Let’s stipulate that deflating the footballs Tom Brady used didn’t cost Indianapolis Colts a berth in Super Bowl XLIX. Indianapolis has Andrew Luck, a secondary that tackles well and pretty much nothing else. If the Patriots used deflated balls against the Ravens, which wouldn’t surprise me, I’d argue that the underinflated balls gave the Patriots a distinct advantage against Baltimore. I’ll return to this later.
First, let’s talk about what we know with certainty.
- The Patriots submitted 12 footballs to the NFL on the Friday before the AFC Championship Game.
- When NFL inspected those footballs prior to the AFC Championship Game, each of the Patriots balls were properly inflated.
- When the inspected footballs submitted by the Patriots were returned to the Patriots 2 hrs. 15 minutes before the AFC Championship Game, they were properly inflated.
- When Indianapolis Linebacker D’Qwell Jackson intercepted Tom Brady’s pass, he gave the ball to the Indianapolis equipment manager. The equipment manager alerted NFL officials.
- At halftime, NFL officials checked the footballs submitted by both teams. NFL officials have announced that 11 of the 12 footballs submitted by the Patriots to the NFL were underinflated but that the Colts’ footballs were properly inflated.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Patriots deflated the footballs Tom Brady used to give him a competitive advantage. NFL rules require that game-used footballs be inflated to at least 12.5 psi and no more than 13.5 psi. The Patriots’ footballs were found to be up to 2 psi under the minimum allowed weight.
During NFL Live on ESPN, host Trey Gowdy handed 3 footballs to retired QB Mark Brunell and retired running back Jerome Bettis to see if they could identify which ball was overinflated, which football was underinflated and which football met the NFL’s requirement. It took Brunell and Bettis less than 5 seconds each to correctly identify each of the balls. To them, it was that obvious. What happened after that test is what caught my attention.
Brunell said that underinflated footballs are a) easier to grip and b) more accurate to throw. He made that statement with total confidence and without hesitation. Bettis said that an underinflated football helped running backs tuck the football in between their shoulder and their elbow tighter, making it more difficult for defenders to strip the football from a runner’s grip.
Since it’s clear that the Patriots didn’t need underinflated balls to defeat the Indianapolis Colts, it’s fair to ask what the Patriots’ motivation was. This is where the Patriots’ past is relevant. In 2007, Belichick had “an assistant spy on the New York Jets’ defensive signals.” Belichick was personally fined $500,000 for getting caught cheating that time. The Patriots’ history under Belichick is that of getting caught cheating. The next thing to be determined is what the appropriate punishment should be.
Personally, I think Belichick should be suspended for a full year starting the day after the Super Bowl. That means he can’t have any contact with the Patriots from the minute that the game ends until he’s reinstated. Next, the Patriots should be fined $1,000,000. They should forfeit their first and second round picks this year, too.
When they were caught cheating in ‘Spy-gate’, Belichick was fined $500,000 and the team lost its first round pick and paid a $250,000 fine. This cheating is as bad, if not worse, than Spy-gate.
Finally, the NFL shouldn’t give the footballs back to the teams on the sidelines. The NFL is one of the richest sports leagues in the world. They should hire people to handle the footballs to preserve the integrity of the game and to prevent the Patriots from cheating again.
Wingo later noted that Watergate happened in 1972, with Richard Nixon cruising to the biggest landslide in US presidential history. It wasn’t that Watergate helped him defeat George McGovern. Watergate caught the nation’s attention because it exposed the Nixon administration’s corruption.
Deflate-Gate is catching football fans’ attentions because it’s reminding them of the Patriots’ history of corruption. That’s why Deflate-Gate matters.
UPDATE: John Madden brought a voice of sanity to “Deflate-Gate” with this explanation:
“That would have to be driven by the quarterback,” Madden told The Sports Xchange on Wednesday. “That’s something that wouldn’t be driven by a coach or just the equipment guy. Nobody, not even the head coach, would do anything to a football unilaterally, such as adjust the amount of pressure in a ball, without the quarterback not knowing. It would have to be the quarterback’s idea.”
Madden’s position makes a lot of sense. Quarterbacks are particular about their footballs. Anybody doing anything to the footballs without the quarterback’s knowledge or consent would be asking for a tongue lashing. In Brady’s case, his tongue wouldn’t be needed to formulate the various “F” words that would be hurled at he who messes with the quarterback’s primary tool.
“He is the effected,” Madden said. “He is the only guy. I heard some of the pundits saying the ball is easier to catch, but that would never, ever, ever be done for that unless the quarterback wanted it. You wouldn’t do something for a receiver to catch the ball if the quarterback couldn’t throw it. So it’s going to be done for the quarterback.”
UPDATE II: Chris Canty’s comments will get under some Patriots’ skin:
“The Patriots are habitual line-steppers,” Canty said during an in-studio appearance. “If the allegations are true, then you are talking about attacking the integrity of our game and I have an issue with that…[W]hat I’m going to say about the deflating of the balls, to me there is no difference than performance-enhancing drugs. You are cheating at that point. You are getting a competitive advantage outside of the rule book and there has to be some sort of consequences for that.”
Canty’s opinion sounds a lot like the NFL’s position that, when it comes to topics impacting the integrity of the game, serious action is required.
“To me, the integrity of the game is the most important thing,” Canty said. “You want to be successful as a player but you want to think that you are doing things that are within the rules and that you are out there competing and it’s not whether it is performance-enhancing drugs or deflated footballs that is out there aiding in your performance.”
Technorati: New England Patriots, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Spy-Gate, Deflate-Gate, Cheating, Fines, Draft Picks, Suspensions, Roger Goodell, Super Bowl, NFL, John Madden
Silly question? Why doesn’t the NFL just lower the required inflation, or expand the allowable range, to add more “control” to the game? Why hand the QB a slippery watermelon to add to the already difficult job of 1st and 10?
NFL teams break in their own balls. Some QBs (think Dante Culpepper) have small hands. Other QBs hate new footballs because they’re slippery right out of the box. That’s why NFL rules gives teams a range that footballs have to comply with.
That range is 12.5 psi minimum and 13.5 maximum. The majority of Patriots’ footballs (11 of the 12) were more than 2 psi under the league minimum.
I don’t believe it happened.
When balls are subjected to low temperatures they become deflated and are at a lower pressure. If the balls were all set indoors to 12.5 psi then it is very possible in the cold they went down to 10.5 psi.
I’d agree with you, James, if all 12 of the Colts’ footballs weren’t properly inflated at halftime. The temperature on the Colts’ sideline wasn’t dramatically different than the temperature on the Patriots’ sideline. All 24 footballs were checked at halftime. Each of the Colts’ footballs were properly inflated. 11 of the 12 Patriots’ footballs were dramatically underinflated.
This afternoon, Tom Brady said in his press conference that he wants his footballs inflated to 12.5 psi. According to the NFL, 11 of the Patriots’ footballs were underinflated by 2 psi. When asked, he said that he didn’t notice the difference between when they were checked before the game by the NFL and halftime.
Yesterday on NFL Live, Trey Wingo handed Mark Brunell and Jerome Bettis 3 footballs, each with a different insignia on the football. One football was overinflated, one was properly inflated and one was underinflated. Brunell and Bettis both identified the underinflated football, the properly inflated football and the overinflated football within seconds of handling the footballs.
Finally, the temp at halftime of the Patriots-Colts game was 51 degrees. That isn’t a cold temperature. That’s unseasonably mild weather.
Like my old Drill Sergeant said, “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’. And if you get caught, you didn’t try hard enough.”