AJ Feeley Says he Saw Tom Brady Messing with his Balls in 2004

Photo Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Tom Brady is appealing his four-game suspension for his role in the so-called “Deflategate” scandal, but former Eagles quarterback and lover of Heather Mitts, AJ Feeley, says Brady’s been pushing the ball envelope for years now. Feeley told 97.5 the Fanatic this morning that Brady was doctoring his balls long before they were inflated by a couple of knucklehead fluffers.

In 2006, the NFL changed their rules to allow teams to prepare their own balls instead of just using fresh balls given to them. But Feeley says when Brady and the Patriots visited his Miami Dolphins, Brady was using more, um, handled balls:

“Prior to Tommy and Peyton Manning going to the league and saying, ‘Let us doctor our balls,’ we used to all play with the same balls. Somehow this beat-up ball from the ball boy was getting thrown in on offense for New England, yet when we were on offense this orange brand new ball was getting thrown in.”

It’s not especially shocking, since while the Patriots have flat-out broken rules over the years, they’ve also pushed and skirted and snuck by tons of other rules along the way. The argument can be made that the under-inflated balls aren’t a huge deal — though the deal is more that they knowingly broke rules — but using worn-in balls when the other team has to use fresh, untouched balls is definitely a bigger deal. As we all know, well-touched balls are friendlier, typically softer, and generally more pleasing to work with.