DennyDoyle said:
Yeah, I'm doing this solo so no real way to do a blind test, but now that I know the trick of exactly how to tell, I feel like I could do ok in blind test if you gave me the balls one right after another. If you made me wait a minute between feeling the balls, I would have much less confidence.
It's so great that you are doing this and looking forward to the results!
Regarding the "feel test," though, we all need to keep in mind that the Ideal Gas Law and game time temperature fluctuations render the question of feel meaningless in terms of supposed culpability.
The balls are (theoretically) in spec before every game every week, and in every single cold weather game they fall out of spec sometime during the first quarter at latest.* These are sadly the only facts we have.
Brunell can't believe Tom didn't notice on Sunday? Actually, they were more inflated against the Colts than the Ravens. Flacco didn't seem to notice much in that game, not that anyone would bother asking.
Oh, and we can keep going back on this. Eli Manning in Green Bay in 07? Way underinflated. The Tuck Rule game? Deflation Central. Super Bowls I & II? Of course they f@#king were!
The temperature changes. The pressure changes. Quarterbacks feel this all the time, or not. It's just one of many things that feels slightly, mostly imperceptibly different in the cold.
So for those of us who understand that the psi fluctuations are clearly temperature-driven, let's remember that the idea that Tom should have noticed any difference is just a red herring from the media and washed up athletes who should f@#king know better.
I think we all get it, but then again I'm also losing my mind on this, so... yeah.
* Except for maybe some Aaron Rodgers footballs that sneak through.