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Chiefs’ Butker confirms underinflated footballs vs. Patriots

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots reportedly had underinflated footballs during the Chiefs’ 27-17 win on Sunday.

According to MassLive.com, the kicking balls were weighed at halftime where they came up to weigh 11 PSI instead of the legal limit of 13.5.

Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker broke his streak of perfect field goals and extra points by missing a 39-yard field goal wide right in the first quarter.

On the next series, Patriots kicker Chad Ryland missed a 41-yard attempt, wide left.

In the second half, after the footballs were inflated to their proper weight, Butker made two field goals from 29 yards and 54 yards out.

On Thursday, head coach Andy Reid said he didn’t know anything about it.

Butker said he’s made big kicks with underinflated footballs so the feeling wasn’t new.

“It’s just kind of the nature of the game and sometimes that stuff happens,” he said.

This season, Butker has hit 87.1% of his kickoffs for touchbacks. His first kickoff landed at the three-yard line which prompted a return.

The referees told Butker at halftime that the footballs were underinflated, and the Chiefs kicker said he could tell the football was pumped up in the second half.

He also blames his technique for his miss, not the ball.

“It’s kind of one of those misfires where you wish you had back,” Butker said.

In his warmups, he had a 38-yarder from the middle of the field also slice to the right.

“It showed up in warm-ups. I made a lot of big kicks with flatter balls,” he said.

Weather and air pressure causes the PSI in footballs to fluctuate, and Butker laughed as he remembered kicking flatter footballs in college at Georgia Tech.

Butker also practices with flatter balls and properly pumped balls to know how to kick with both.

“That’s something I learned early on because you’re playing in these cold games and the balls are gonna be colder,” he said.

This isn’t the first time there’s been a so-called “deflategate” in the NFL. In fact, the Patriots are quite familiar with it.

New England was involved in a similar issue nearly a decade ago. Former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was suspended and the Patriots lost draft picks after officials discovered underinflated footballs during the 2015 AFC Championship game. However, the NFL never actually proved the balls were deflated.

Teams are not allowed to work with the kicking balls during their pregame warmups in accordance with NFL rules.

According to the NFL rulebook, each team is supplied 12 primary and 12 backup balls available for testing no later than 2 hours and 15 minutes before the start of the game. The legal limit remains between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch.

For all games, six new footballs are sealed in a box and opened in the officials’ locker room two hours and 45 minutes before the game, and those balls are marked by the manufacturer and used exclusively for the kicking game.

Officials are supposed to weigh the balls before the opening kickoffs.

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