The real myth is whether deflating helps elite QBs playing with elite RBs and WRs. So with this myth, it's not a generalized proposition, that deflating helps quarterbacks. The total population of people right now who can throw the ball with the speed and accuracy of Tom Brady is astonishingly small. (Now I realize most of the world doesn't play American football, but that just proves my point. Some teams (Raiders, Dolphins, Steelers) have good starters but their backups are horrible.Ĭonsidering that a medium-good quarterback in the NFL can command $20 million per year, if there are other Brady-level quarterbacks floating around the 7 billion people on Earth, they would have been found. The Browns, Rams, 49ers, Broncos all have garbage. The biggest struggle this past year or so has been finding starting quarterbacks of any quality. Well considering that in the NFL about half of the starting quarterbacks are complete garbage (including all 4 on my NY Jets), yes, I think this is accurate. Even without elite RBs or WRs (and with Gronk hurt) they're still the most dominant team in the NFL. Quick thought: Holy cow, what if he would play even better in the 2016 season if the balls were deflated? That would be amazing to see since he's already an MVP candidate for this year. He's the most amazing QB in the NFL, and I wonder if he doesn't regret the whole deflation thing because it obviously has NOT helped him, or at least it hasn't hurt him at all. Obviously since Deflategate, he's been playing even better. I think that he thinks it provided a small edge in performance. I believe 100% Tom Brady organized the deflating of footballs. They didn't try and test the deflating of footballs, nor did they (even remotely) test the supposed benefits for elite quarterbacks and elite receivers performing at the very highest level of gameplay.Īlso full-disclosure: I'm a huge Jets fan (blah). Maybe that 2 PSI difference really helps with the fastest balls (because they would bounce a little less when they hit your hands?).Īnyway, this experiment tested almost nothing of interest to the real Deflategate scandal. A speed at which normal folks couldn't possibly catch them. Maybe deflating the balls only helps receivers when the balls are thrown at 30, 40, 50mph. Maybe deflating footballs only helps those dudes? Maybe deflating wouldn't help a tiny bit for middle or high-school athletes. There are maybe 10 people on Earth who can throw with the speed and accuracy of Tom Brady. Who knows? But that level of advantage is extremely hard to test with regular shmoes off the street. Maybe it gave running backs a 2% advantage. Maybe deflating gave Brady a 1% advantage. There would be more "give" in the ball when it hits the receivers' hands, meaning less bounce and maybe easier to catch.īut here's the thing: This all might only apply to the Elite of the Elite athletes. This would make it harder to knock loose, etc.įinally, that they would be easier to catch. The thinking went that running backs could squeeze and control the ball better than fully inflated ones. There was some analysis done (of questionable veracity and methodology) showing that the Patriots had statistically fewer fumbles. This could potentially allow him to have more control over the ball. I don't know about you all, but I'm 6'2" with skinny fingers, and I have trouble wrapping my fingers around the ball. The ball will be slightly squishier, allowing for Tom Brady to have a firmer grip. There were two or three (supposed) main benefits of deflating footballs below the official PSI: So I was excited they would test it out on Mythbusters.īut they clearly didn't understand what Deflategate was potentially about. I was greatly interested in the real Deflategate mystery, especially the detailed scientific investigation that was performed to see if the low PSI footballs could have been caused by atmospheric reasons. I'm referring to the recently aired episode of Mythbusters The Search, not the original show. Note: Try to avoid putting spaces at the beginning or end of the spoiler tag because it may break for users on Related Subreddits: Please use the reddit offical spoiler tag when posting spoilers. Please read and follow our subreddit rules, below is a synopsis of the rules but does not cover all topics. This is the place for all things MythBusters.