New England’s head coach said that balls were underinflated by more than two pounds per square inch.
Following the New England Patriots’ loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 15, a report came out of Foxborough that an apparent officiating mishap had left some footballs underinflated in the first half. On Friday, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick confirmed that there indeed was an issue involving the six kicking balls used.
Per Belichick, it did not take New England long to notice.
“We were aware of it in the first quarter,” he said.
Unlike the footballs used by each offense, those used on special teams are handled exclusively by the officiating crew ahead of each game. Teams cannot even warm up with the kicking balls, and therefore have to trust the referees to inflate them to the proper levels as mentioned by league rules.
As is the case with all balls, the NFL mandates them to be inflated to a pressure level between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch. According to Belichick, the balls used on Sunday were under that limit by as much as 2.5 pounds.
“The officials handled that, and they were underinflated by 2-2.5 pounds,” he said. “I think you could see that by the kicks. Both kickers missed kicks, and [Harrison] Butker hadn’t missed a kick all year. Kickoffs, we had two that almost went out of bounds.”
Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker sent a 39-yard field goal try wide right to cap off the first possession of the game, ending a streak of 59 combined successful field goals and extra point kicks going back to last season. On the very next drive, Patriots rookie Chad Ryland sent a 41-yard field goal try wide to the left.
The issue was eventually addressed at halftime, and the balls inflated to within the legal limit. Nonetheless, Belichick seemed irritated by the handling after it became clear there were issues in the first place.
“There were six balls — there were two sets of balls, it was all six of them,” he said. “You have to talk to the league what happened on that because we don’t have anything to do with that part of it; they control all that. They fixed them at halftime, but didn’t do it before then — which is another question you could ask. But we don’t have anything to do with that. Were we aware of that? Yeah, definitely. But they were, as I understand it, all the same.”
The issue came almost nine years after the Patriots were accused by the league of tampering with the air pressure levels inside footballs to gain a competitive advantage. Those accusations were later disproven by scientific analysis, but the team was nonetheless stripped of two draft picks and handed a $1 million fine. In addition, quarterback Tom Brady was suspended the first four games of the 2016 season.
Given the resources invested by the league back then, Belichick could have had reason to be upset. At least during his Friday press conference, he did not let his guard down.
“The things that are out of our control, I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know what the explanation is, but it was the same for both teams, whatever that means. I mean, Butker had a perfect season going.”
Harrison Butker himself spoke about the problem on Wednesday. He downplayed the impact the irregular inflation levels had on his miss.
“I think it was technique,” he said. “I’ve made a lot of big kicks with flatter balls and shoot, even in college, they don’t measure their pressure at all. … Stuff like that happens, and you just roll with it. I’ve made field goals, and I’ve made decent kickoffs with balls that maybe aren’t a perfect 13 PSI, indoor room temperature. But it’s just kind of the nature of the game. And sometimes that stuff happens.”
Butker and the Chiefs ended up beating the Patriots 27-17.