Whether McNally frequently, infrequently or never leaves the Officials Locker Room before the game officials
depart for the field is not determinative of whether there has been an opportunity to tamper with game balls
during the regular season. The game officials we interviewed—when considering the potential for tampering
with the game balls—almost uniformly expressed greater concern that a locker room attendant generally has up
to fifteen or twenty minutes alone with the game balls when the game officials are on the field for the pre-game
walk-through approximately fifty minutes before kickoff (and after the balls have been inspected). The physical
configuration of the Officials Locker Room at Gillette Stadium, with a back dressing area separated by a door
from a sitting room area, would provide complete privacy during this time period. Indeed, even the sitting area
is generally quiet at that time during the regular season, unlike the busy scene during a playoff game. Milton
Britton, the regular season k-ball coordinator for the Patriots, reported that he regularly watches ESPN in the
sitting room area while everyone else is on the field and stated that “nine out of ten times” the sitting room is
otherwise empty, apart from McNally. On the night of the AFC Championship Game, however, the Officials
Locker Room was crowded and McNally is unlikely to have had an opportunity to tamper with the balls in the
locker room without being detected.
