It seems like the New England Patriots' deflategate scandal is a long way from being closed, as a twist in the case has an official from the National Football League (NFL) sell one of the footballs in question.

ESPN reported that an unnamed official from the NFL sold one of the balls used in the AFC Championship game. The NFL has now fired the official.

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The Boston Globe's Ben Volin shed some light on the situation regarding the rules controversy through social media.

In a statement released in Twitter, Volin indicated that one Jim McNally was the locker room attendant who had put an improperly-marked special team football into play.

Volin continued by saying that McNally had been given two balls from two NFL employees. Volin said that since then, one league employee has been fired.

Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post quickly reported a refuting document that the NFL released regarding the news on the fired league employee. The document was headed with "For immediate release."

The statement claimed that the reports from ESPN were erroneous and the National Football League Referees Association (NFLRA) was also requesting an apology for the statement.

Jim Quirk, Executive Director of the NFLRA, said members from their organization will continue to work with the NFL's investigations into the matter, while asking for the immediate retraction to their membership.

Currently, no details have been made available on how the football in question was sold.

While the selling of the football did little to actually affect the investigation, it has added some fuel to the fire of Patriots critics. The flak will keep on flying until the NFL has wrapped up the deflategate situation.

Other members of the football community though - like New Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan and the great Joe Montana - don't see how the deflated balls could have made any difference in the game.

They believe that even with fully inflated balls, the Patriots would have still won the game, and then the Super Bowl.

TagsNFL, Deflate-gate, Official, Football, sold