The NFL has a hard time investigating domestic violence cases but give the league a few days and it can get to the bottom of whether some footballs were deflated. And indeed, according to Chris Mortensen, the Patriots deflated nearly all of their footballs on Sunday.
The New England Patriots had 11 of their 12 allotted game footballs under-inflated by 2 pounds of air (PSI) as required by NFL regulations, according to league sources either involved or familiar with the investigation of Sunday’s AFC championship game when the Patriots beat the Colts 45-7 to advance to their sixth Super Bowl.
As Patriots fans will be quick to note, tampering with the air in the football is not a practice unique to their team and was even openly discussed in a broadcast that Aaron Rodgers likes footballs inflated past the league’s prescribed limit.
While it will be yet another reason for people to suspect the Patriots of wrongdoing, since they were the ones caught and likely to be singled out, it’s really another story that reflects poorly on the league itself. Nearly all of the balls used by one team in a conference championship game were tampered with significantly and it took a full half for someone to pick up on it. And that person was an opposing player, not an official. The NFL has used the incompetence excuse to avoid scandal so many times this past year, one has to wonder what exactly they do right.
Now begins the search for a fall guy for the Patriots before the league is forced to come down on them in the form of a docked draft pick. And the NFL will take action, for this latest scandal has made the Shield feel feelings.
One source described the league as “disappointed … angry … distraught,” after spending considerable time on the findings earlier Tuesday.
NO ONE MAKES THE SHIELD UPSET AND DOESN’T PAY!