NFL New England Patriots

“Deflate-Gate” Is Being Overblown

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By @bradberreman24

New England Patriots, Bill Belichick

Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Virtually immediately after their 45-7 win over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game, a report surfaced suggesting the New England Patriots used under-inflated footballs in the game. Now ESPN’s Chris Mortensen is reporting that yes, 11 game balls that were allocated to the Patriots for Sunday night’s game were under-inflated by two pounds each.

There are still a lot of moving parts, such as how the balls lost air pressure and a suggestion from Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports.com that the Baltimore Ravens believe some of the kicking balls in the previous week’s game were also under-inflated. To say nothing of the gray area, NFL-mandated by the way, that game-ready balls be inflated to between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds of air pressure.

That league mandate for air pressure in balls brings a big question-why is the inflation of game balls, or lack thereof perhaps, even in the hands of teams at all?

The NFL has such an obsessive amount of control over everything, from what the players can wear to a rule book that paralyzes officials at key points in games. Why should something as vital to the game as the ball be left to the relative whim of 32 individual teams on game days? As long as what they do to the balls fits within the aforementioned specifications, of course, and now that I’ve written those last two sentences I see the contradiction even more.

I’m not willing to absolve the Patriots from criticism if they were willfully trying to skirt the rules, but I also will not condemn them for using under-inflated footballs without more information being offered. Perhaps there is a reasonable explanation, as unlikely as that may seem right now, since deliberately taking the air out of footballs would be a very risky (and awfully arrogant) move with the number of tv cameras around and the volume of people on a sideline.

Frankly, the Patriots probably could have beaten the Colts if they were using Nerf footballs. Maybe not by 38 points ultimately, but let’s not pretend that under-inflated footballs gave them such a dramatic advantage that the Colts would have had a better chance to win.

“Deflate-Gate” will be a big talking point from now right up until Super Bowl Sunday, and perhaps beyond as the Patriots again get labeled as cheaters. I think that’s unfortunate, with many worthy story lines for us to write and talk about that deserve more attention than they will get. The air may have been out of some of the footballs last Sunday night in Foxboro, but I fear some of the air will now be taken out of Super Bowl XLIX as a result.

Brad Berreman is a Columnist/Senior Writer at Rant Sports.com. Connect with him on Twitter or Google +.

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