When Deflategate broke wide open, Indianapolis-based former NFL head linesman Mark Baltz wasnt particularly surprised. More specifically, he wasnt surprised that lockerroom attendant Jim McNally, who this week got his job back with the Patriots along with equipment assistant John Jastremski, was in the middle of the months-long investigation.
He always asked for the footballs way, way before he was supposed to get them, said Baltz, who was an NFL official from 1989-2013. Baltz spoke to WTHR.com last week, before the pair was reinstated. If he could get them 10 or 15 minutes before he was supposed to get them, instead of the usual two minutes before the game and there were some crews that let him do that he would do it. I wouldnt let him take them early, and I think he eventually figured that out because he stopped asking after a while. I probably did 10 to 15 games up there (in Foxboro, Mass.) and those first few times, hed always ask. I always thought it was very suspicious. He certainly acted in a suspicious manner.
Baltz, in fact, said he reported McNally to league officials six or eight years ago, concerned not only about his early requests for the footballs, but for the way he operated before and during games.