New report throws more cold water on NFL’s bogus Deflategate findings
By Jerry Trotta
Wait, so we’ve already reached the “dead zone” point in the offseason that Deflategate is being brought up again?!
The truth of the matter is that Deflategate, which resulted in the four-game suspension of then-Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for allegedly ordering the deflation of footballs used in the 2014 AFC Championship Game, has never really died. For one reason or another, it’s popped up on occasion over the years.
Well, it’s back again, and this time more cold water is being thrown on the NFL’s seemingly witch hunt investigation. On Sunday night, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk shared two noteworthy findings from his new book, “Playmakers.”
The first of which claims that NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent was the source who leaked to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that 11 of the 12 footballs were two pounds short of the required PSI level.
Who was the source for the notorious (and false) 11-of-12 footballs report that sparked Deflategate? What happened to the air-pressure measurements randomly taken during the 2015 seasons? Playmakers found the answers to both of those questions. https://t.co/gqTrKS7vwk
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 7, 2022
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk threw more cold water on the Patriots’ Deflategate scandal.
That diagnosis proved to be inaccurate. Only one of the 12 footballs was two pounds under the minimum PSI level, but that wasn’t found until the NFL’s investigation had already been launched.
Florio acknowledged it’s unclear whether Vincent lied to Mortensen so that the insider would spread false information (help the NFL nail the Patriots) or whether the executive VP believed he had the correct information.
The second finding relates to the 2015 season, which marked the beginning of the NFL’s halftime “air-pressure spot-checks,” as Florio put it.
"“As the source put it, ‘numerous’ measurements made at halftime of games during the 2015 season generated numbers beyond the permitted range of 12.5 to 13.5 psi, with the reading showing a direct correlation between temperature and air pressure.”"
During a pre-investigation appeal hearing, Vincent acknowledged he had had never heard of the ideal gas law, which explains why a football’s air pressure would decrease in cold weather, saying “I didn’t include science.”
How convenient, right? Because, according to Florio, the balls used by the Patriots in the 2014 AFC Championship Game were “consistent” with the PSI levels that the chilly weather conditions should have produced that day.
The new details reported by @ProFootballTalk add further confirmation to what has been known for a long time: The entity that lied the most and worked hardest to complete a cover-up during the DeflateGate saga was not the Patriots. It was the NFL.https://t.co/ridn3lHeR5
— Michael Hurley (@michaelFhurley) February 7, 2022
How about another bombshell for good measure? For anyone wondering what happened to all the halftime data from the 2015 season, sources close to Florio say it was all expunged at the direct order of NFL general counsel Jeff Pash.
This is a lot of information to take in, but it all points towards one conclusion: the NFL seemingly made up its mind on how the investigation would turn out and ignored science as well as its halftime air pressure tests (that supported Brady and the Patriots).
