IRVING, Texas — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league didn’t follow up on the New York Giants’ complaint about the Pittsburgh Steelers using underinflated footballs in a Dec. 4 game after determining that officials properly followed protocol for testing and handling the balls.
And Goodell’s explanation for dismissing the Giants’ assessment that the balls were below the permissible psi — like the speed with which the NFL closed its inquiry — will probably cause more angst among New England Patriots fans still steamed over the Deflategate saga.
“What you do is you test the balls before the game, and the officials always maintain control of those footballs from that point on,” Goodell told reporters at the NFL meetings Wednesday. “We went back. We checked with the officials to make sure they checked the proper inflation. They did that. The balls were retained in their control throughout the game from that point on. So the protocols were followed all the way.”
Asked whether the balls were examined further, given the Giants' equipment staff tested them on the sideline and determined they were not inflated to the minimum standard, Goodell said: “But that’s why you don’t rely on somebody else testing them. They’re using a different device. Somebody else is testing them. They have to be tested by the officials who use the same device to make sure there’s accuracy in that.”
Discrepancies over which of two gauges referee Walt Anderson used to test footballs before the AFC Championship Game in 2015 was one of the core issues raised by the Patriots and other skeptics of the Wells Report, which contained the results of a multi-million-dollar investigation that led to harsh penalties for the Patriots and star quarterback Tom Brady.
The website the Patriots launched to dissect the case, WellsReportInContext.com, expounds at length on the subject, saying in part: “Despite Mr. Anderson’s ‘best recollection’ that he used the Logo gauge pre-game, the NFL’s lawyers rejected it. To determine PSI changes from pre-game to halftime, one would have to use the same gauge at halftime that was used by Referee Anderson pre-game, since gauges vary from each other in accuracy. The Logo gauge, at halftime, did not show as much PSI loss as did the Non-Logo gauge, so knowing which gauge was actually used before the game is critical.”
Each team’s offense is allowed to use its own footballs during a game. According to the NFL football operations website: “Each team must deliver at least 12 official Wilson NFL footballs, brushed and wiped down by the equipment manager, to the officials’ locker room 135 minutes before kickoff. The referee verifies that they are all properly inflated.”
FOX Sports first reported Sunday morning that the Giants tested two of the Steelers’ footballs during a 24-14 loss at Pittsburgh in Week 13 and alerted the league that the balls were under-inflated. Within an hour, the NFL responded with a statement that said procedures were followed, there were no chain-of-command issues, all footballs were in compliance, and the Giants never filed a formal complaint with the league office.
Goodell acknowledged Wednesday that the Giants raised the issue during the game after takeaways by players who wanted to keep the balls and brought them to the sideline. But neither team followed up nor did the league, “because we were comfortable (that) the protocols were followed,” Goodell said.
Executives from both teams also tried to take air out of the issue Wednesday.
“Much ado about nothing,” Giants president and CEO John Mara said.
Steelers president Art Rooney II said he agreed with Mara, adding: “I don’t think people seem to understand that we don’t have custody of the balls anymore, so they don’t have much of an opportunity to deflate them. So I don’t know what happened, I don’t know if something happened, and if it happened, I don’t know what happened. So there’s not much I can say about it.”
And Goodell’s explanation for dismissing the Giants’ assessment that the balls were below the permissible psi — like the speed with which the NFL closed its inquiry — will probably cause more angst among New England Patriots fans still steamed over the Deflategate saga.
“What you do is you test the balls before the game, and the officials always maintain control of those footballs from that point on,” Goodell told reporters at the NFL meetings Wednesday. “We went back. We checked with the officials to make sure they checked the proper inflation. They did that. The balls were retained in their control throughout the game from that point on. So the protocols were followed all the way.”
Asked whether the balls were examined further, given the Giants' equipment staff tested them on the sideline and determined they were not inflated to the minimum standard, Goodell said: “But that’s why you don’t rely on somebody else testing them. They’re using a different device. Somebody else is testing them. They have to be tested by the officials who use the same device to make sure there’s accuracy in that.”
Discrepancies over which of two gauges referee Walt Anderson used to test footballs before the AFC Championship Game in 2015 was one of the core issues raised by the Patriots and other skeptics of the Wells Report, which contained the results of a multi-million-dollar investigation that led to harsh penalties for the Patriots and star quarterback Tom Brady.
The website the Patriots launched to dissect the case, WellsReportInContext.com, expounds at length on the subject, saying in part: “Despite Mr. Anderson’s ‘best recollection’ that he used the Logo gauge pre-game, the NFL’s lawyers rejected it. To determine PSI changes from pre-game to halftime, one would have to use the same gauge at halftime that was used by Referee Anderson pre-game, since gauges vary from each other in accuracy. The Logo gauge, at halftime, did not show as much PSI loss as did the Non-Logo gauge, so knowing which gauge was actually used before the game is critical.”
Each team’s offense is allowed to use its own footballs during a game. According to the NFL football operations website: “Each team must deliver at least 12 official Wilson NFL footballs, brushed and wiped down by the equipment manager, to the officials’ locker room 135 minutes before kickoff. The referee verifies that they are all properly inflated.”
FOX Sports first reported Sunday morning that the Giants tested two of the Steelers’ footballs during a 24-14 loss at Pittsburgh in Week 13 and alerted the league that the balls were under-inflated. Within an hour, the NFL responded with a statement that said procedures were followed, there were no chain-of-command issues, all footballs were in compliance, and the Giants never filed a formal complaint with the league office.
Goodell acknowledged Wednesday that the Giants raised the issue during the game after takeaways by players who wanted to keep the balls and brought them to the sideline. But neither team followed up nor did the league, “because we were comfortable (that) the protocols were followed,” Goodell said.
Executives from both teams also tried to take air out of the issue Wednesday.
“Much ado about nothing,” Giants president and CEO John Mara said.
Steelers president Art Rooney II said he agreed with Mara, adding: “I don’t think people seem to understand that we don’t have custody of the balls anymore, so they don’t have much of an opportunity to deflate them. So I don’t know what happened, I don’t know if something happened, and if it happened, I don’t know what happened. So there’s not much I can say about it.”
