Saints Also Involved in Their Own Deflategate

As the NFL world awaits the league's punishment decision for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots following the Ted Wells report on Deflategate, Saints fans should be reminded that their team also had a quarterback who let the air out of footballs prior to every game.

Turns out the Saints, along with just about every other NFL team, aren't necessarily squeaky clean when it comes to their own Deflategate. Former Saints quarterback Jeff Blake, who was with the team from 2000 to 2001, admitted back in January on Nashville's 104.5 The Zone that he instructed ball boys to take air out of the balls every game he played.

"I'm just going to let the cat of the bag, every team does it, every game, it has been since I played. Cause when you take the balls out of the bag, they are rock hard. And you can't feel the ball as well. It's too hard.

"Everybody puts the pin in and takes just enough air out of the ball that you can feel it a little better. But it's not the point to where it's flat. So I don't know what the big deal is. It's not something that's not been done for 20 years."

"Well, I would say (to a ball boy), 'Take a little bit of air out of it. It's a little bit hard,'" Blake said. "And then he'd take a little bit out and I'd squeeze it and I'd be like, 'OK, it's perfect.' That's it."

So maybe we should put the pitchforks down before getting on our soapbox and burning Tom Brady and the Patriots at the stake.