Footballs marked with synthetic DNA

A Santa Ana, Calif., company says about 120 footballs will be used in Super Bowl XLIII, and all of them will be marked to prevent counterfeiting.

Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator, said his company and the NFL work together to prevent counterfeiting by marking each game ball with a strand of synthetic DNA that can only be seen under a specific laser frequency.

The DNA ink has an astronomical 1-in-33 million chance of being accurately reproduced by counterfeiters, said Orlando, author of Collecting Sports Legends.

Source: United Press International