SAN FRANCISCO — If we’ve learned anything in the last four months, it’s that keeping track of footballs before a game is a very big deal. Apparently it wasn’t important enough to discuss at the NFL Spring Meeting, however.
Roger Goodell said Wednesday at the Ritz-Carlton that NFL owners didn’t discuss how footballs would be handled before games next season. The issue comes to light after the Deflategate scandal made it clear the chain of command in keeping track of footballs is broken.
“There wasn’t at the meetings in the last few days, only because I think our office first has to establish what changes we want to make,” Goodell said. “Getting the Wells Report, we want to look at that, we want to evaluate that, what are the appropriate changes to make to our protocol. I do anticipate changes will take places prior to the 2015 season. But we did not discuss that.”
Currently, footballs have to be within 12.5 and 13.5 PSI, and they’re taken to the field by the home team’s officials locker room attendant. Referee Walt Anderson lost track of the footballs during the 2015 AFC Championship Game, when New England Patriots staffer Jim McNally took the game balls into a bathroom for a minute and 40 seconds.
Thumbnail photo via Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports Images
