"Deflategate" investigators are reportedly talking to a locker room attendant who tried to introduce an unapproved special teams football into last month's AFC Championship Game.
The Patriots have been accused of intentionally using underinflated footballs on offensive plays during the game, in which they defeated the Indianapolis Colts.
Jim McNally, who has been an attendant for the officials' locker room at Gillette Stadium since at least 2008, tried to give alternate official Greg Yette a
ball that was not marked as having been inspected for the game, ESPN reported.
The unauthorized ball was a “kicking ball” or “K ball,” which typically are more inflated, raising questions about why McNally may have done that because it seems to
contradict wanting deflated footballs, the Boston Herald reported.
After getting the unauthorized ball, Yette notified Mike Kensil, the NFL's vice president of game operations, who inspected 12 balls the Patriots had for offensive use and found that 11 were underinflated, ESPN said.
It is unclear whether McNally is the same locker room attendant who is said to have taken a bag of footballs into a bathroom for 90 seconds en route to the field for the start of the game.
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