Rule Two, Section One of the NFL Rule Book states game footballs “shall remain under the supervision of the Referee until they are delivered to the ball attendant just prior to the start of the game.”
However, according to the Wells Report, when it came time for referee Walt Anderson and the officiating staff to take the game balls to the ball boys on the field 15 minutes before the AFC Championship game in January, the footballs were missing.
According to the report, Patriots officials locker room attendant Jim McNally took the footballs on to the field without the officials’ permission after bringing them into a bathroom for about 100 seconds.
Wrote the Wells Report investigators: “When it was suggested that McNally had or may have taken them to the field, Anderson responded that ‘he’s not supposed to do that.’ Anderson also stated that ‘we have to find the footballs.’”
The investigators also noted: “It was the first time in Anderson’s nineteen years as an NFL official that he could not locate the game balls at the start of a game.”
According to the Wells Report, Anderson and fellow NFL referee Clete Blakeman — also present for the AFC title game — described McNally’s removal of the footballs as unusual and not standard practice.
Wrote investigators: “Numerous game officials, including those assigned to the AFC Championship Game, told us that McNally generally does not remove the game balls from the Officials Locker Room without express permission or without being accompanied by one or more game officials. Walt Anderson said that in his experience, McNally has not removed, and is not permitted to remove, the game balls from the Officials Locker Room without his permission.
“Anderson also said that if McNally had asked to take the footballs to the field before he was ready to leave, he would have told McNally to wait. Anderson has always denied requests by ball boys and locker room attendants in other stadiums to take the game balls out before he was ready to go to the field.
“Similarly, Clete Blakeman—a referee on another officiating crew during the regular season — could not recall a previous instance where McNally took the game balls to the field on his own and without express permission. What happened on the day of the AFC Championship Game was, in his view, a ‘break in our normal protocol.’”
According to the Wells Report, McNally took the footballs out of the officiating locker room at 6:30, took them into the bathroom shortly thereafter and exited with the footballs at 6:32:27. He then took the footballs onto the field.
Less than three minutes later, Anderson and other officials went to look for the footballs — which had already departed, the Wells Report alleges.
