Deflate-gate is the gift that keeps on giving.
On Saturday, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick decided to hold a press conference where he unequivocally stated that the Patriots had no hand in purposefully deflating footballs in the AFC Championship Game.
Belichick stated that the balls were rubbed down prior to inspection and that outside conditions accounted for lost air pressure in their game-used footballs.
“We all know that air pressure is a function of the atmospheric conditions … so if there’s activity in the ball relative to the rubbing process, I think that explains why, once the ball reaches equilibrium state, it was probably closer to 11½,” Belichick said.
Yes, a football coach held a weekend press conference to lecture the national media on gas laws and thermodynamics.
It was glorious.
On Monday, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson chimed in with his two cents on Belichick’s theory of why the Patriots’ footballs were deflated. Simply put, he isn’t buying Belichick’s science at all.
For the Patriots to blame a change in temperature for 15% lower-pressures, requires balls to be inflated with 125-degree air.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 26, 2015
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s skepticism of Belichick’s claims mirror those of science celebrity Bill Nye, who stated on Sunday that he thought Belichick’s scientific explanation for Deflate-gate was flawed.
Yes, both Bill Nye the Science Guy and one of America’s most famous astrophysicists have now given their own thoughts on whether the New England Patriots’ footballs could have been deflated by atmospheric conditions. Deflate-gate is a runaway train of absurdity. May it never stop.
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