Several national websites published stories Thursday suggesting that Cincinnati Bengals rookie receiver Ja'Marr Chase told reporters earlier in the week that his preseason drops were related to an NFL ball being harder for him to catch and see than the ball thrown to him while he starred at LSU, in part because of its lack of white stripes.
Chase objected, responding to a Tweet from @ProFootballTalk by suggesting that he "never said it was hard to catch" and urging them not to change his words:
The Enquirer's Kelsey Conway wrote earlier this week about Chase's assessment of his drops. From Conway:
Chase also hasn’t played in a regular season game since Jan. 14, 2019 as he opted out of the 2020 season. Neither Taylor nor Chase said it’s an excuse for his drops, but the wide receiver did cite it as a potential reason for his inconsistency.
“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,” Chase said. “There's a bigger ball adjustment, so I don't want to make excuses but I just (have to) be a pro and make the catch.”
From Bengals.com's Geoff Hobson, also from Chase's remarks to reporters Monday:
"The ball is different because it is bigger," Chase said. "It 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."
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