Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase was recently the subject of scrutiny by an outlet that picked up some of his recent comments about the size of NFL footballs and equated it to his struggles so far.
Now Chase has responded publicly.
Pro Football Talk framed a recent article by suggesting Chase said NFL footballs are harder to catch and see without the stripes found on college footballs.
Chase took to social media to shoot that idea down: “haha i never said it was hard to catch. they asked me what the difference was in the ball💀. don’t change my words!!!”
PFT posted the article three days after the interview with Chase happened. Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com originally transcribed the interview, which features Chase talking about bad habits and a lack of concentration causing his recent drop issues.
He was also asked about the size of the pro footballs and if that wasn’t having an impact:
“I don’t want to blame it on me sitting on my butt the whole year, but it probably had something to do with it, of course. There’s a bigger ball adjustment, so I don’t want to make excuses but I’ve just got to be a pro and make the catch.
The ball is different because it is bigger. doesn’t have the white stripes on the side so you can’t see the ball coming from the tip point so you actually have to look for the strings on the ball at the top, which is hard to see because whole ball is brown and you have the six strings that are white. But for the most part, just have to get used to it and find out what I am comfortable with catching.”
Point is, Chase was asked about the difference and he elaborated. There was nothing wrong with a reporter asking him to do so and he got genuine in the moment. It’s far from the only thing he listed as an issue that plays into his early struggles, which would explain why he’s not happy about the reporting on the topic.
haha i never said it was hard to catch. they asked me what the difference was in the ball💀. don’t change my words!!! https://t.co/gvt54byEYy
— Ja’MarrChase (@Real10jayy__) September 9, 2021
