Deflategate Football Goes For Nearly $44,000 At Auction
By Ross Kelly
One of the footballs that's part of the Deflategate scandal was recently put up in an auction and fetched nearly $44,000. Lelands.com, an auction house headquartered in Bohemia, NY, sold the ball early on Saturday for $43,740 to an unnamed recipient.
The ball was put up for auction by Laura Nichols, a Patriots' fan who was handed the ball by Brandon LaFell after a LeGarrette Blount touchdown in the third quarter. By that point the balls had been inflated to the proper level as it was just in the first half that the Patriots used the under-inflated footballs. Joshua Evans, the Chairman of Lelands.com, expected the ball, which is the only one from the game up for auction, to fetch more than $100,000 but he'll have to settle for less than half of that.
Lelands specializes in sports memorabilia in addition to vintage photography and various pop culture items. Other items they've sold recently include a 1963 LA Dodgers World Series ring (over $9,000), Muhammad Ali's US Passport (nearly $19,000), and Mike Tyson prison letters (over $500).
All of these items pale in comparison to the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever to sell - Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball from the 1998 season. That item went for $3 million and was purchased by Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn. McFarlane also happened to purchase Barry Bonds' 73rd home run from the 2001 season but that ball only cost $450,000.
Ross Kelly is an Associated Producer for CBS Local Sports. He is from Louisiana and is a fan of all sports, but not of any teams (except LSU). He can be reached at ross.kelly@cbs.com.
