by Reid Nichols

The New England Patriots have been accused of purposely deflating their game balls during the AFC championship game leading up to the Super Bowl.  The balls were checked by the officials before the game and were all up to NFL standards.  However, when the balls where checked at halftime, 11 of the 12 Patriot game balls were under inflated by almost 20% of the regulation pressure.  “I think that Tom Brady knew the balls were deflated, but in the end it didn’t matter because they won by like 40 points,” said freshman John McConkey.  The balls were then replaced with backup balls that were properly inflated.

With all the controversy this story has brought, it lead to the question of what does Atlantic High School do with their game balls?  Athletic director Matt Alexander commented, “There is a requirement to what the balls should be pressurized to, but I have never seen officials check it.”

“I don’t even know if the officials check the air pressure or not,” said senior Skyler Svoboda.

Alexander stated that each team brings their own balls to use while on offense.  The officials may do a squeeze test, but he has never seen it occur.

Alexander is not concerned that there will be new rules to further enforce the checking of high school game balls. “I don’t think that the incident will trickle down to the high school level.”