John Elway has held a football or two in his life. The Denver Broncos legend started 252 games during his Hall of Fame career, reached five Super Bowls and won two championships. And even he can’t really tell the difference between a ball that is slightly overinflated and one that is slightly underinflated.
After the Deflategate scandal erupted last January, Elway conducted a little experiment of his own to see how much different the balls were that Tom Brady was throwing in the AFC Championship Game. He told Peter King of Sports Illustrated that he had the Broncos equipment staff inflate balls to 13 psi, 12 psi and 11 psi so he could test them. What did he notice?
Not a whole lot.
“I mean, it’s not that big a difference,” Elway told King. “It’s hard to tell the difference. Not a big enough difference to have the attention on this that it’s gotten. What I come down to is, does it really matter? Some guys like the ball a little softer. And if a guy likes a harder ball, that’s fine too. We want the quarterbacks to be as successful as they can be, and we want them to give the fans the best entertainment they can. Who cares if a quarterback likes it at 10 and a half? If that makes him play better, fine.”
For Brady, it has seemingly made no difference. It’s safe to assume the Patriots are using legally inflated footballs this season (right?), and Brady has looked phenomenal. He has thrown for 1,699 yards and 14 touchdowns in five games. His lone interception was thrown perfectly to Julian Edelman, who simply couldn’t come up with it.
Elway’s overall point is one I subscribed to from the day Deflategate became a household term. If the NFL wants more scoring and quarterbacks are allowed to prepare their own game balls, why not let them inflate them as much as they want?
Brady’s dad didn’t get his wish Sunday night, but No. 12 continued to prove that it doesn’t matter what the psi in a football is. And Elway is well aware that Deflategate is fueling the Patriots.
“The last thing you want to do is poke the bear,” he said. “The bear got poked, and this is what happened.”
You have to wonder if the Colts regret tattling.
