Reports are offering a potentially significant new development in DeflateGate: A Patriots locker room attendant was spotted in surveillance video taking 24 balls into a stadium bathroom. Half those balls were for the Patriots, the other half for the Colts, Pro Football Talk reports, citing an NFL source. That video, which the Pats gave to the NFL amid its investigation into deflated footballs, shows the attendant in the bathroom for just 90 seconds, prompting reporter Mike Florio to wonder whether that was enough time for the staffer to deflate half of them by two pounds.
That report follows on one by Jay Glazer of Fox Sports, who says that the attendant is a "strong person of interest" on whom the NFL has "zeroed in," though it's still not clear whether any "wrongdoing" occurred. The league has interviewed the attendant, Fox Sports reports. (More New England Patriots stories.)