Following the AFC championship game, there were allegations that some
member of the New England Patriots staff may have provided their team
with slightly under-inflated footballs (which would be easier to grip in
cold wet weather).
Newsday reported that Jackson then gave the ball to a member of the
Colts' equipment staff, who noticed the ball seemed under-inflated. At
that point, coach Chuck Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson were
notified, and Grigson alerted NFL director of football operations Mike
Kensil, according to the report...
On the first offensive play from scrimmage in the third quarter,
following a kick return, referee Walt Anderson briefly stopped play to
replace a football which could have been related to this issue.
I'm puzzled by the claim that the under-inflation was investigated by weighing the ball:
The NFL source reportedly told Kravitz that "officials took a ball out of play at one point and weighed it." According to NBC Sports, "several"
abnormal balls were allegedly removed from game-play during the
match-up.
The professional football is supposed to weigh between 14 and 15 ounces,
inflated to between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch. Can an
inflation discrepancy be detected by weighing the ball? Seems doubtful.
No comments:
Post a Comment