by Dakota Antelman
Patriots coach Bill Belichick made a prepared statement and answered media questions Thursday morning. The conference marked the first time since the escalation of the “Deflategate” controversy that Belichick had interacted with media. He revealed some details of how the Patriots specifically inflate footballs while also expressly denying any involvement in the accused cheating.
"When I came in Monday morning, I was shocked to learn of the news about the footballs," Belichick said. "I had no knowledge whatsoever of the situation until Monday morning."
For much of this week, the cheating allegations against the Patriots have dominated both football and sports headlines as a whole. On Monday, the NFL announced that they were in the process of investigating whether or not the Patriots intentionally inflated their footballs to a pressure below the league limit of 12.5PSI.
Late Tuesday night, the story was elevated to a national one when ESPN’s Chris Mortenson published a report reveling that the NFL had found 11 of the 12 footballs used by the Patriot offence were 2PSI below the league limit.
Since then, a myriad of reports and roomers have complicated the picture. A debate has been raging in football world on whether or not the Patriots intentionally deflated the footballs. The effect that the alleged deflation had on the Patriots’ dominant 45-7 win over the Colts has also been under question.
Belichick admitted to a sense of confusion that even he felt this past week.
"I would say I've learned a lot more about this process in the last three days than I knew or had talked about in the last 40 years that I've coached in this league," he said. "I had no knowledge of the various steps involved in the game balls and the process that we went through, that happened between when they were prepared and went to the officials and went to the game. So I learned a lot about that.”
Beyond that, he addressed the argument that the balls, which were measured in a room with an estimated air temperature of 70F and then moved outside to the 20F air temperature on the field, could easily have lost air during the game.
He revealed that the Patriots walk a thin line with the inflation of their footballs and that their proximity to the minimum PSI could have been what got them in trouble Sunday. He says that they are in the process of changing their team protocol so as to avoid situations like this in the future.
"Obviously with our footballs being inflated to the 12.5-pound range, any deflation would then take us under that specification limit," Belichick said. "Knowing that now, in the future, we will certainly inflate the footballs above that low level to account for any possible change during the game. “
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