NFL reportedly won't keep track of PSI numbers with microchips in footballs

Despite Deflategate, the NFL isn't tracking the air in footballs

Even after two years of tedious debate over whether or not Tom Brady and the Patriots could have masterminded a plot to mildly deflate some footballs, the NFL does not plan to use microchips installed in footballs to track PSI numbers.

The NFL is putting microchips in footballs, though. The goal of the chips is to help determine whether or not the league should narrow the uprights -- a set of "instrumented" footballs will be used in the preseason in order to figure out exactly where footballs are crossing the invisible plane.

The goal is to collect a ton of data about football movement in order to potentially make a rule change. Essentially it's data collection to be more accurate.

Which is precisely what the benefit of grabbing PSI numbers would serve, even if it's August.

And yet, as reported by Kevin Seifert of ESPN, the league isn't going to get the PSI numbers, even though it could.

The answer is no, according to a person with intimate knowledge of the system the NFL is using.

However, the technology exists and could be added to the arrangement if the league desires. The addition would be similar to the tool that warns automobile drivers that their tires are underinflated.

The NFL is highlighting three main points of emphasis this offseason with respect to rules changes, plus the decision by Blandino to tell officials "bang-bang" plays involving possible catches should be ruled incomplete.

And it's making a major push to utilize technology in order to determine very precise amounts of information related to the kicking game.

John Kryk of the Toronto Sun reported Monday the NFL might expand the collection of data using microchips in footballs to the regular season.

Postmedia furthermore has learned that, if this experiment goes well in the pre-season, the NFL competition committee might decide to continue such data gathering throughout the regular season, by using computer-chip kick balls only in Thursday night games.

So one possible explanation here is the NFL doesn't see the need to track PSI numbers in August and/or preseason games. Maybe the league is waiting for the regular season to begin and winter to finally come before it tosses the trackers in there.

Except that's not exactly a controlled test and it doesn't have the built-in experiment opportunity that the preseason affords.

The NFL just spent roughly two years battling with vague scientific facts in order to try and determine if footballs were purposely deflated.

This is a pretty clear opportunity for science to detail the actual facts surrounding the case and the league doesn't appear interested in that chance.