I am not a big sports expert (I know, hard to believe, right?), but I have friends who do know what they're talking about. I raised some questions in my last post about the under-inflated footballs in the AFC Championship game. Mr. Dwight Perry, Seattle Times night sports editor, has some answers. Here's an e-mail he sent me.
Dave:
Regarding NFL game balls. If I'm not mistaken, each team has 12-20 balls with
their team name stamped on them, so the Patriots would only be using balls with
Patriots stamped on them and Colts with Colts, etc. So the only way this came to
light was when Brady threw an interception -- the Pats ball falling into enemy
hands, literally -- and the intercepting linebacker noticed it had a bunch of
give to it. As for the 12th ball that was properly inflated, maybe that's the
kicker's ball, since I'm sure they want it inflated as much as possible. The
quarterbacks doctor footballs just like pitchers do baseballs, I've heard. The
worst thing is a slick ball fully inflated, unless you have hands the size of
King Kong.
dp
All this sounds very reasonable. Makes me feel like I should run everything thru Mr. Perry first so I wouldn't sound like such a fool. I'd still BE one, of course, but it wouldn't be publicized.
Thank you Dwight Perry.
Chad
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