While all the attention was focused on the synthetic microfiber balls the NBA adopted this year (and will drop in Jan), the NFL has a problem with the footballs they were sent this year by Wilson — QBs are complaining that they’re too slick and then getting even slicker with age.
Eagles team equipment manager John Hatfield attributes it to the change in regime from Tagliabue to Roger Goodell:
They had a problem this summer up in Ohio where they make the balls,” Hatfield said. “They had a humidity problem in the curing process [of the leather].”Wilson, which has been the exclusive provider of footballs for the NFL since 1941, usually produces most of its footballs earlier in the year, when the Ohio weather is cooler and they have a bigger batch of balls from which to select the 720 “NFL-worthy” balls they send to each team.
But after Goodell was named commissioner on Aug. 8, the league informed Wilson it wanted a whole new supply of Goodell-signature balls delivered to teams in time for the start of the regular season.
Doug Wisner, a marketing analyst for Wilson footballs, acknowledged that a summer heat wave in Ohio affected the production of the Goodell footballs.
“When there’s a humidity problem, what happens is the pebble definition [on the ball] isn’t as great,” he said. “That did occur this summer. There was a big heat wave right when we were producing the footballs. It’s not that it made the balls slick. But the pebble definition wasn’t as great, which makes the ball slicker. Basically, after they brushed them down, they did have a slicker ball. But after Week 3 or 4, we didn’t hear many complaints.”
According to Wisner, only one out of every 10 balls Wilson makes is deemed “NFL-worthy.” But because they had much less time to make and send the new Goodell balls to NFL teams, balls that previously wouldn’t have been considered up to NFL standards, now were.
Despite all the complaining, the overall league completion rate is up 1/2 a percent (even with all of Terrell Owen’s drops) so the new slick ball isn’t much of a factor. Unless QBs in the league are getting better… but anyone who has watched Bruce Gradkowski or Andrew Walter play this year knows that can’t be true.
Links:
[Philly.com]: GET A GRIP, NFL
