Ebay K Ball Auction

[silverjus12]

I'm thinking about bidding on this K ball on eBay. It has an anchor stamp on the football. Does anyone know what the anchor represents? Is it an official's stamp? Thanks.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...STRK:MESELX:IT

[capitalssticks]

I have a K ball from the 1999 season, it has a snowflake on the end of it. Not really sure what that means, maybe they changed the shapes each season or for each team? sorry i couldnt help

[silverjus12]

No that does help. At least I know it's not out of the ordinary.

[efmmm]

To my understanding the marking that you have on the ball is a signature stamp from a referee. Before each game a team is allotted so many balls per game. Both Home and Visitor. The referee will stamp the ball with his unique symbol to indicate that it was used in a game. The maximum number of games a ball can be used in is two.

In the past, the ref would mark the ball with his number or inititals with a pen or marker. Most recently they have been using "stamps" to indiciate that these were games used and how many times. One stamp = 1 game, two stamps = two games.

The ball that was listed has all of the proper markings to be a game used ball and that it was used for kicking.

[cohibasmoker]

On the issue of "K" footballs, and with respect to other threads, "K" footballs are shipped to the head referee the day before the game. The referee brings the "K" footballs to the stadium and hands the "K" footballs over to the equipment guys.

The equipment guys have an hour or two to prepare the footballs. Once prepared, the footballs are given back to the referee who approves the "K" footballs as well as the other team's offensive footballs. From this point on, the only time a "K" football can be handled by a player from either team is on the field of play.

Of note, in 2009, the NFL MANDATED that, once a football is approved for play, the referees place markings on footballs. Some use sharpies and some use stamps. Prior to 2009, some refs marked the footballs while others did NOT.

Hope this helps - Jim

flaa1a@comcast.net

[Rob]

Do K balls have a team name imprinted on the ball as regular footballs do?

Rob