Just one week before The New England Patriots will take the field for Super Bowl XLIX they find themselves still tangled in a scandal that no one could have predicted- Deflategate. Did they purposely use under-inflated balls while playing against the Indianapolis Colts last week? Bill Belichick hosted a press conference to defend his team and present what a week of an internal investigation has unearthed. All the while, Belichick insisted that he is now positive that his team did absolutely nothing wrong.
The explanation of what happened to the Patriot's balls is fairly simple, according to a report by Yahoo Sports.
"What they found was that the way the Patriots prepare the outside surface of their footballs - scrubbing, rubbing, etc. - actually raises the pound per inch levels inside the ball. Once that process ends and the ball reaches an equilibrium, the ball that was once legally measured to be 12.5 psi naturally drops to the illegal level of 11.5. Throw in the climatic differences between a room temperature locker room and a cold playing surface, and it's 1.5 psi or enough to cause this whole kerfuffle.
And that's before Belichick noted variances in measuring gauges and footballs themselves, which, because they are made of animal skin, probably should never even be measured to such precise levels.
"'That's how it happened,' Belichick said. That's it." says their source.
What's ironic is that way back in 2006, a number of marquee quarterback's lobbied for a little tweak that would allow the offense to supply its own footballs for each game. It was a way to ensure that they weren't setting foot on the field with balls that they couldn't grip and it also swung the door wide open for deflategate.
Needless to say, Pats fans will jump onto any legitimate-sounding explanation in order to continue to have faith in their team. Meanwhile, many analysts and former NFL players will continue to say that things just don't add up. Someone did something and got caught. Either way, Belicheck is right in being amazed by the amount of time that the entire organization has lost because of being focused on this scandal. Where do you stand? Do you think someone for the Pats intentionally deflated those ball to give quarterback Tom Brady a better grip? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
