With all the fuss over ‘deflate-gate’ in New England, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback and Super Bowl champion, Brad Johnson, tells a story of the time he paid to have balls altered.
Johnson says he didn’t like wearing gloves, and At the Super Bowl, the NFL had 100 brand new, slick footballs. Johnson reportedly paid someone to have the balls scuffed up and altered before kickoff.
“I paid some guys off to get the balls right,” Johnson now admits. “I went and got all 100 footballs, and they took care of all of them.”
How much did it cost Johnson? “Seventy-five hundred (dollars),” he said.
“They took care of them.”
Johnson made the revelation several years ago, proir to the 10-year reunion of the Bucs’ Super Bowl champion team.
The NFL has found that 11 of 12 of the New England Patriots game balls were inflated significantly less than the NFL requires in Sunday’s AFC Championship win over the Colts, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported.
Rich Gannon threw five interception using the altered balls from Johnson in that Super Bowl.