Per a league source with knowledge of the situation, here’s what happened. After the opening kickoff, a league employee named Scott Miller called for the football that was used. It was the football marked “K1″ by the game officials before the commencement of the contest. According to the source, video shows Miller getting the football.
It’s not unusual for footballs to be removed from play for later sale in support of charitable endeavors. Typically, however, the teams are informed of the fact that footballs will be removed — especially when the “K” balls will be taken out of service. If the team is told that a “K” ball will be removed, the equipment staff prepares multiple “K” balls for use in the game during the limited time teams have to get the new, out-of-the-box footballs ready for use.
In this specific case, the Patriots weren’t told that the ball marked K1 would be removed from play. After the Patriots scored the first touchdown of the game, the Patriots noticed on the extra-point attempt that the ball had not been prepped the same way that K1 had been prepped. So the Patriots raised the issue with the game officials, and the process commenced of trying to track down the K1 ball.
In-stadium video, according to the source, shows Miller later bringing the ball back toward the playing area. In-stadium video also shows Patriots part-time, game-day employee Jim McNally giving a football to the game officials. Video does not exist of Miller giving the football he had taken to McNally, but it’s possible to infer that Miller gave the same football to McNally that McNally then tried to give to the game officials.
Scott Miller, per the source, is the employee who was fired. It’s unclear whether the termination arose solely from the incident during the AFC title game, or whether investigation by the league unearthed other evidence of Miller removing footballs from play and selling them on the side. Predictably, the league declined PFT’s request for comment on Miller’s termination or the reasons for it.
