ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Ben Goodell, a seventh-grader at St. Pius V School, gets a kick out of his recent notoriety.
By BRIDGET TURCOTTE
LYNN — St. Pius V Elementary School seventh-grader Ben Goodell is in the media spotlight after news that his winning, deflategate-related science project has gone viral.
The 12-year-old said on Wednesday he would like to show NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (no relation) his project, and deliver a simple message from one Goodell to another.
“I’d tell him to cut Brady some slack,” he said.
Goodell’s project, “How Weather Conditions Affect PSI of a Football,” scored the Outstanding Project award at the school’s annual science fair, which is the highest possible prize.
Goodell, a two-time science fair prize-winner, took what he was learning in his science class and used it to solve the deflategate controversy in hopes of putting an end to accusations against the New England Patriots.
“I wanted to prove that Tom Brady wasn’t guilty,” he said.
Goodell took a properly-inflated football and exposed it to different weather conditions, including humidity, snow, wind-chill and cold and ice.
“Every time, it dropped 2 PSI,” he said. “The lowest PSI recorded during deflategate was 2 PSI under proper inflation.”
After The Item covered Goodell’s story, several other publications began reaching out for interviews with Goodell, including The Boston Globe, NECN and WBZ. Other media outlets also picked up the story, including The Washington Post, National Public Radio, Sports Illustrated’s si.com, NESN, USA Today, FOX Sports and CBS Boston, among others.
“My dad showed me a chart that said it was the number one most viral thing on Facebook, even before something about Miley Cyrus,” Goodell said. “It was number one on the list.”
“It feels unreal,” he said. “I didn’t expect to get any attention at all. It’s just a science fair project. But it’s pretty cool.”
Goodell said he hopes people reading about his story believe he actually solved the deflategate case.
“It was a great project,” said Maureen Webb, assistant principal of St. Pius. “Ben really knows his stuff. He knows a lot about the whole theory.”
“It’s coincidental that (he and Roger) are both named Goodell,” she said. “They should have asked this Goodell first.”
Bridget Turcotte can be reached at bturcotte@itemlive.com. Follow her on Twitter @BridgetTurcotte.