Hamilton Tiger-Cats kicker Luca Congi walks off the field after a practice, Wednesday In Regina.

GREY CUP: Cold footballs bad for kicking game

There is talk the CFL will provide a warming bag for Sunday's Grey Cup that will keep up to 12 footballs game warm and pliable.

A few days too late for a quartet of balls which sacrificed their lives for the Tiger-Cats outdoor practice Wednesday in temperatures which dipped to -17 C absolute and -27 with the wind chill.

One of the physics principles which makes kicking in frigid weather so difficult is that, upon contact with the foot, the ball compresses which provides propulsion once the bladder expands again. The greater the force of compression, the farther it goes.

"That's why you see kickers squeezing footballs all the time," says Paul Osbaldiston, Ticat kicking coach.

Apparently punter Josh Bartel and placekicker Luca Congi flattened four football bladders between them.

"They all came off the foot OK," Bartel said. "But the ball came down flat. It looked OK but when you stepped on it, or pressed it, there was nothing there."

Congi said the air probably squished out of the bladder from a combination of the impact of the foot and the ball hitting the ground.

“They come down pretty hard and fast,” he said. “And I think it was probably a combination of both things. The foot and the ground.”

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