Ex-Tampa QB Brad Johnson Admits To Tampering With Super Bowl Footballs
BOSTON (CBS) -- The New England Patriots are currently under investigation by the NFL for using deflated footballs in Sunday's AFC Championship win over the Indianapolis Colts.
They're receiving their fair share of criticism in the media (and some that has gone completely overboard), as these latest accusations join a long line of perceived "cheating" (or stretching of the rules) by the organization.
Read: DeflateGate Coverage
But it's pretty clear that they aren't the only ones making sure the footballs are the way they want it -- if that is in fact what happened Sunday at Gillette. Even when the footballs are tightly locked away by the NFL, teams and players can apparently make sure they're weathered to their liking -- even if it's before the biggest game of the season.
Brad Johnson, the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their Super Bowl XXXVII win over the Oakland Raiders, admitted to paying people ahead of the game to make sure the 100 footballs were to his liking.
"I paid some guys off to get the balls right," Johnson told the Tampa Bay Times a few years back as the team celebrated the 10th anniversary of their Super Bowl title. "I went and got all 100 footballs, and they took care of all of them."
Johnson said he paid the employees, who he did not identify, $7,500 to doctor the footballs to help his grip.
Whereas the Patriots provided their own footballs for Sunday's AFC title game, it's the NFL who provides the footballs for the Super Bowl. That means both the Bucs and Raiders used the same balls for that game.
According to the most recent report on "DeflateGate," league sources told ESPN's Chris Mortensen that 11 of the 12 balls used by the Patriots on Sunday were under-inflated by two pounds per square inch of air less than what's required by NFL regulations.
The Patriots could be fined or lose draft picks if found guilty of any wrongdoing by the NFL.
New England will play the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1 in Glendale, Arizona.
