Anonymous former NFL QB says referees overinflate footballs
Not that anyone wants to hear anything about Deflategate, but here's an interesting tidbit from Tom Curran of CSNNE.com.
Curran, citing an anonymous source who played quarterback in the NFL for 12 years, said that referees generally don't pay attention to the PSI levels in footballs. The source said that referees intentionally will overinflate footballs, claiming that it happened to him personally.
“Problem is, officials don’t care,” said the anonymous player. “Why do you think Tom Brady was so pissed off in the Wells Report after a Jets game? A football was like 16 PSI. How does a football get to 16 PSI? I’ll explain why because NFL officials working the game did that. Why? It means that prior to the game, officials checked the footballs and with no regard or care in the world at all just inflated a football nonchalantly and [an official] most likely said to himself.
‘Should be good now, feels a lot harder.’ Why would they care? They don’t have to throw or play with the thing.
“I know personally because I’ve had it happen to me,” he continued. “I would tell my ball boy, who I paid $200 a week, to scrub the footballs and prepare them to present to NFL officials at 12.5 PSI. Then all of a sudden during the game when one of my footballs was introduced into [the] game by officials, and it did not feel right, I’d tell [the] official to ‘get rid of that ball.’ I would explain to [the] official, ‘What the hell did you do to that ball? It’s not what I introduced to you guys, you over inflated it.'”
Curran, like many, believes the Wells Report as a way to frame the Patriots despite hard evidence. In the eyes of many, there was no way the report wasn't going to try its hardest to make the Patriots out to be criminals. You could make a million different arguments for or against the report, but we're not getting into that.
What's interesting about this is that the anonymous source won't go on the record with what he's saying. That being said, this should be taken with a grain of salt. It may be true, it may not be true. If more former and current quarterbacks come out and support this notion, then it probably becomes more believable. But since it's just one person saying this (and we don't know who it is), how can we believe this?
The unnamed source continued:
Breitbart’s ex-QB sniffed that out, saying: “Egg is on the NFL’s face! Because there is no protocol or standard. I wanted my footballs like Tom. Legal, but on the low end. Right at 12.5 PSI. I knew on a hot day to tell [the] ball boy introduce them to officials at 12 psi knowing they would expand by time 4:30 ET game would start, they would be right as rain when officials tested them. But officials would always screw them up inflating them to ridiculous levels or leaving [the] opponents’ ball in play despite our offense being on field at a change of possession. You just knew as a QB to stay on their ass during the game and manage it.”
The source goes on to say that once the footballs are turned over to the officials, it becomes the NFL's responsibility to secure and inspect them. That I agree with. I think a lot of people would agree with that as well.
But again, tread lightly with something that's coming from someone who won't go on the record.
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