Last season, the referee was the sole judge.
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You had to see this coming.
While commissioner Roger Goodell has yet to make a decision regarding Tom Brady’s appeal for his role in Deflategate, the NFL told its officials this weekend that there will be new procedures for the 2015 season regarding how footballs will be prepared and monitored. No surprise there, right? Pregame pressure readings will now be documented and there will be random halftime and postgame rechecks, as reported by Fox Sports and other outlets.
The footballs will be numbered and then each football will have its PSI checked and recorded.
■ The footballs still need to measure between 12.5 and 13.5 PSI.
If a football is found to be below the minimum of 12.5 PSI or above the maximum of 13.5 PSI, it will be inflated or deflated to 13 PSI.
All footballs will be inspected by NFL officials, who then will hand them off to a kicking ball coordinator, who will hold on to the footballs until 10 minutes before kickoff.
Numbering balls and random changes at halftime are among the new measures in place to avoid tampering.
If there was one guaranteed outcome from the Deflategate scandal, it was rule changes to game-ball preparation on the day of games.
It was during the pre-game period of the AFC championship on January 18 at Gillette Stadium that the NFL, via the Wells Report, believes the balls were altered. “The officials have approximately only six minutes in their locker room at halftime as it is”.
The referee will appoint two members of his crew to inspection all footballs before the game. The New England Patriots and Brady should know where they stand by now, and the league is doing them a great disservice by not giving them a ruling.
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Mike Pereira, the leagueis previous head of officiating, wrote an article Saturday outlining the NFLis new sports -monitoring processes. The coordinator, a member of the officiating crew, and a security representative will bring the 24 approved game footballs (12 for each team) to the on-field replay station, at which point the footballs will be distributed to each team, in the presence of the league security personnel. “Now instead of officials discussing their performance in the first half and getting ready for the second half, they’ll be adjusting PSI’s”. How can the NFL rightfully issue unprecedented and over-the-top punishment in the form of the docking of a first-round pick, a fourth-round pick, $1 million and a four-game suspension to the quarterback while at the same time admitting that football preparation was an area never before given close attention?
