Everyone who is anyone is chiming in on “Deflate-gate” since ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported Tuesday evening that the NFL found 11 of the 12 New England Patriots footballs from the AFC Championship game were found to be under-inflated.
That list now includes former NFL official Gerry Austin, who had this to say on ESPN’s Mike & Mike show (h/t Business Insider).
My understanding is, all 12 balls were under the 13 pounds (PSI limit*). But 11 of them were more than two pounds under the 13 pounds. And I take away from that somebody has let some air out of the balls.
That’s the first time we have heard someone with a link to the NFL indicate that all 12 balls (not 11) were found to be under-inflated.
Austin also seemed to shoot down a common defense that the cold air could have played a role in the scandal.
Both team’s balls were brought in at halftime to my understanding and all 24 balls were checked,” said Austin. “The Colts balls were still up to 13 pounds and the Patriots balls were not.
That’s the biggest issue at hand. If both sets of balls were subject to the same weather at the same time, why did one set come in under-inflated?
It remains to be seen just how the NFL will respond to this situation, but there are a lot of people calling for some swift action from the league itself. With that said, it’s important to remain grounded until more information is released.