Deflategate Part II has arrived.
In the aftermath of their defeat against the Kansas City Chiefs, Patriots special team members displayed visible frustration in the locker room on Sunday, all stemming from an officiating error. Multiple sources reveal that footballs designated for each team’s kicking units were found to be underinflated by two pounds.
Following complaints from the teams, officials took the ‘K-Balls’ into the locker room during halftime, discovering that they weighed 11 pounds per square inch instead of the legal limit of 13.5, according to reliable sources.
The underinflated footballs struggled to navigate the Foxborough weather on Sunday, impacting the performance of Patriots kicker Chad Ryland and Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, both missing field goals in the first half. It was reported that the footballs traveled more efficiently in the second half after being inflated to the proper 13.5 PSI.
“They were all sitting around at 11 PSI. The threshold is usually 13.5,” a source informed MassLive. “(The Patriots) told the refs they were a little underinflated or they felt that way. At halftime, they confirmed and obviously put air in them.”
The Patriots sideline noticed something was awry when Harrison Butker’s opening kickoff landed at the 3-yard line, allowing for a Jalen Reagor return on a mild December day in Foxborough. This season, Butker has achieved touchbacks on 87.1% of his kickoffs. As the half progressed, the team observed that the trajectory and hang time of kickoffs and punts were lower than usual. Another source mentioned that the kicking balls felt unusually soft to the touch.
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The officiating error may have contributed to Harrison Butker missing his first field goal of the season, coming into Sunday’s game with a perfect record. The veteran missed a 39-yard attempt, wide right, at 9:56 of the first quarter. Shortly after, Chad Ryland missed a 41-yard attempt, wide left, at 3:40 of the first quarter. A source mentioned that the Patriots rookie’s mechanics were sound, but the flight of the ball was off.
Neither the Patriots nor the Chiefs detected the issue until kickoff, as teams are prohibited from working with the kicking balls during pregame warm-ups, in accordance with NFL rules.
According to the NFL rulebook, each team is supplied with 12 primary and 12 backup balls available for testing no later than two hours and 15 minutes before the game starts. The legal limit remains between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch. For all games, six new footballs are sealed in a box, opened in the officials’ locker room two hours and 45 minutes before the game, and used exclusively for the kicking game. Officials are mandated to weigh the balls before the opening kickoffs.
