Today we heard from Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, and in a nutshell, their response to the ongoing “Deflategate” controversy, is that they don’t know how 11 of 12 footballs lost some pressure.
Belichick didn’t care one bit about the PSI of any footballs and seemed to go out of his way to mention he forces his team to play with much worse balls than are ever used in games.
This almost seemed a shot at the Colts for being crybabies, because no one is arguing that a slightly deflated football had any impact whatsoever on the AFC Championship.
As you might expect, I tend to take Belichick and Brady at their word because the way the facts are adding up, I don’t see a huge case against them. And at this point, they are the only ones who have come forward and talked to the media about this situation.
As for the other side, I don’t know what to believe of the accusations anymore and neither the Colts, nor the Ravens (who either voluntarily or involuntarily have joined this goat rodeo) will come forward.
First, we heard D-Quell Jackson alerted his team to this problem. NOPE.
Then we heard the Ravens tipped the Colts off about the Patriots using under inflated balls. NOPE.
So what do we know as fact? Not much. And I’m really starting to question how well the refs tested the balls before the game.
This reddit thread (take it for what it’s worth) uses science (oooooh!) to prove it’s possible the balls could simply lose this kind of pressure given the elements. And let’s remember the difference between legal and illegal is imperceptible.
The rain had more effect on the ball than losing that bit of air would’ve.
The original timeline (sorry to dip into Serial mode here) had the balls being checked pregame, then somehow losing PSI before being switched out at halftime.
The conspiracy theorists say the Patriots must’ve deflated them somehow before the game. A former ballboy said it would be “very difficult” to secretly deflate 11 balls in that time.
Why would the Patriots run a full covert operation for something that would make no noticeable difference? I know they like to push the line, but that borders on the absurd.
Outside of a smoking gun video of a Patriots employee willfully letting air out of the balls, I’m not sure how the NFL can do much more than levy a fine in the $25,000-$50,000 range. And even then, if the atmosphere was responsible and not a human Patriot employee, even that seems excessive.
Maybe there’s more inside info to come out since the league hasn’t even spoken to Brady yet, but right now, there’s not much of a case against the Pats.
It’s fun to go into outrage mode, but this story seems to be quickly losing the grand controversy steam it’s had for the last three days.
The final chip to fall will be when the NFL finally hands down their punishment, if there even is any.
At this point, I’m really starting to wonder. And maybe in the end this will just be a charade of outrage that does nothing but give the Pats a legitimate “us against the world” mentality for the Super Bowl.
Maybe Deflategate will be the best gift Patriots fans have gotten in the last 10 years.