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The DeflateGate controversy ripped back the curtain on a little rule change that has come roaring back from 2006.
It didn’t make enormous headlines when Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and the league’s other marquee quarterbacks lobbied hard for a rule-book tweak that would allow each offense to supply its own footballs. Brady, Manning and the rest of the NFL’s QBs were at the top of their game, TV ratings were skyrocketing, offensive records were falling — why not change a rule if that’s what the marquee stars wanted, even if they’d still be marquee stars without a change? Women were flocking to the game, fantasy leagues were thriving and the league was only too happy to enable its modern golden age of quarterbacks with that change, along with others limiting defenses that have helped keep QBs at the top of their game over the last nine seasons.
As the last week has shown, though, there might be plenty of complications with the idea. The NFL is investigating how footballs used by the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game became underinflated below the margins of 12.5-13.5 pounds per square inch mandated by the rule book. Coach Bill Belichick and Brady deny any knowledge of how this occurred and the league has brought in its own PSI CSI technicians and investigators to get to the bottom of the matter. It really tracks back, though, to 2006, when the NFL lost custody of footballs, the most important piece of equipment on the field, during games and illustrates how DeflateGate is a problem the NFL created for itself. MORE