The New England Patriots are under fire for allegations that they played with deflated footballs in their 45-7 landslide victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Conference Championship game on Sunday, January 18th. The NFL started investigating this scandal directly after the Patriots win, to determine whether New England was playing with an unfair advantage. ESPN reported, that NFL officials were “angry” after an anonymous source had reported that 11 of the 12 game balls that the Patriots used were highly under-inflated. This somewhat shocking report does not come has a huge surprise to many. If the reports are found to be true, this would become the second time that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick would be caught cheating. In 2007, the Patriots were involved in Spygate, where they were caught taping footage of the New York Jets defensive signals. New England was fined $750,000 and docked a first-round draft pick.
On Monday, Belichick was asked about the deflated balls investigation, and he insisted that he was unaware of this accusation until the morning. Coach Belichick went on to say, “We’ll cooperate fully with whatever the league wants… whatever questions they ask us.” Patriots QB Tom Brady laughed off the accusations in a Monday morning radio interview. “I think I’ve heard it all at this point,” Brady said. “That’s the last of my worries. I don’t even respond to stuff like this.”
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick giving a press conference regarding DeflateGate.
However, Thursday, January 22nd told a different story. Bill Belichick publicly denied having any knowledge of the improperly deflated footballs. Belichick went on to say:
“My personal coaching philosophy and my mentality has always been to make things as difficult as possible for players in practice… I’m sure that any current or past player of mine will tell you the balls we practiced are as bad as they can be. Wet, sticky, cold, slippery. However bad we can make them, I make them…Any time players complain about the quality of the balls, I make them worse. And that stops the complaining.”
Belichick then supposedly threw his quarterback Tom Brady under the bus by saying, “Tom’s personal preferences on his footballs are something that he can talk about in much better detail and information than I could possibly provide.” Belichick spent the latter part of his press conference, repeating that he had told the media everything that he knows.
“I’ve told you everything I know… I don’t have an explanation.” (-Bill Belichick)
You can watch coach Bill Belichick’s press conference right here:
Later in the day, Tom Brady went in front of the media to answer some questions regarding “DeflateGate”. Brady denied any wrongdoing, and went on to say, “I have no knowledge of anything. I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing… I’m very comfortable saying that…I also don’t know everything.”
Patriots QB Tom Brady speaks about the deflated balls in Thursday’s press conference.
Honestly, Tom Brady’s interview was more hilarious than anything. He spent over 30 minutes, with the media asking him the same questions while he gave the same answers.
“I don’t want anyone touching the balls after that. I don’t want anyone rubbing them… To me, those balls are perfect.” (-Tom Brady regarding his balls)
You can watch Tom Brady’s press conference here:
No matter what you believe regarding the “DeflateGate” situation, three very important sets of questions still linger:
First: If the Patriots are somehow proven guilty of cheating in the AFC Conference Championship game, what will be their punishment? Losing draft picks and paying a huge fine? Is that enough, or should there be a bigger punishment for repeat offenders?
Second: Are we making a bigger deal about this then we should? All QB’s feel out the game balls before every game, so do they all “make their adjustments” to the football in order to try to gain an advantage? Does it even matter if the football’s were deflated, since the Patriots outplayed the entire Colts team on Sunday, and would have won regardless? Or should all cheaters be punished, no matter the outcome?
Third: Will these allegations serve as a distraction to the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX (49) against the Seattle Seahawks. Many of the other Patriots players announced that they were not concerned with these allegations, but were solely focused on Seattle. It looks like we will have to wait until Sunday, February 1st to find that answer out.
Talkin' Football With Brandon Rodriguez 