The NFL has announced that 11 of the 12 balls used by the New England Patriots were in fact under-inflated! Deflated kicking balls were allegedly used in the AFC Divisional game against Baltimore Ravens, drawing complaints from them as well…further details on this update report below!
The 11 balls were said to be 2 pounds less than normal sized footballs. The NFL has opted to give no comment, while the Patriots say they will continue to cooperate in the investigation.
*UPDATED REPORT ON DEFLATED BALLS IN GALLERY ABOVE*
via CBS Sports:
According to a report by ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, the NFL has found that 11 footballs from Sunday’s AFC Championship Game between the Patriots and Colts were under-inflated by two pounds each.
Two pounds may not sound like a whole lot, but the NFL mandates that game-ready footballs be inflated with between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds of air. As noted by Yahoo!’s Dan Wetzel, a two-pound under-inflation means the balls were approximately 16 percent less inflated than normal.
As for the 11 footballs, according to the NFL’s rulebook digest, “the home club shall have 36 balls for outdoor games and 24 for indoor games available for testing with a pressure gauge by the referee two hours prior to the starting time of the game to meet with League requirements.” Pre-game testing is mandated for 12 primary footballs supplied by the home team, with 12 backups also made available.
Additionally, our Jason La Canfora is reporting that some with the Ravens suspect some of the kicking balls used in their divisional round game were deflated as well.
