As we learn more about Deflategate, it has become clear that the New England Patriots would have to have an extremely polished system in place to intentionally deflate footballs after an NFL official has approved them for play.
Ben Volin of the Boston Globe has spoken to a source with direct knowledge of the Deflategate situation who claims referee Walt Anderson inspected all of the Patriots’ and Indianapolis Colts’ game balls with a pressure gauge prior to kickoff in the AFC Championship Game. Someone — not Mother Nature — supposedly took air out of the balls after that, so when could that have happened?
According to Volin’s source, the footballs were left inside the officials’ locker room (along with the properly-inflated backup balls that were used in the second half) until 10 minutes prior to kickoff.
Once the footballs were approved for game use, they remained in the officials locker room until about 10 minutes prior to kickoff, at which point officials handed 12 of them to the ball boys for each team.
The 12 backup balls for each team stayed in the officials’ locker room during the first half. According to a report from WEEI, the officials swapped out the Patriots’ footballs at halftime and used their backups, which were properly inflated, in the second half.
Unless someone went into the officials’ locker room (which may have been locked or unlocked) and stuck a pin into 11 or 12 of the Patriots’ game balls, this report indicates that a New England ball boy or equipment manager would have had 10 minutes to deflate the balls. This would almost certainly have to be done on the sideline, which would mean there should be video evidence of someone tampering with balls if that’s what happened.
We already heard what one former ball boy had to say about the challenges that would go along with secretly deflating a ball after it was inspected. The way I see it, that can only mean one of several things:
1. Volin’s source has some of his facts mixed up.
2. Some Patriots staffer snuck into the officials’ locker room to deflate footballs.
3. Some Patriots staffer is a wizard with a needle and can deflate a dozen balls by exactly 2.0 PSI each in less than 10 minutes and have them onto the field in time.
4. There should be video of a Patriots employee messing with balls on the sideline.
5. The officials didn’t actually test the balls with a pressure gauge.
Judging by the statement the NFL released on Friday, we won’t have our answer for a while.
