Didn’t know that but in thinking about that, doesn’t that seem like a goofy rule? I mean in baseball, MLB/umpires provide the baseballs during the game. I don’t see a good reason for a rule like that which potentially allows stuff like this to happen.
Possibly started to keep the home team from sabotaging the visitors.
But I see no reason why they should not just have a common ball bag and the ref pulls out a ball at random. Probably a reason though.
Football is not my sport, it interrupts my hockey watching. :)