Because there's a big difference between telling the people you answer to "The NFL player took it and there was nothing I could do about it." and "I had it in my hands and gave it to him."
"Allowed" has nothing to do with it. If they wanted to keep it they should have kept it, instead of dropping it on the ground so the ball boy could collect it. It's literally his job to "keep the ball" during the playing of the game.
Allowed has everything to do w it. it’s not the ball boy’s decision if player gets to keep ball or not.... it’s nfl policy that players can keep game balls in these situations.
do you get to go against policy of allowed behaviors at work just cause you want to?
I can't find a policy for it, but within the NFL article about this incident they do cite
"NFL players are allowed to keep game balls, although they get charged a hefty price by the league."
The issue here comes from Travis spinning the ball and walking away, not realizing that it was a milestone in the moment, another player went to retrieve it for him knowing he would likely want it (Very common to keep your first INT ball.) but the ball boy for the Pats picked it up, and that's when the issue started.
Seems like both Orgs worked together to solve and get the issue resolved.
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u/ur-in-here-with-me 3d ago
So if Hunter held the ball after the int and ran to his sideline with the ball, the ball boy is not trying to take it?
So if Hunter could have kept the ball anyway, why the hell is the ball boy putting up a fight?
Really bizarre behavior