[pdabbadabba]

I don't understand this as a defense. Either a) they inflated them under (roughly) the same conditions as the Colts and the disparity in the pressures of the teams' balls is due to the fact that they were intentionally underinflated originally, or b) they were, as you say, inflated to the correct pressure under different conditions and drifted away from the regulation pressure due to a change in temperature. Either way, the balls were underinflated at game time. Scenario a is worse, of course, but even in scenario b, you have to wonder why they didn't correct the pressure. (Quarterbacks are surely able to detect the lower pressure, and pretty much everyone -- particularly professional QBs, I would think -- is aware that pressure drops with the temperature).

And in any case, at best this is a possible explanation for the underinflation. There is no evidence that the explanation you give is true, or even likely, since it rests on totally unsupported assumptions about the conditions under which the teams inflated their balls.

[jsyedidia]

The reason that they didn't correct the pressure at game-time is that after the Patriots give the balls to the referees 2 hours and 15 minutes before game time, they are not allowed to touch them, and the refs do not have the procedure of re-checking them and correcting them. I imagine that there might be a rules or procedure change so that they do, and as early as the Super Bowl.

The "evidence" for my explanation is the ideal gas law and what Belichick said his team did in his press conference today. If the Patriots followed that procedure, which there is no reason to believe they didn't, and which is legal, one expects from the ideal gas law that their balls would seem under-inflated at half-time. It's basic physics and easy to understand theoretically and reproduce experimentally.

My speculation for what the Colts did rests on the reports that their balls did not deflate. For that to hold, given the laws of physics, something like the balls equilibrating to the outdoors temperatures before giving them to the refs must have happened.

[Anechoic]

you have to wonder why they didn't correct the pressure.

AFAIK, teams are not allowed to reinstall balls during the game, refs can, but they obviously didn't detect it until they measured the pressure at halftime.

Quarterbacks are surely able to detect the lower pressure

Everyone seems to be taking this as a given when it's not at all. There are qb's who can detect it, and others who can't.

[ragtimepiano]

Centers also handle the ball on every offensive play. Most centers are intelligent and kinesthetic players who would be as sensitive as the QB to the feeling of the ball. Someone needs to tough-talk the Pats center about this.