Thursday, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady denied altering the footballs supplied by the Patriots for the AFC championship game.

Brady said, “I didn’t, you know, have any — you know, I didn’t alter the ball in any way. As for the  process I go through before every game where I go and pick the balls that I want to — the footballs, I want to use for the game. Our equipment guys do a great job of breaking the balls in. They have a process they go through. When I pick the footballs out, at that point they’re perfect. I don’t want anyone touching the balls after that. I don’t want anyone rubbing them, putting air in them, taking any air out. To me those balls are perfect, and that’s what I expect when I show up on the field. So, that happened obviously on Sunday night. The same process that I always go through. I didn’t think anything of it. You know, I woke up Monday morning and answered a question on the radio about it. And that’s the first I really heard of it.”

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