NEW YORK, Jan. 21 (UPI) — Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback and Super Bowl champion Brad Johnson is finding himself unexpectedly back in the spotlight after comments he made about deflating game balls have new relevancy as “Deflate-gate”
In 2012, nearly a decade after the Bucs beat the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXVII, Johnson admitted he paid NFL equipment officials $7,500 to deflate the game’s balls to his liking.
“I paid some guys off to get the balls right,” Johnson told the Tampa Bay Times in 2012.
“I went and got all 100 footballs, and they took care of all of them. Seventy-five hundred [dollars]. They took care of them.”
The anecdote was reprinted in the Times Wednesday morning in light of revelations that 11 out of 12 of balls used by the New England Patriots in their AFC Championship win over the Colts were slightly deflated. Colts safety Mike Adams intercepted Patriots quarterback Tom Brady twice in Patriots 45-7 victory, and gave both balls to his team’s equipment managers, concerned they were underinflated.
What makes Johnson’s admission different from the current “Deflate-gate” controversy is Johnson’s altered game balls were used by both teams on every down of the Super Bowl, whereas the deflated balls from Sunday’s AFC Championship game were allegedly only used by the Patriots, possibly giving Brady an advantage over Colts quarterback Andrew Luck.
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