The NFL has spent the last seven months yelling at each other about whether or not Tom Brady illegally deflated balls during the AFC Championship game, and apparently James Franklin was watching. Cameras caught the Penn State coach making referees bust out a pressure gauge to check some of the game balls during Penn State’s loss to Temple. (Video via The Big Lead.)
Penn State’s James Franklin makes refs check the ball pressure because DeflateGate
Apparently deflated balls were to blame for Christian Hackenberg getting sacked over and over and over and over again.
Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports
For the record, the referees didn’t seem to find anything wrong with the balls. Each team is allowed to provide their own game balls for offense, so no ball pressure issue was to blame for Christian Hackenberg’s 10-for-25 day... or the eight sacks Temple recorded. The game was Penn State’s first loss to Temple since 1941.
The college rules are pretty much the same as NFL rules -- the ball has to be inflated between 12.5 and 13.5 PSI. Deflating footballs has been a scandal in college football before -- USC got caught deflating balls in the middle of a game in 2012, although Lane Kiffin denied all involvement and blamed a student manager.
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