If former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Brad Johnson had not paid to have someone mess with the footballs at Super Bowl XXXVII, he would have entered the game with a lot less confidence.
We know this because Johnson openly admitted it a few years back before the 10-year reunion of the 2002 Super Bowl champion Bucs. As Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reminds us, Johnson was concerned with the lack of grip he had on the football during the NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles that year. He wasn’t about to let it affect him during the Super Bowl.
Johnson said he had trouble gripping a football that was brand new and fresh out of the box. All 100 of the balls at the Super Bowl met this description, so Johnson paid to have it taken care of.
“I paid some guys off to get the balls right,” Johnson said. “I went and got all 100 footballs, and they took care of all of them.”
Apparently Johnson arranged for someone to scuff the balls up so they weren’t quite as slick. Unlike the situation with the New England Patriots reportedly using underinflated balls, Johnson had all of the balls for the Super Bowl altered in the same way.
That does not, however, mean it was a level playing field. While Tom Brady presumably likes a ball with a little less air in it, Aaron Rodgers has said he likes the ball to be as inflated as possible – even supposedly admitting that he likes to push the envelope with it. What was good for Johnson may not have been good for Oakland Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon.
For that it’s worth, Johnson completed 18 of 34 passes for 215 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Gannon completed 24 of 44 for 272 yards, two touchdowns and a whopping five interceptions in the 48-21 loss.
The point is this is probably more common than people think. We don’t know if teams do it to the extent that the Patriots allegedly did it, but it certainly happens elsewhere.
