People have debated how much of an advantage the Patriots may have gained by using deflated footballs in games, and Eli Manning seems to recognize that the altered balls could provide a difference.
Manning, whose Giants have defeated the Tom Brady’s Patriots twice in the Super Bowl, answered some questions Monday about the Deflategate punishments handed down by the league while appearing at the Guiding Eyes for the Blind Golf Classic.
According to the New York Daily News, Manning says he’s played around with underinflated footballs “just to see what it feels like, how much a difference it was.”
His conclusion? “Yeah, there is a difference,” he said. “A noticeable difference.”
I’m surprised that this is the first time Manning has played around with a deflated football and that he didn’t know how air pressure could affect the ball. Do you believe that he never played around with an under-inflated ball in the past? Whenever I played, I like under-inflated balls because they were so much easier to grip and control. That was the difference between throwing an accurate pass and having a ball slip out of my hands sometimes.
Though Manning concedes that there is a difference when using an under-inflated ball, he is not prepared to say it served as an advantage for the Pats.
“Well, there’s a difference. Whether there’s an advantage or not that’s all dependent on what a quarterback likes or what it’s like in cold weather or when it’s wet,” Manning said. “There’s other factors into it, so I’m not sure.”
That seems more like Manning trying to avoid saying anything too negative about Brady, whom he calls a friend and one of the best all time. Brady remains one of the best of all time, but he and the Patriots will always have some questions surrounding their accomplishments because of their Spygate and Deflategate scandals.
As I’ve said before, knowing that he likes a deflated ball, Brady should have just asked the league to approve 11.5 or 12 PSIs as the lowest allowable level for air inflation of a ball. You don’t think they would have approve that?
Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
