Florio notes the league was aware of the Colts raising concerns of the pressure of the footballs prior to the game, which raises the question, was it actually about catching the Patriots?
“Here’s the thing that bothers me the most on this and I can’t get beyond this,” said Florio. “The Colts let the NFL know of their concerns of the possible deflation of footballs and the days before the AFC championship game. Multiple league executives knew about it — setting aside for now someone should have told the commissioner who then could have called
Bill Belichick and said, ‘If this is going on knock it off.’ Which would have avoided the entire probably for everyone assuming Belichick had complied.
“Let’s set that aside for now, fast forward to the game. Referee Walt Anderson is aware of the concern and then for the first time in Walt Anderson’s 19 years as an NFL official he looses the balls before the game. He can’t find the footballs. When he finds the footballs, knowing there is a concern about possible tampering with the air pressure in the footballs, he order that the balls be taken back to the officials locker room and tested then. Not, necessary for evidence against the Patriots, but to ensure they are at least 12.5 PSI because we need to respect the integrity of the AFC championship. We can’t knowingly allow balls deflated below 12.5 PSI to be used. They don’t do that. Thats what he should have done. It’s amazing to be that wasn’t done.
“So was this about the integrity of the game, or was this about catching the Patriots? That evidence there tells me it was about catching the Patriots.”
