Belichick Fires Back, Should Deflate Accusations
Belichick was out in front of the media on Saturday, and he came out swinging. (USA TODAY Images)
The Patriots have been quiet on the "deflate-gate" topic following Bill Belichick and Tom Brady's initial meeting with the media this week, and it appears after having some time to try and get it down to the bottom of what might have happened, he pulled a surprise news conference Saturday and hit the issue head on.
Belichick came out swinging on Saturday, armed with some pretty solid information after the team conducted its own study this week to get down to the bottom of why the accusations of illegally deflating footballs came to be.
During his extensive and thorough explanation, Belichick said the team simulated their same game day preparation, putting the footballs through the same "vigorous" preparation they're normally put through to get the grip to where quarterback Tom Brady likes them. What they found was that caused the psi to rise approximately one pound. They found that process, which artificially raised the air temperature within the football, coupled with the difference in temperature over the course of the game, caused an outcome that provided a logical explanation for the drop in air pressure and subsequent accusations.
 Belichick was holding a trophy at the end of last week's game and less than 24 hours later saw his team accused of deflating footballs. (USA TODAY Images) |
"It’s not one football. When the balls are delivered to the officials’ locker room, the officials were asked to inflate them to 12.5 psi, what exactly they did, I don’t know, but for the purposes of our study, that’s what we did. We set them at 12.5. That’s at the discretion of the official though, regardless of what we ask for, it’s the official’s discretion to put them where he wants.”
Belichick went on to explain that the process of the potential air pressure change is similar to what people experience on a day-to-day basis with their vehicles when the light about low pressure in their tires comes on, and then goes away once the car gets going.
"It’s similar to the concept of when you get into your car and the light comes on and it says low tire pressure because the car’s been sitting in the driveway outside overnight and you start it up and you start driving it and the light goes off, it’s a similar concept to that," said Belichick. "So the atmospheric conditions as well as the true equilibrium of the ball is critical to the measurement. At no time were any of our footballs prepared anywhere other than in the locker room, or in an area very close to that. Never in a heated room or heated condition, that has absolutely never taken place to anyone’s knowledge or anyone’s recollection and I mean, that just didn’t happen.”
Belichick went on to say that he's embarrassed at the amount of time they've spent on this instead of their preparations for the Seahawks next Sunday, but that he felt it was more important to let everyone know that they'll continue to do everything right the way they always have.
“So I just want to share with you what I’ve learned over the past week," said Belichick. "I’m embarrassed to talk about the amount of time that I’ve put into this relative to the other important challenge in front of us. 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.
"I would not say that I’m Mona Lisa-Vito [My Cousin Vinny Reference] of the football world as she was in the car expertise area, all right? And at no time was there any intent whatsoever to try to compromise the integrity of the game or to gain an advantage, quite the opposite. We feel like we followed the rules of the game to the letter in our preparations, in our procedures, and in the way that we handle every game that we competitively play in as it relates to this matter.
"We try to do everything right, we try to err on the side of caution, it’s been that way now for many years. Anything that’s close, we stay as far away from the line as we can. And in this case I can say that we are, as far as I know in everything that I can do, we did everything as right as we could do it. And we welcome the league’s investigation into this matter."
It was the most emphatic fans have seen him in a long time, and hopefully after what they've learned, the league will close the book on the matter so the focus can shift back to where it should be, and that's on who is about to become the World Champion next week.
