After detailing the organization's preparation process and suggesting that weather conditions may have affected the air pressure in the footballs, the longtime Patriots coach emotionally defended his team, saying, "We did everything as right as we can do it."
"At no time was there any intent whatsoever to try to compromise the integrity of the game or to gain an advantage," he said.
Belichick also said he has learned more about the science of air pressure in the past week than he had from a lifetime around the game. He could not provide specific answers as to why 11 of the Patriots' initial 12 game balls in the AFC title game were underinflated, but he explained how other things such as temperature could have an effect.
"So, I just want to share with you over the last week, I'm embarrassed to talk about the amount of time I've put into this relative to the other important challenge in front of us," Belichick said, referring to the team's Super Bowl matchup against the Seattle Seahawks next Sunday. "I'm not a scientist. I'm not an expert in footballs. I'm not an expert in football measurements. I'm just telling you what I know.
So, the coach (by his own admission) has been spending his precious time on deflategate instead of or in addition to scheming for the SB. This means even the patriots coaches have been distracted by this mess, which is another reason why they want to lay it to rest.
"We had our quarterbacks look at a number of footballs, and they were unable to differentiate a 1-pound-per-square-inch difference in those footballs," Belichick said. "They were unable to do it. On a 2-pound differential, there was some degree of differentiation but certainly not a consistent one. Couple ones they could pick out, but they were also wrong on some of the other ones that they had. So you're welcome to do that [test] yourself. I can tell you from all the footballs that I've handled over the last week, you can't tell the difference if there is a 1 PSI difference or a 0.5 PSI difference in any of the footballs."
The QBs (and Bill himself) are now going around squeezing balls (instead of focusing on the SB), just to prove to everyone (including themselves) that they would not have been able to differentiate between balls at different PSIs? Don't these guys have bigger things to worry about? Why go to such lengths to clear Brady if this wasn't affecting him or the team? Could it be because even his own team didn't fully buy the story? And it was a source of gossip or chatter among players, staff and their families, further distracting them from the task? Could it be that Brady was bothered by people not believing him and wanted to clear his name before the SB or before the NFL came to the same conclusion (two or three weeks later)?
Now the Pats have a "credible" narrative to run with. To not only mollify the public but also any worries/anxiety the players may have when being bombarded with questions by reporters. Now Bill can work on creating an us vs the world mentality (proving, through this new "evidence," that this is just a witch hunt) which has worked so well for him (and other coaches) in the past. The question is, have they lost too much time and spent too much energy on this already? Or will they be just fine?
Hot Forum Topics
