Former NFL quarterback Jeff Blake has joined the growing list of guys who say they deflated footballs on the sidelines during their careers.
Speaking on “The Midday 180” out of Nashville, Blake said the practice was common nature in the league when he played.
“I’m just going to let the cat of the bag, every team does it, every game, it has been since I played,” Blake said. “‘Cause when you take the balls out of the bag, they are rock hard. And you can’t feel the ball as well. It’s too hard. Everybody puts the pin in and lets just enough air out of the ball that you can feel it a little better. But it’s not the point to where it’s flat.
“So I don’t know what the big deal is. It’s not something that’s not been done for 20 years.”
A lot of quarterbacks and players dispute Blake’s claims, and say that deflating the football is not common practice, and it’s cheating.
Asked about a specific deflation, Blake said it regularly happened as soon as quarterbacks got the balls before the game.
“As soon as they give them the balls,” Blake said. “On the sideline before the game. The quarterbacks would come out to warm up in pregame … I would just say, ‘Take a little bit out, it’s a little bit hard.’ And then they’d take a little bit out and I’d squeeze them and say ‘That’s perfect.’ That’s it.”
Blake played for seven teams in 13 seasons, starting 100 games. His longest tenure was six seasons with Cincinnati.