Deflate-Gate somehow brought about a new twist on Wednesday when it was reported that the NFL fired an unnamed official for selling one of the footballs which was used in the AFC Championship Game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts.
Bahahahaha RT @BartHubbuch: ESPN: Unnamed NFL official sold one of the Deflategate balls and has been fired. Wow.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) February 18, 2015
What makes matters even worse is that the footballs were supposed to be auctioned off for charity.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the NFL fired the employee following the AFC Championship Game.
“There are a few different league officials, according to people I spoke with today, at the game, who handled the footballs,” Schefter said. “League employees: League Employee 1, League Employee 2 and League Employee 3, we’ll call them, for lack of a better phrases, whose jobs are to handle the balls on game day. And League Official 1, he’s also supposed to take the balls out of play and then send them off to a charitable endeavor to raise money for a charitable endeavor that the league is embarking upon. Only on this day, and since that day, the league has since fired that employee for allegedly selling off some of those footballs on the side. So that employee — League Official 1 — has been fired since the AFC Championship Game.”
To make matters even more confusing, a second official reportedly saw that a ball was missing and gave an attendant a new one for the field of play as the first official tried to recirculate the stolen ball once he realized he had been caught. This likely explains why football attendant Jim McNally was “caught” trying to insert an unapproved football into the game.
The more we learn about Deflate-Gate, the more confusing it seems to get.
About Ryan Wong