You had to see this coming.
While we await word on Tom Brady's four-game suspension appeal for his alleged role in Deflategate, the New England Patriots scandal has led to plans for the NFL to closely monitor the air pressure of footballs this season. No surprise there, right?
Fox Sports is reporting that football air pressure readings will be measured and documented before each game, and there will be random halftime and postgame re-checks, beginning with the 2015 NFL season this fall. Each team will be required to supply 24 footballs – 12 primary and 12 backup – to the officials' locker room two hours and 15 minutes prior to each game.
The referee will then tab two members of his crew to conduct a pregame inspection of the footballs' air pressure – which must be between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch – before numbering the balls 1 through 12, in a practice that was not used last season.
Any game ball under 12.5 psi or over 13.5 psi will be adjusted to a middle-ground psi of 13.0. The footballs will then be delivered into the primary custody of a designated kicking ball coordinator until 10 minutes before each game's kickoff.
Obviously, this is a direct result of the Patriots' Deflategate scandal, in which they stand accused of deflating footballs to make them easier to throw and catch in the frigid January conditions at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
It has been over a month since Brady appealed his four-game suspension over his alleged involvement in Deflategate, and a ruling should be imminent.
In May, the Patriots were found guilty of deflating footballs and the NFL hammered the organization with the four-game suspension of Brady. It also made the franchise forfeit its 2016 first-round draft pick and 2017 fourth-round selection, as well as slapping them with a fine of $1 million.
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