D'Qwell Jackson says he had nothing to do with deflate-gate

Indianapolis Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson cleared up his role in deflate-gate, which is to say he had no role in it.

Multiple reports said the controversy with the New England Patriots using under-inflated footballs during the AFC championship game started when Jackson intercepted Tom Brady’s pass. As the story went, Jackson noticed the ball was flatter than usual, and that news moved to the equipment manager to the coach to the general manager to the NFL to the game officials, who swapped out the under-inflated balls after halftime.

Jackson said he just wanted a souvenir. That’s common. Many players save balls after scoring touchdowns, or defensive players save interception balls, to put in their trophy case. Jackson had no inkling that would lead to the story of the week in the NFL.

"I made a great play on a great player, so I handed (the ball) off and next thing I know, I'm in the middle of DeflateGate,” Jackson said to the Indianapolis Star. “I don't know how that happened."

Jackson said he didn’t even know there was a controversy until Monday morning, the Star said. On the ride home from the airport, his driver told him there was a growing controversy about the Patriots and under-inflated footballs. That's the first he had heard about it. It says something about how outraged the Colts were that their middle linebacker had no clue anything was going on during the game.

Jackson told NFL.com the only odd thing he noticed was that the Patriots were using the Colts' footballs late in the first half. But he had no idea why; he just found it strange the Patriots had run out of their own footballs to use.

Jackson said he didn’t even notice anything different about the ball he intercepted.

“I wouldn't know how that could even be an advantage or a disadvantage," Jackson said to NFL.com. "I definitely wouldn't be able to tell if one ball had less pressure than another."

The ironic thing is that the ball he wanted to keep as a souvenir is now in possession of the NFL as the league investigates the matter. Jackson’s name has come up with the controversy many times, but he says he personally had nothing to do with it.

"I mean, Anderson Cooper asked my agent if I could come on his show," Jackson said. "I'm honored that he wants to talk to me, I guess, but I really just wanted my souvenir from a special accomplishment in my career."

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab

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