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Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with the New England Patriots defeating Washington in week 1 of the preseason, but I just have to share this story.
But Philadelphia Eagles reporter Howard Eskin says that the Pittsburgh Steelers are under investigation by the NFL for a football in their first preseason game “that was VERY deflated...it was like a marshmallow.”
During #Eagles #steelers pre season game their was at least one Pittsburgh football found that was VERY deflated . The #NFL has the Football and is investigating. I saw the FB after incompletion and it was like a marshmallow. @SportsRadioWIP
— Howard Eskin (@howardeskin) August 10, 2018
I only bring this up because anything with deflated footballs will always be important to Patriots fans, especially when it comes to highlighting the hypocrisy of the league.
Based on this solitary tweet, the most likely explanation is that the football had a hole in it and no one did anything intentionally wrong. But I’m sure the entire Steelers franchise was, ahem, generally aware of its use if it was involved in an incompletion.
I have no idea what will become of this and I’ll absolutely be sharing updates when they’re known, but I think the only acceptable penalty is for the Steelers to suspend Ben Roethlisbeger, Le’Veon Bell, and Antonio Brown in week 15 and for the Steelers to forfeit their first round draft pick in each of the next five drafts.
It’s the only fair response.
Update: Super happy to report that the league dispelled any notion of wrongdoing with expediency and don’t appear to be spending multi-millions on a fraud investigation.
From @NFLfootballinfo on PIT-PHI: "All footballs were in compliance with NFL rules following the pregame inspection process & all proper procedures were followed. In the 3Q, a football that was found to be defective was removed from play, will be sent back to Wilson for review.”
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 10, 2018