Feeney’s Focus: Deflategate was bullsh*t 

Peter King, one of the longest-serving reporters and columnists covering the NFL, announced his retirement in his weekly column. Growing up, I watched Peter King on Sunday Night Football with my dad, where he would cover all essential stories from the week. My dad and I both loved him; he was a good reporter. 

No human is perfect and King is no exception to this rule; recently, King shared his most significant professional regret, which was also why my dad and I — two diehard New England Patriots fans — both began to hate him. In an interview on CBS Sports Radio, King said: “I confirmed the ESPN story about the deflated footballs after Deflategate first hit the scene. It was a Monday night, and I called two people I was sure would know exactly what happened. And they both confirmed the ESPN story, so I wrote it, talked about it, and it turns out I was wrong.” 

Some context: In the 2014 AFC championship, the Patriots beat the brakes off the Indianapolis Colts to advance to Super Bowl 49, 45-7. Afterward, King and Chris Mortensen reported that 11 out of the 12 balls the Patriots used during the game were underinflated by as much as possibly two pounds. 

In the following months, NFL investigator Ted Wells filed a 243-page report to the NFL concluding that, likely, “it is more probable than not” that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was at least “generally aware” that the balls were being deflated. Based on the findings of the report, the NFL fined the Patriots $1 million and suspended Brady for four games. I have a lot of reasons for why this entire scandal was, in fact, an utter waste of time; first, let’s start with introductory chemistry.  

Have you ever left a ball outside in the cold and it shrinks? That’s because the ideal gas law states that pressure and temperature are directly proportional; as the temperature changes, pressure will change. In the aftermath of deflate gate for the 2015 season, the NFL began conducting air-pressure spot-checks at halftime of games. However, NFL General Counsel Jeff Pash ordered this data to be expunged. 

But why? According to the procedures provided by the NFL, “All game ball information will be recorded on the Referee’s Report, which must be submitted to the League office by noon on the day following the game.” 

Who knows, but it has nothing to do with whether or not the Patriots’ football data was generally consistent with the numbers that the atmospheric conditions should have generated that day. It also clearly had nothing to do with how the numbers on cold days were close enough to those generated by the New England footballs at halftime of the playoff game against the Colts. Shocking, I know, that a cold January night in northern Massachusetts with freezing rains would cause a rubber bladder to shrink. 

Initial reporting on deflategate turned out to be wrong. While it said 11 out of 12 balls were deflated, the Wells Report only found that one ball was deflated. Errors like this happen in journalism, but Mortensen was adamant ​​that the balls used by the offense were underinflated by at least two pounds each. That information was ultimately proven to be false and they ended up correcting his initial report. 

The “damning” Wells Report was never able to find a concrete connection or even a moment from Patriots staff or players where they deliberately altered their own equipment. Additionally, the report highlighted three culprits: Tom Brady, Jim McNally and John Jastremski. The report concludes: “It is more probable than not that Tom Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski involving the release of air from Patriots game balls.” 

I will make this concession: while I firmly believe that deflategate is nonsense, it’s just that — belief. I can’t say with outright certainty that the Patriots did nothing; McNally and Jastremski may have been engaging in shenanigans with equipment. I can say that the NFL failed to bring evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that this conduct happened, while also failing to catch the Patriots in the act of doing it. Despite that, they were able to bleed the Patriots for $1 million and suspend the greatest quarterback of all time for four games.  

But you know what they say? He who laughs last laughs loudest; the Patriots would go on to win two more Super Bowls after deflategate. After serving his four-game suspension in the fall of 2015, Brady would lead the Patriots to an 11-1 record over the final 12 games of the season. The Patriots went 14-2, ran through the entire AFC, and would go on to complete the greatest Super Bowl comeback of all time against the Atlanta Falcons.  

A few years after deflategate, the New York Giants accused the Steelers of tampering with their footballs. However, there was no month-long investigation, no accusations, nothing. Just sweeping it under the rug–almost like the NFL wanted some reason to discredit the success of the Patriots after all. We may never get an accurate answer about what happened that cold January . night in Foxboro, but one truth remains: Roger Goodell sucks.