Do you know that the colts complained about the same thing when the *pats played in Indy in a domed stadium....
Why wasn't anything done about it?
I think it's because maybe the Colts knew it's not that big an issue and kept it in their bag of tricks to save for later (and they were getting blown out).
To me what the Colts did is like seeing an illegally curved stick in hockey. Most of the time you let it go. Most of the time it really doesn't matter. But you save it for when you might be down 3-2 in the last 5 minutes and the coach kind of randomly tells the ref to check so-and-so's stick.
I think the Colts and Ravens have known forever the Patriots like using underinflated balls (I think how they get underinflated is probably within the rules). I think when the Colts were down 14-7 at halftime of the AFCCG and not looking very good (and lucky to only be down 7), Pegano used the "illegal" stick trick on the Patriots with an attempt to get into Brady's head and maybe hope it would rattle them up enough to cause them to play worse football in the 2nd half.
It didn't work.
To me it's almost just as nefarious to use a rule (ball pressure) that no one ever really cared about and every team probably skirts and doesn't care about (the refs can inflate/deflate the balls during their inspection btw) to try and gain an advantage by getting into the Patriots'/Brady's head at halftime of the AFCCG. You don't think that's kind of grasping at the rulebook straws?
This is a Harbaugh and Pegano thing. I think they talked about it prior to the game. I think Harbaugh would have done the same thing had he not been UP 14 points in his game vs. the Patriots. Just like Harbaugh is always trying to find a cheap way to get the other team in trouble with the rules, even against us. And just like Tomlin probably skirted the rules a bit by standing close to the sideline while someone's running back a touchdown.
Did it really effect the game? Do we know how accurate the ball pressure is in every other game played in the NFL? Do we know how prevalent using slightly flat balls in cold, wet games is throughout the league? No. No one here knows that. So everyone just wants to assume because of Spygate that this was some nefarious plot by the evil Bill Belichick and Tom Brady that makes a HUGE difference in games.
