Patriots fans are going to hate these revelations made by reporter who broke Deflategate

New England Patriots fans probably hold great disdain for Bob Kravitz, the Indianapolis-based reporter who was responsible for breaking the Deflategate story six years ago. As we know, the groundbreaking scandal has proved to be the biggest black eye on the team’s otherwise widely-eulogized dynasty.

The accusations first became public knowledge after the Patriots dismantled the Colts 45-7 in the 2015 AFC Championship Game. Kravitz famously tweeted that a league source claimed that the NFL was investigating the possibility of New England deflating game-approved footballs leading up to the highly-anticipated showdown.

When the investigation was complete, the league didn’t hold back in their punishment, suspending quarterback Tom Brady for the first four games of 2016 without pay, fining the Patriots $1 million, and docking them two draft picks for their blatant violation of league rules.

As far as Kravitz is concerned, running with this story really helped him become a household name in the world of journalism. However, in a recent column for The Athletic, in which he reexamined the process of breaking the news, he actually admitted to making some mistakes along the way.

Before we get into the aftermath, Kravitz was originally concerned about his source’s intel being accurate and stayed up all night worrying if he should’ve tweeted about the supposed inquiry without having confirmation. We hate to speculate, but it sure sounds like he was more concerned about beating other reporters to the punch than ensuring that his information was foolproof.

Luckily for Kravitz, he was able to breathe a sigh of relief the next morning when the league confirmed it had opened an investigation into the Patriots.

On top of that, however, he confessed to other gambles he made throughout the whole ordeal, including tweeting that head coach Bill Belichick should be fired after ESPN reporter Chris Mortensen claimed that 11 of the Patriots’ 12 game balls were “inflated significantly below the NFL’s requirements.”

That scoop was ultimately debunked, so Kravitz was clearly in the wrong to jump the gun and call for Belichick’s job without confirmation. Amazingly enough, however, that wasn’t even his most damning revelation. To this day, the veteran reporter, while firmly believing that something villainous transpired, isn’t fully convinced that the Patriots were guilty of their accusations.

"“Now, six years after the Deflategate tweet, my general sense has remained largely the same. While it’s not provable, I believe something untoward occurred in the minutes before the Patriots-Colts game.“Six years later, there is a seed – just a seed – of doubt.”"

This is all obviously open to interpretation depending on where you stand with the scandal, but the fact that the reporter responsible for breaking the news isn’t entirely sure they were culpable really makes you second guess the Patriots’ role in it all.

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