launches-joint-investigation-forensic-evidence-video-interviews-s-revealed-Patriots-footballs-passed-inflation-inspection-shortly-game-started.html

What's more, Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson, assumed by many to have put the events in motion which led to the current NFL investigation of the New England Patriots, has denied stating that a ball he intercepted from Tom Brady during Sunday's AFC Championship game felt underinflated.

Speaking to the press following a Pro Bowl practice on Thursday, Jackson said; 'I'm a linebacker, I'm a defensive guy. If anybody recognized anything it definitely wouldn't come from me.'

Many had been calling on the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell to make a statement about just what caused 11 of the team's 12 balls to have less air pressure than is required by league rules.

'According to an NFL source with direct knowledge of the situation, referee Walt Anderson inspected all 24 of the Patriots’ footballs with a pressure gauge supplied by the league, as well as all 24 footballs from the Colts' reports The Boston Globe.

'All 48 footballs were found to be within the allowable range of 12.5-13.5 pounds per square inch.'

Furthermore, when officials decided to swap out the 12 balls at the half, they grabbed the other 12 that had previously been tested, and were properly inflated. 

As for why Jackson, and why he tossed the football he intercepted to a member of the Colts' equipment staff after he picked off Brady, he claims he just wanted a 'souvenir,' and that anything that happened after that is 'beyond' him.

'I don't know how it got to this point,' he said.

'Somehow I'm in the middle of it.'

He even went so far as to say he thought the entire thing was 'comical' when he first heard about it on Monday.

Jackson also addressed rumors that the Colts organization had noticed that the Patriots were playing with underinflated balls earlier this year during a regular season game in November, saying that no one on the coaching staff told the players to look out for anything on Sunday and that they were all just focused on the game.

His fellow teammate and Pro Bowler, safety Mike Adams, also seemed eager to downplay the Deflategate scandal on Thursday, telling reporters; 'I'm not going to even touch that subject.'

[ABX]

My thoughts on deflategate, other than being the biggest non-story in the news. I wonder if a reporter or someone has tested if there is any natural reduction in pressure simply due to outside temperature. For example, if the balls were inflated at the 12PSI in the hot locker room and given to the refs there to test in that room. Then taken outside in 20 degree weather, how much pressure would be lost simply due to the change in the air temperature. For tires, for ever 10 degrees in temperature drop, you loose 1PSI. I think they said there was only a 5% drop below the 12PSI required, so it wouldn't take much of a temperature change to drop it below that threshold.