In case you missed it, Deflategate was back in the news last night thanks to this piece from ESPN. There’s more contradictory nonsense in it, but what was most interesting to me is that the big “reveal” of this one is that a Patriots worker was caught trying to put a “K” ball, or the balls the kickers use, into play.
If true, this totally undercuts the entire deflategate nontroversy. Why? All the uproar was because the Patriots were allegedly trying to cheat by using balls that were underinflated, thus easier to catch in cold weather. Nevermind that the difference from a legal ball and an illegal ball is imperceptible and literally has no real effect making things easier to execute on offense.
But if it was a K ball that’s something completely different. K balls are essentially brand new, and often inflated to the higher end of the the spectrum. Tom Brady would’ve known instantly if he gripped a K ball because he would’ve never had a chance to break it in and rough it up to his liking.
So this means using a K ball would be a DISADVANTAGE if it were to be put into play. Not only would it be harder but it wouldn’t be broken in AT ALL.
The report goes on to say that the NFL’s Mike Kensil then went and tested the rest of the Patriots’ balls and found them to be “1-2 pounds” underinflated, much different than Chris Mortensen’s report that 11 of the 12 balls were two pounds underinflated. These new numbers would seem to support the Patriots’ story that they filled them near the low end of the legal spectrum and they simply lost pressure over the course of the first half.
So the NFL continues to handle this whole thing horribly as we’ve become accustomed to. If this latest report is accurate, it’s looking more and more like a mistake by a part time employee started this whole thing and it’s spun out of control thanks to the NFL.
