#underinflated

The National Basketball League starts it season this week. The leagues requires three basketballs are available for each game; however, the game is usually played with the same ball for the entire game. The only time the ball is changed is if something effects the ball making it become deflated. 

Have you ever tried to play with a basketball that wasn’t fully inflated? It doesn’t perform the way it was intended. The ball won’t bounce properly when you dribble it. The ball won’t rebound off the backboard, allowing you to score off a missed shot. It will lack the velocity and voyage necessary to travel the distance required to make a three-point shot. 

To put it bluntly, a basketball that has been under-inflated will underperform and disappoint.

The same holds true for people.

When an individual is under-inflated, he or she is not living up to their fullest potential. In some instances, the person is lacking certain knowledge or skill. In other vases, they may know exactly what to do and exactly how to do it; but are still not living to their fullest potential.  

I believe we were all born with great gifts, and with the ability to do great things. Some of us are struggling to discover our gifts, or how to put them to use. Others must overcome their fear and doubt to embrace their gifts, and gain the courage to change their lives. Most people settle for average because they are not consciously aware of how to change, or fall into a preprogrammed belief regarding the limit of their capabilities. 

Motivational and self-help expert Tony Robbins says “change happens in an instant.” People think it takes a long time to change, but that is simply not true. It takes a long time to get ready to change, to think about changing, and to finally  accept they deserve to change. There will be a process to go from where you are currently until you reach your goal, but the initial change happens instantaneously. 

Think about the process to inflate a basketball. The moment you add the initial burst of air, the ball starts to inflate. Right away, you are making progress towards your goal. It may take time to gather the inflation needle and pump, the resources required to reach your goal. It may also take time to fully inflate the ball, depending on how deflated it is to begin. The process begins the moment you take action; change is truly happening in an instant.

            Accusations concerning the Patriots’ football team have surfaced and can’t quite seem to go away. Claims that the Patriots purposely under-inflated footballs in the AFC Championship game have created outrage among football fans around the country as the Super Bowl draws near. The controversy, dubbed “Deflategate” as a nod to 1970’s Watergate scandal is the first big scandal of the year.

             In a press conference held last week, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady denied all knowledge of underinflated balls. He admitted to hand selecting the balls to be used that game. ESPN reports said that 11 of the 12 balls used by the Patriots were underinflated.  NFL specifications say that footballs must be inflated to 12.5 to 13.5 pounds. In the video of the conference, Brady clearly says that the perfect weight of a football is 12.5 pounds.

            A big part of the controversy has been about the morale of the situation. Yes, as Tom Brady mentioned in the press conference, different guys like to use different sized balls, but the community is asking, as a star quarterback how do you not recognize that a ball is underinflated? The Patriots won by a landslide, so it’s doubted that the underinflated balls were the reason for the win. However, the nation is saying that if anyone on the Patriots team did this deliberately and is not coming forward and confessing their knowledge of the wrongdoing, THAT is what makes this whole ordeal such a hot topic. As a public relations professional, it is best to come forward and admit your wrongdoing, which is what the Patriots have (or have not, depending on where you stand with the topic) neglected to do.

              The scandal has spread like wildfire. Science guy, Bill Nye even did an experiment to see if cold weather could have affected the air in the footballs. To test the theory, he stuck footballs in a refrigerator set at 51 degrees but the balls retained just as much air as they had in the beginning. Bill ended the clip by saying “The Patriots may have bent the rules a little.”

New England Patriots Had 11 of 12 Underinflated Footballs Per NFL

The NFL has found that 11 of 12 of the New England Patriots game balls were inflated significantly less than the NFL requires, league sources involved and familiar with the investigation of Sunday’s AFC championship game told ESPN.

Assuming the initial inspection was done correctly and weather wasn’t a factor, the Patriots should be punished for deflating footballs, writes Mike Reiss.

The…