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The Patriots have come under scrutiny with regards to NFL rules in the past, most infamously when they were punished for videotaping sideline signals used by the New York Jets during a 2007 game. Coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000, and the team was docked $250,000 and stripped of its 2008 first-round draft pick.

According to the NFL rule book, home teams are responsible for furnishing playable balls at all time. Each team brings 12 primary balls, while home teams are required to also bring 12 backup balls.

Once the referee makes sure the footballs are properly inflated, they’re delivered to ball attendants provided by the home team.

The league’s game operations manual notes: “If any individual alters the footballs, or if a non-approved ball is used in the game, the person responsible and, if appropriate, the head coach or other club personnel will be subject to discipline, including but not limited to, a fine of $25,000.”

Deflating a football could change the way it would be gripped by a player or the way it travels through the air.

[rlmorel]

This is great!

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Each team is allowed to bring their own footballs to use during games. A little more than two hours before each game, referees inspect each team’s footballs to make sure they are properly inflated to league specifications. After this, the balls are given to the teams’ respective attendants, who will hand them off to referees as needed during games. Apparently, several “abnormal” footballs had to be removed from play during Sunday night’s game in Foxboro and the NFL is investigating whether or not these balls were intentionally deflated by the Patriots’ staff. In order for this to have happened, the Patriots’ staff would have had to deflate the balls during the game on the sidelines, which seems like it would have been an awfully big risk for the team to take given how many cameras are covering all aspects of the stadium. On Boston sports radio station WEEI on Monday, Patriots coach Bill Belichick denied that he’d -intentionally- deflated any balls and said that he and the team would fully cooperate with the league’s investigation. If the Patriots are found guilty, they will likely be stripped of draft picks and fined for violating league rules. Did the New England Patriots really cheat their way to the Super Bowl?

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