May 10, 201511 yr Author Doesn't seem to have helped Jeff Blake all that much..... “I’m just going to let the cat of the bag, every team does it, every game, it has been since I played. Cause when you take the balls out of the bag, they are rock hard. And you can’t feel the ball as well. It’s too hard. Everybody puts the pin in and takes just enough air out of the ball that you can feel it a little better. But it’s not the point to where it’s flat. So I don’t know what the big deal is. It’s not something that’s not been done for 20 years.” “Well, I would say [to a ball boy], ‘Take a little bit of air out of it. It’s a little bit hard,’” Blake said. “And then he’d take a little bit out and I’d squeeze it and I’d be like, ‘OK, it’s perfect.’ That’s it.” Jeff Blake ___________________________________ In 2012 Brad Johnson paid 7,500 for ball handlers to scuff and wear in the balls before Super Bowl XXXVII, per Johnson’s preference. “I paid some guys off to get the balls right,” Johnson told the Tampa Bay Times in 2012. “I went and got all 100 footballs, and they took care of all of them.” Brad Johnson ___________________________________ “‘I like to push the limit to how much air we can put in the football, even go over what they allow you to do and see if the officials take air out of it,’” Aaron Rodgers ___________________________________ Every team tampers with the footballs, Ask any Qb In the league, this is ridiculous!!” - Matt Leinhert All of those are talking about working footballs before the refs check them...not between the ref and walking to the field. Blake even said as much when put on point about it.
May 10, 201511 yr All of those are talking about working footballs before the refs check them...not between the ref and walking to the field. Blake even said as much when put on point about it. Bingo. Also it is still cheating. Something some people seem to forget.
May 10, 201511 yr Didn't he have drug abuse running rampant on his teams though? No more than any others if I recall.
May 10, 201511 yr Author Bingo. Also it is still cheating. Something some people seem to forget. Teams are given the balls early in the week purposely to scuff them up and get the "New" off of them. (Wilson even gives the teams a brush to brush the balls with to help break them in) At that point it's on the refs to check them prior to the game. After the refs check them if anything else is done it, that would be cheating.
May 11, 201511 yr No more than any others if I recall. Exactly. Shula can't condemn others when his teams were dirty like all of them.
May 14, 201511 yr Really, really overblown on what probably is a practice that is more common than we will really ever know. Jim Miller former Bear, Steeler, Pat, and of few other teams hosts a show on NFL Sirius Monday-Friday. Here is the process he shared. The home team receives dozens and dozens of new balls sent by the league to the facility. The quarterbacks sit down and actually inspect the balls and try them on for size, so to speak. They throw out the balls they don't like. They then use the footballs they have chosen in practice Wednesday-Friday and choose the 19-20 they will use. He said no two footballs are alike, therefore the laces, leather, bladder inside the football are all different and if you have played enough you know the difference. They then turn the footballs over to the equipment guys and they never see them again until Sunday. On Sunday, the ball boy or whomever, gives the footballs to inspect, it is the officials job to do that. This is kinda like umpires inspecting the baseballs during the game and tossing them out. I doubt much is done in this case simply because: 1) There is no proof whatever that Brady knew. 2) This is probably a more common practice than most will ever admit. How come no other QB is commenting on this and claiming how wrong it is? I think we know the answer. Is Brady going to take the hit for the QB fraternity? 3) The officials are somewhat culpable in this. They should have done their job and known. Another reason I believe it was common practice. 4) Again no proof, I can't believe there should be a punishment. The process described here is exactly why a "smoking gun" is not to be expected, nor is it needed. The QBs sit down with equipment guys and explain what they want. They don't text one another from different locations and talk about how they want the balls broken in. It is done in person. Equipment guys do it to the QBs specs. For equipment guys to alter the footballs after they've been checked by the officials means they received very specific instructions to do so.
May 15, 201511 yr 2 Questions need to be answered. 1. If the Pats contend no one in their organization did anything wrong then why did the 2 equipment guys get suspended without pay by the team? 2. If Brady didn't advise the equipment guys to deflate the balls below the allowable minimum then why were the deflated after the inspection?
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