[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I just heard something very interesting from someone who works for the team.

In that game against the Jets, the ball guys inflated the balls to exactly 12.5 pounds. They gave them to the referee who proceeded to add air to the balls. They checked the balls and found that they were at 16 pounds. Brady was absolutely irate after the game that the refs didn't use a gauge. They simply felt them and said that they were too soft and then filled them up, again without using a gauge.

After that game, Brady told the ball guys to do whatever they needed to do to make sure that the balls were as soft as allowed. He asked them to make sure that the balls were at 12.5. so the ball guys got into the practice of checking the balls any time the referee added air to them and let some air out trying to make the balls exactly 12.5.

They missed their mark by a long way on one of the balls in the Indianapolis game. Ten of the balls were around 12.4 pounds and as we all know now, one was perfect. Brady didn't know exactly what was being done other than his guys were making sure that the balls weren't over inflated.

Nothing is going to be said about this and I believe that the only punishment is going to be a slap on the wrist on the ball handlers. The NFL does not want it to come out that a game was played with balls over inflated by, the referees, well above the legal limit. It wouldn't do to punish referees for causing a game to be played with illegal balls.

The Patriots are not going say anything because they don't want to make enemies of the guys that will be refereeing future games.

The investigators interviewed the referees but there was nothing about what types of gauges they used or whether the gauges had the proper logo on them. What people inside the team are saying is that the ref didn't use a gauge at all. They routinely just felt the balls and would add air to them depending on how they think they felt.

So the question is, were they cheating? Well, were the referees cheating when they inflated balls to 16 pounds? I don't believe so. I think that they were just lax at doing their job. Were the Patriots cheating? In my opinion they were simply trying to protect themselves from incompetent referees by doing what they could to get the balls as soft as possible within the legal limit.