David Carr spoke of deflating footballs in 2006
Tom Brady, New England Patriots aren’t alone in deflating footballs as David Carr did so in 2006.
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are being put through the ringer currently as they are facing their penalties for the Deflategate incident where they allegedly let air out of the footballs in the AFC Championship game to combat the cold weather.
As everyone knows by now, Brady has been suspended for the first four games of the 2015 NFL season, the Patriots have been fined $1 million, and the Pats have been stripped of their 2016 first-round draft pick in addition to a 2017 fourth-round pick. Now that the appeal process has begun, research has begun on both sides of the scandal.
One interesting piece of evidence that has surfaced is a 2006 New York Times article from Judy Battista. In the piece, then Houston Texans quarterback David Carr flat-out admitted to deflating footballs in a 2006 preseason game in Denver.
From the piece:
"Carr, like several other quarterbacks, said Denver was one of the toughest places to play. He said he thought the ball expanded slightly at the altitude and felt slick because of the lower humidity. Before Houston’s preseason game at Denver, Carr instructed the ball boys to let a little air out of the Texans’ footballs."
It’s not certain whether that bit of confession from Carr is helpful or hurtful to Brady and the Patriots’ case. Hurtful to the Patriots is that Carr admits that NFL quarterbacks actively participate in exactly what Brady and New England have been accused of doing against the Colts in the AFC Championship.
In defense of the Pats, though, there were no penalties handed down to Carr or the Texans despite a direct admission of deflating footballs. That could be nothing considering the difference in the importance of an AFC Championship game and a preseason game, but it’s definitely worth noting in defense of the Pats.
Brady was also mentioned by name in the 2006 article.
From the piece again:
"When Tony Banks was a quarterback with the Houston Texans, he once told his teammate David Carr that Brady liked the balls so broken in that it looked as if he had been using them since junior high school.‘I relate it to an old baseball glove,’ Brady said in a telephone interview. ‘If you have a glove, when you get it right from the store, the leather is very stiff and very difficult to break in. The preservative on the football, when you get it off, it’s easier to get a grip. It’s having a ball that doesn’t slip out of your hands.’"
Not that Brady admits to deflating footballs at that point, but he does show that he likes to have the balls adjusted to his liking. That’s conjecture to connect that quote to deflating footballs in a legal sense, but it’s undeniably interesting considering the current events regarding Brady.
Who knows how the appeals work out for the Patriots in the coming days and weeks? However, don’t expect this piece from 2006 to be the last of its kind to raise eyebrows in its connection to Deflategate, even if only connected by threads.
H/T to ProFootballTalk