#DeflateGate

With the lull between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, the controversy surrounding the New England Patriots under-inflated footballs has taken on a life of its own.  Whether you think the Patriots are one of the better franchises in NFL history, and that this is being blown way out of proportion or whether you think this is the latest example in a long history of cheating, chances are you're tire of hearing about it.  Either way, from the point of view of a former tight end and quarterback with smaller hands, an under-inflated football can indeed be easier to throw and catch, but Brady started the second half 9 for 9 with properly inflated balls, so I don't think it made a bit of difference in the game (I'm sure you've already heard that too).

Instead of commenting further about the controversy, or about the proper inflation of footballs, I'm here to argue that a player's mindset is more important than the actual ball or any other circumstances.  As evidence, I present to you Pioneer Football's own deflate gate. 

In early 2012 we were hosting a heavily favored Monmouth team on a grey and overcast day.  We had upset Monmouth on their home field in 2010 and they had beaten us soundly at our place in 2011.  Heading into the 2012 matchup they were heavily favored once again. 

Leading up to the game we'd left the game balls with the officials as always, and continued with the warmups.  As the team was heading to the locker room at the end of warmups, our QB's and WR's coach came up to me and said the officials had taken the balls because they were under-inflated and had "pumped them up way too hard."  Our QB and several of our receivers also came up to me, "coach, the balls are way to hard, they're slick, they're very hard to handle."  They were all upset.  I told them to head to the locker room and that I'd talk to the official. 

I went over to the bag of game balls and they did seem pretty hard.  The official came over and insisted they were at the correct level, and that I needed to leave them alone, so I left for the locker room to join the team.  Once I got inside I could see the coaches and the skill guys looking to me or an answer.  I told them to relax, I'd talked to the official and he'd taken quite a bit of air back out and that they were just like our QB liked them.  I honestly didn't think they'd buy it, but they did.  We went on to play our best game of the season, upsetting Monmouth 21-7.  Our QB, Sam Poulos completed 28-35 passes for 240 yards and 3 td's, and our best WR Cody Weber had 15 receptions for 165 yards and 2 td's.  Weber was named to the D3football.com team of the week and was the Midwest Conference Offensive Player of the Week.  One of the td passes from Poulos to Weber was the D3football.com Play of the Week: Play of the Week.


As I said earlier, the mindset of a player is more important than circumstances (ball, weather, opponent, etc.).  Our guys thought the ball was how they wanted it so it was no longer a distraction and they could focus on the job at hand. 

And as one final footnote, I don't think I ever told Sam or Cody or Coach Bell that I might have fibbed to them a little before the game.  Hope you guys don't mind!