[melmo]

The balls were picked this way on purpose. It adds a dimension to grabbing the 2X balls, making it harder. Clenching down on the ball with huge pnuematic cylinders is not the answer like in 2001. An approach that grabs the ball using a large surface area or multiple points is more desirable. 469 did this very well, grabbing the ball from four points, and they had amazing control of it. The model number of the ball was given and i do not believe there was any mention of it being similar to the one in 2001 at the kickoff.