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Tom Brady talks ball preference in appeal transcript – Metro US
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Tom Brady talks ball preference in appeal transcript

Tom Brady talks ball preference in appeal transcript
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Another day, another 457 pages of material related to deflated footballs to digest. The transcript of Tom Brady’s June 23 appeal hearing with the NFL was released Tuesday and in a cross examination with Lorin Reisner, Brady talks about his preference in footballs. Via ProFootballTalk:

“Ball pressure has been so inconsequential, I hadn’t even thought about that,” Brady said. “I think at the end of the day, the only time I thought about it was after the Jet game and then after this was brought up, after the [AFC] championship game. It’s never something that has been on my radar, registered. I never said ‘psi.’ I don’t think I even know what that meant until after the [AFC] championship game. It was something that never crossed my mind.”

“The only time I have ever thought about the air pressure in a football was after the Jets game when they were at the level of 16.

“So whenever I went to pick the game balls, I never once in 15 years ever asked what the ball pressure was set at until after the Jet game. So whether it’s 12.5 or 12.6 or 12.7 or 12.8 or 12.9 or 13, all the way up to the Colts game, I still think it’s inconsequential to what the actual feel of a grip of a football would be.

“So the fact that there could be a ball that’s set at 12.5 that I would disapprove of, there could be a ball at 13 that I could approve of. It all is depending on how the ball feels in my hand on that particular day.”

“I think the irony of everything is I don’t even squeeze a football,” he said.

“I think that’s something that’s really important to know is I grip the ball as loosely as possible. I don’t even squeeze the ball and I think that’s why it’s impossible for me to probably tell the difference between what 12.5 and 12.7 and 12.9 and 13 because I’m just gripping it like a golf club. I’ve tried to explain it. It’s like a golf club. You don’t squeeze the golf club. You handle it very gently. And that’s the same way I handle a football.”