But, don't baseball players all use the same ball? And basketball players? And soccer players?
So...why not football?

I just heard a report on ESPN2 at halftime of the Wake Forest/North Carolina game that said that the refs noted the inflation problem at half time and had the Patriots supply 12 backup balls that apparently were properly inflated. I believe the Patriots did most of the damage in the second half. So maybe not as bad as it appears. :shrug:

We are BOSTON STRONG!

Maybe they should just take away all of the points the Patriots scored in the first half then.

Of course they should also nullify the D'Qwell Jackson interception since that was also made with an under inflated ball.

Just toss out the entire first half.

Not nonsense. Each team plays offense with their own 12 balls, unless there's an interception as was mentioned above.

The problem is that the balls are turned back to each team after being inspected. They showed on the evening news how easy it is to deflate a ball by a couple of pounds of pressure in a matter of a couple of seconds.

This too will get swept under the table by Goodell, is my guess. No way are they going to kick the Patriots out of the super bowl. The almighty dollar is the NFL's bottom line. Look how much time it took Goodell to destroy the evidence of the Patriots' videotaping when Congress was threatening to investigate.

With all their billions of dollars, the NFL can't appoint a ball tender to keep all the balls in his possession and dole them out as needed? Ridiculous.

Hey...Doc...my cousin Vito had some skin on that game. Watch what you suggest.

CFrance.. The Pats did have a ball tender. Have I ever told you about my cousin Vito? Go Pats.

It's the integrity of the game that we are talking about. I so agree with you.

Unless that actually did happen to your team

I think we are all getting a bit too serious until the results are in. This is like anticipating the State of the Union speech. Oops, sorry that was last night.

Yes, it is ridiculous seeing as how this is fairly common practice among all NFL teams. Almost all of the quarterbacks have the balls set up how they like them. It's one of the unwritten rules. This time someone complained so the NFL has to do an investigation.

But you are right about one thing. With all of the billions of dollars the NFL makes, they should supply the balls for all the games. They should have a ball staff that inflates the balls and has people on the field to change them out when necessary.

Tha Patriots were 6.5 point favorites. Taking away all of their first half points wouldn't have changed the bets except for the over under.

A report out Wednesday says the Baltimore Ravens tipped off the Indianapolis Colts before the AFC Championship game about the New England Patriots' use of deflated footballs.

Jay Glazer of FOX Sports says that the Colts knew about the deflated footballs coming into the game thanks to a tip from the Ravens, who fell to New England the week before in the divisional playoff round. As a result, the NFL was planning before the game to inspect the balls at halftime.

"The Indianapolis Colts, they were tipped off to before the game ever happened... I was told it was people... from the Baltimore Ravens," Glazer said.

Watch Glazer's comments below:


On Wednesday's edition of Pro Football Talk on NBCSN, Ravens defensive lineman Chris Canty made it clear that he felt the act of deflating footballs was cheating.

“The Patriots are habitual line-steppers,” Canty said, via ProFootballTalk.com. “If the allegations are true, then you are talking about attacking the integrity of our game and I have an issue with that. . . . [W]hat I’m going to say about the deflating of the balls, to me there is no difference than performance-enhancing drugs. You are cheating at that point. You are getting a competitive advantage outside of the rule book and there has to be some sort of consequences for that.

“To me, the integrity of the game is the most important thing. You want to be successful as a player but you want to think that you are doing things that are within the rules and that you are out there competing and it’s not, whether it is performance-enhancing drugs or deflated footballs that is out there aiding in your performance.”

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The ball tender should not be from either team. Should be a paid NFL official. Problem solved. That one, anyway...