USC Athletics released some curious news tonight. The program says it relieved a Trojan student manager after finding he’d deflated footballs at the USC-Oregon game below regulation level. Officials at the game discovered that several balls had to be re-inflated before the game and at halftime.
USC manager fired for illegally deflating Oregon game balls
A USC Trojans student manager was relieved of his duties after deflating footballs at the USC-Oregon game below regulation level.
The Pac-12 has reprimanded USC for its actions and issued a fine. Though the university denies any knowledge of the manager’s plan, and has fired him as a result of his action, it’s still the latest in a string of weird incidents involving USC and broken rules. The student manager has also confessed that he acted alone and did not collaborate with anyone on the USC football team, whether it be athlete, coach, or support staff.
It’s unclear why the manager decided to deflate the football, since it would seem not to serve USC’s purpose as deflated footballs would probably be harder to throw. Perhaps the manager was trying to make it harder for Oregon to execute the mesh between quarterback and running back on their pet play, the zone read?
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