(NEXSTAR) – During a baseball game, foul tips and home runs repeatedly send balls into the crowd, but how many footballs will there be for the NFL’s biggest game in 2024, Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas?
While it’s unclear how many will see game action, we do know how many balls each team starts with.
Both the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs were given 108 footballs – 54 for practice and another 54 for game day, according to Nexstar’s WXIN.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that number might be quite a bit lower, considering the measures the league takes to keep balls on the field of play.
For safety reasons, NFL players aren’t allowed to kick or throw a football into the stands – doing so is punishable by a $7,649 fine for the first offense – and a large net is put in place to keep (most) field goals from flying into the crowd. Simply handing a ball to someone in the stands doesn’t automatically trigger a fine, however.
The balls themselves are all made at a Wilson Sporting Goods plant in tiny Ada, Ohio.
According to league rules, the home team must furnish the pump and the footballs must be inflated to between 12 1/2 and 13 1/2 pounds. The referee will supervise the footballs until just before the game starts.
If you remember the so-called “Deflategate” scandal alleging that the New England Patriots illegally took air out of game footballs so quarterback Tom Brady could get a better grip during the 2014 AFC Championship, you know how important a pound or two of pressure can be.
Both the 49ers and the Chiefs will have to make 12 “primary” and 12 “backup” balls available for testing no later than two hours and 15 minutes before the start of the game.
“For all games, six new footballs, sealed in a special box and shipped by the manufacturer to the referee, will be opened in the officials’ locker room two hours and 15 minutes prior to the starting time of the game,” rules state. “These balls are to be specially marked by the referee and used exclusively for the kicking game.”
If either team should run out of playable balls, the referee will borrow one belonging to the opposing team, or select the “best available ball.”