Footballs per NFL Game

[as_u_wish]

I failed at googling the number of footballs prepared for a professional American football game. Can someone help? Thanks.

[I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter]

As far as the NFL is concerned…

Digest of Rules Main
Ball

1. The home club shall have 36 balls for outdoor games and 24 for indoor games available for testing with a pressure gauge by the referee two hours prior to the starting time of the game to meet with League requirements. Twelve (12) new footballs, sealed in a special box and shipped by the manufacturer, will be opened in the officials’ locker room two hours prior to the starting time of the game. These balls are to be specially marked with the letter “k” and used exclusively for the kicking game.

As to any other pro organizations in the U.S., I haven’t looked.

[as_u_wish]

Thanks–it didn’t occur to me that it was established by rule. I thought it might vary considerably depending on the weather, etc. Ignorance fought.

[I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter]

Your question actually inspires another one—whether the “K” balls are only for field goals and conversions, or also for punting and kickoffs as well (plays which of course involve ball-handling in addition to kicking)?

[ZenBeam]

… and why ‘K’ balls at all …

[aerodave]

Well, certainly the “K” balls get used for fake field goals and fake punts, plays that definitely involve ball handling.

And, of course, “K” balls aren’t the only ones that get kicked. Not all kicking plays happen when they would be most expected to. A quick-kick after the offense looks like they’re going for it on fourth down is a good example.

[brad_d]

K-balls were introduced by the NFL for the 1999 season. This article, which ran in Sports Illustrated back in '99 discusses the reasons for it in some detail:

Alarmed that kickers, in clandestine cahoots with equipment men, ball boys and quarterbacks, were doing everything but sauteeing footballs and plating them up with a nice port wine reduction, the NFL ‘s competition committee took action before this season. It passed a measure mandating that 12 game balls, inscribed with the letter K and sent out in boxes sealed with antitampering tape, would be used exclusively by punters and kickers during games. A box of the balls is delivered to the officials’ room about 2 hours before kick-off, and only then are the balls removed from their individual plastic bags.

<snip>

Here’s why everybody does it (or did it): Almost no player who has to touch a football with his hand or foot likes brand-new Wilsons out of the box, just as fielders don’t like spanking new baseball gloves. New footballs are hard, unforgiving, smallish (with a correspondingly small sweet spot) and coated with a film that makes them slippery. They don’t travel as far as game-worn balls, and they can’t be “guided” as accurately as roundish, softer balls. When you see a kicker squeeze a ball, it’s because he wants to soften it and make it rounder. So it became a ritual in many NFL locker rooms, usually on Friday or Saturday before a home game (the home team supplies game balls), that the 36 game balls were taken out of their boxes and roughed up.

(some screwed-up characters edited by me)

[garygnu]

@aerodave

Well, certainly the “K” balls get used for fake field goals and fake punts, plays that definitely involve ball handling.

And, of course, “K” balls aren’t the only ones that get kicked. Not all kicking plays happen when they would be most expected to. A quick-kick after the offense looks like they’re going for it on fourth down is a good example.

Based on the wording of brad_d’s article, I would assume the “K” balls are sent out whenever a punter or kicker (as listed on the roster) is on the field.

More related to the OP, it should be noted that fans don’t get to keep balls that make it into the stands at NFL games. Players giving balls to fans are fined a relatively tiny amount ($500?).

[NicePete]

@ZenBeam

… and why ‘K’ balls at all …

Those are the kosher ones – no pigskin in 'em.

[NicorGasMan]

@brad_d

K-balls were introduced by the NFL for the 1999 season. This article, which ran in Sports Illustrated back in '99 discusses the reasons for it in some detail:

(some screwed-up characters edited by me)

This is by Peter King of SI from 9/8/08:

The NFL now pays three employees $100 apiece, per game to work on the field in ways that George Halas and Paul Brown could never have imagined.

One NFL temp is called the K-Ball coordinator. K-balls are the footballs used only on kicking and punting plays. There are 12 in use for games at outdoor stadiums, eight for domes, and the balls can be worked on to soften the leather 45 minutes before the game by club ballboys, equipment men or even the kickers and punters themselves.

The K-Ball coordinator job was filled at each stadium beginning in the 2007 season (often by college officials residing in the area of each team) because the league discovered that kickers and punters were coercing sideline ballboys to break in the K-balls before the game, and as the game was going on. The K-ball coordinator holds onto the balls, ensuring that no players or club employee can work on them once the game begins, and he also rotates two balls as the primary K-balls during the game.

The theory is, the more a ball is used, the more supple it gets and the farther it will travel. So unless there is weather damage or one of the balls is lost in the stands, most games are played with only two K-balls being used.