I thought the Bill Belichick press conference Saturday afternoon was extraordinary. Clearly, he realized his integrity, and that of his organization, was under fire. He wanted to tell the world there was, in his mind, a rational explanation for the decline in pressure in the footballs during the first half of the AFC Championship Game. He wanted to tell the world stridently that he thought his team and his staff did absolutely nothing wrong. He wanted to tell the world he was proud of his players for continually persevering and becoming the best team in the AFC this season, which the Patriots certainly are. It was passionate and moving and very human.
Now, it was great TV, and it showed a side of Belichick we rarely get to see—the loyal and earnest and fiery and educational Belichick, all at once. But I’m not sure it changed very much. We still don’t know why New England’s footballs were fine before the game, low at halftime (at least 11, according to Chris Mortensen), inflated to the proper level by the officiating crew, and then fine after the game. So that’s a problem that needs to be addressed. Mike Florio at
Pro Football Talk reported Sunday, quoting a league source, that 10 of the New England footballs “may have been closer to one pound below the minimum limit for inflation,” which leads to an important part of the investigation.
Many of you have asked a logical question that I agree needs to be answered by the league. The allowable range of air pressure in NFL balls is between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch. If the Indianapolis footballs were checked before the game and found to be at 13.5 PSI, theoretically they could have lost a pound each and still been good. So if New England’s footballs were at 12.5 when delivered to the officials before the game and passed muster of the electric gauge that tests them, it’s conceivable they could have lost a pound of pressure and then all—or most—tested to be faulty at halftime.
A little education this morning, on the parts of this story I think people are missing.
1. The big issue is a six-to-10-minute window of time between when the officials release the ball to the ball boys, and the game begins.
My feeling after talking to several people with knowledge of the officiating process—and after witnessing it last year following the Gene Steratore crew in Chicago—is that there is some time period of less than 10 minutes between the handover of footballs to ball boys and the start of the game. A good estimate is six to 10 minutes. On the Steratore crew last year, Steratore and his head linesman, Wayne Mackie, waited until there was two or three minutes before the national anthem was played and that’s when they gave the balls to the ball boys. It’s usually two or three minutes post-anthem when teams line up for the opening kickoffs. A quick review of what happens to the balls: A dozen balls, minimum, are delivered by each team to the officials 2 hours and 15 minutes before the game. The balls are checked for air pressure. If they fall between 12.5 and 13.5 PSI, the balls are put aside and marked for use by one of the officials. If they are either too high or too low, air is either added or taken out so the balls are within range.
If the Colts’ footballs were all delivered to the officials at 13.5 PSI, the crew would have done nothing. If the Patriots’ football were all delivered at 12.5 PSI, the crew would have done nothing. But I don’t know what specific level of pressure the footballs had when they were released to the control of the ball boys.
That six- or 10-minute window is key to this investigation. In fact, it’s the biggest key. Did anything untoward happen in that time?
2. How did the players and teams get such control over the footballs? Why doesn’t the league take control of the football-prep process?
Let’s go back to 2006, to
something I wrote just before the start of that season. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, backed by 20 other starting quarterbacks, petitioned the league to allow all 32 teams—rather than just home teams—to condition the footballs they would use each week in the way each team saw fit. Brady had been bothered by the inconsistent feel of footballs from game to game. The pre-2006 rule called for 36 official balls, manufactured by Wilson, to be provided to the home team for each outdoor game and 24 for each indoor game, the balls to be available for testing with a pressure gauge by officials two hours before kickoff. The home team and the officials had the option to use league-approved products supplied by Wilson (a bristle brush, a tack cloth and a semihard spongy cube) to rub down the game balls and remove the waxy, slippery sheen that they have when they come out of the box. A few quarterbacks preferred the balls to feel nearly new. Most, like Brady and Manning, want that sheen rubbed off so they can get a better grip and give the ball a broken-in feel.
“Imagine,” Brady told me at the time, “if Derek Jeter were handed a brand-new glove just before the start of every game. Baseball players break in their gloves until they feel perfect to them. It’s ridiculous to [be forced to] play with new footballs. I can tell you there’ve been nights before road games when I have had trouble sleeping because I’m thinking about what kind of footballs I’ll be throwing the next day.”
So after the 2005 season, while having dinner together in Miami Beach, Brady and Manning decided to approach their fellow quarterbacks about petitioning the NFL competition committee to change the rule. Brady proposed that the visiting team have access to a certain number of the allotted game balls—the number turned out to be 12—so it could prepare them the way it wanted; those balls would be stamped with the visiting team’s name and kept on the visitors’ sideline for use when that team was on offense. The remainder of the balls would be prepared by the hosts to their liking, 12 kept on the sideline for use on their drives and the other dozen in reserve in case bad weather created the need for additional balls. The competition committee approved the plan the next month, and it’s been that way ever since.
• SI VAULT: Peter King’s Sept. 2006 story about the new rule for footballs
3. And about Bill Belichick’s or Tom Brady’s legacy and Hall of Fame status …
Too early. Way too early. Brady might play five more years the way he’s going. Belichick might coach longer than that. Who knows? But with the five-year waiting period before either man is eligible for Hall election, that means it could be 2025 or 2027 before their cases are even heard for the first time.
There’s just too much that can happen before then, in all ways. Let’s see where this story ends up.
