While he may have been hesitant to admit it six months ago, there is little doubt now that Tom Brady likes his game balls to be inflated to the lower end of the *legal* limit. In fact, the four-time Super Bowl winner reportedly likes his equipment managers to inform game officials of that before each game.
One of the reasons NFL commissioner Roger Goodell cited on Tuesday for upholding Brady’s four-game suspension was that Brady makes an effort to have his game balls inflated as close to 12.5 psi as possible. Before the AFC Championship Game, the veteran quarterback instructed equipment staffer Jim McNally to hand head referee Walt Anderson a copy of the rules for game ball inflation and request that the balls be set to 12.