Why?
If everybody agrees-- that for optimum offense the ball is best inflated at 10 PSI for throwing, catching, and holding--then why is the rule 12.5 to 13.5psi?
Two possibilities:
1. The football psi level was intended to be "difficult" to handle in order to make the game more challenging. Offenses were not supposed to be at their optimum "comfortability" when handling the football, that was part of the design of the game.
2. The football psi level was intended to be at optimum comfort for offensive use. However, when the rule was made back in the stone age days of the league when they had a goal post at the front of the end-zone and had no facemasks, the ball was designed differently where 12.5 to 13.5 psi was the perfect optimum for offensive handling.
Conclusion:
If #1 is the truth: If Donovan McNabb could be an NFL QB and not know a regular season game can end in a tie, it is more than probable that nobody knew that the ball psi was designed in order to NOT BE optimum comfort-ability.
What is the difference between wiffle ball and baseball? In baseball, the ball and bat are designed for "Optimum distance" whereas in wiffle ball, the ball and bat are designed in order to restrict the offense optimum...a solid ball travels further than a swiss cheese plastic one.
If #2: Then what the referees, players, and coaches around the league for decades have overlooked when they knew the ball was deflated 2 psi, or around 17 % of total air volume, they were doing so because they didn't believe the rule was right
They believed the rule was set in place so the offense has optimum usage of the ball. And thus, New England and the refs are as guilty as not taking an old hermit to jail for smoking weed in his mountainous legal shack in the wilderness, bothering nobody...
This would then mean, the league simply need only to change the PSI rules to where the offense has more legal fluctuation for the inflation level of the ball..and they don't have to go around sneaking their air pins to quickly in seconds get that ball down 17 percent of volume (the ballboy didn't want the old hermit to go to jail either)
So this to me is the most important question....why is the rule 12.5 to 13.5 psi? Does anybody know?