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Buccaneers’ Brad Johnson Paid To Have Footballs Altered In Super Bowl XXXVII

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By @MichaelTerrill

Brad Johnson

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With the media storm surrounding the New England Patriots and “Deflategate” at full capacity, there are numerous stories from the past about players having issues with the football.

Whether it is Carolina Panthers kicker Graham Cano being denied by officials to have the psi of the game balls checked outside in the cold air or Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Brad Johnson paying someone to alter footballs in Super Bowl XXXVII, it seems everyone has a story. And yes, the latter shall be the focus of this article.

Johnson, who led Tampa Bay to victory over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII, paid someone $7,500 to alter 100 footballs prior to the big game.

“I paid some guys off to get the balls right,” Johnson said, according to a story by Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “I went and got all 100 footballs, and they took care of all of them.”

The reason for the highly illegal activity was because Johnson hated throwing new balls. It had something to do with the fact that his hands would get very sweaty, which would make it difficult for him to grip footballs that were pulled out of the box without any prior usage. Considering the Super Bowl is the biggest game of any football player’s life, I have to imagine Johnson believed his hands would be more sweaty than usual.

Johnson paying someone to scuff off the balls clearly worked as the Buccaneers went on to beat the Raiders 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII.

Even though the Patriots were the ones who were caught cheating again, it appears they are certainly not the first team or group of people to do some work behind the scenes prior to a game that the league will frown upon.

Michael Terrill is a Senior Writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelTerrill, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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