The entire transcript from the hearing in which Tom Brady appealed his four-game suspension was released to the public on Tuesday. My initial reaction is that more people will be inclined to believe Brady as the details surface.
One of the more notable exchanges came when Brady insisted he never even gave thought to the air pressure inside a football until an official allegedly inflated game balls to significantly over the maximum allowed limit of 13.5 pounds per square inch.
The comment came after Brady was asked — under oath — if it is fair to say that he prefers footballs inflated to the low end of the 12.5-13.5 psi range.
“Like I said, I never have thought about the ball, the air pressure in a football,” Brady said. “The only time I have ever thought about the air pressure in a football was after the Jets game when they were at the level of 16(psi).
“So whenever I went to pick the game balls, I never once in 15 years ever asked what the ball pressure was set at until after the Jet game. So whether it’s 12.5 or 12.6 or 12.7 or 12.8 or 12.9 or 13, all the way up to the Colts game, I still think it’s inconsequential to what the actual feel of a grip of a football would be.”
Brady went on to say that he focuses more on “how the ball feels in my hand,” not how inflated it is. When asked about the time he was discussing Rob Gronkowski’s spikes and joked that he likes a softer ball, Brady said he meant the actual leather and outside — not the psi.
I tried to hammer this point months ago, but most people continue to ignore it. Everyone has focused on the “Deflator” text messages that were exchanged between Patriots equipment managers John Jastremski and Jim McNally, yet there has been little mention of Jastremski telling McNally that the referees “f—ed” the Patriots and inflated the balls to 16 psi before a game against the Jets. You can read those texts in detail here.
Were Jastremski and McNally exaggerating about that particular detail? Did the official overinflate the balls after the Patriots tried to hand them in under the allowable limit? We don’t know, but Brady claims it was that alleged “gross overinflation” that even put the thought in his mind. He also said that was the reason he asked his equipment staff to hand a copy of game ball inflation rules to the officials before games.
If it’s such a huge deal that the Patriots played with balls that were less than 2.0 psi underinflated in the AFC Championship Game, why isn’t it an equally big deal that the NFL’s own official may have overflated game balls by roughly 2.5 psi?
Because it doesn’t fit the narrative, that’s why.
