The New England Patriots fans could be forgiven for wincing upon reading what the newspapers are now calling ‘Deflategate 2.0.’
This time around following a home game against the Kansas City Chiefs, rumors were doing the rounds that the balls were below the threshold hold of 13.5 pounds per square inch (PSI) after complaints from both kickers led to the discovery at halftime.
The irony on this occasion is that it was the NFL officials who didn’t inflate the balls correctly.
While there seems to be a light-hearted reaction to Deflategate 2.0 with the freezing weather in Foxborough being blamed for the drop in ball pressure that led to the mistake, these reports will undoubtedly invoke feelings of mistrust in Patriots fans after the debacle in 2015.
The K balls were reportedly at 11 psi instead of the required 13.5 psi, leading to kicking issues for both teams per @ByMarkDaniels pic.twitter.com/5o2fAApRaJ
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) December 21, 2023
Indeed, there were no witty one-liners seven years ago when the NFL fetched their pitchforks and lit their torches before marching down to the Gillette Stadium.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
There is always one version of events that stands out from the rest when trying to make sense of the original Deflategate story in 2015 when Tom Brady and the Patriots were said to be deliberately deflating the balls to gain an advantage over the Indianapolis Colts during the AFC Championship Game.
Indeed, Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson’s response to him being the one to uncover the supposed foul play accurately sums up the confusion that accompanied these revelations throughout the saga.
It was Jackson who intercepted Brady’s pass during the first half and when the linebacker ran over and handed the ball to one of the Colts’ coaching staff, the NFL thought they had their smoking gun. The problem with that theory is that Jackson merely wanted a souvenir and only asked for the ball to be put aside so he could take it home after the game.
Even more telling is that Jackson had no idea that there were suspicions that the balls were being purposefully deflated to hand the Patriots an advantage. The now-retired Jackson was only informed of the breaking story while being chauffeured home from the airport later that night.
Speaking on the incident, the linebacker said: “I wouldn’t know how that could even be an advantage or a disadvantage, I definitely wouldn’t be able to tell if one ball had less pressure than another.”
In reality, Jackson’s sensible take on the matter is what most NFL fans think given that the difference is negligible and that deflated balls – while they may be easier to grip and catch, are harder to kick; what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts.
In other words, the Patriots were at as much of a disadvantage as the Colts but that didn’t stop the NFL from throwing the book at the Boston franchise.
At the end of the investigation that started with Jackson asking for a keepsake having intercepted a ball from the greatest quarterback of all time, the Patriots were fined $1 million and Brady was suspended for four games after the NFL concluded that the accusation of balls being deflated was ‘more probable than not.’
Needless to say, those were hefty fines to pay for a verdict that was based on the laws of probability. However, the greater cost came to the Patriots’ hard-fought reputation over a time when they were considerably better than any other NFL franchise.
The Patriots Didn’t Need Help to Win
The ball pressure ultimately had nothing to do with the dynasty they built in Boston and it’s worth keeping in mind that after the balls were pumped up before the second half of the now-infamous AFC Championship Game in 2015, the Patriots would go on to score 28 unanswered points. Put differently, they performed far worse with flat balls.
Super Bowl champions! pic.twitter.com/j8ax5x8Ts1
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) February 2, 2015
Naturally, you can understand why Patriots fans might be shaking their heads in 2023 following the news that the balls were marginally below the regulation PSI against the Chiefs.
However, the toned-down response to the discovery of the NFL officials’ error might serve as exoneration for the Patriots given that no one is suggesting that they benefited from the balls being below regulation pressure. There is a reason for this clemency and it comes down to the Patriots not being very good this season.
The truth is that it has been a campaign to forget and there is no chance of silverware for the Boston team. Indeed, the Patriots’ terrible offense resulted in the earliest elimination from the playoff race since the year 2000.
This is why if you bet on NFL outright markets as of December 22nd, you won’t see the Patriots listed with the San Francisco 49ers as the current favorites to win Super Bowl LVIII at +200. For all intents and purposes, the Patriots are simply trying to make it to the end of the season on January 7th before licking their wounds after a bruising campaign.
Much Ado About Nothing
The rest of the league knows this which is why the drop in ball pressure against the loss to the Chiefs is being treated as a non-event. The question to ask is if the Patriots weren’t on course to win the Super Bowl in 2015, would a similar reaction have taken place? At least, were the Patriots a victim of their hard-won success?
There might be light at the end of the tunnel and vindication for the Patriots now that some perspective is being used to reassess the events in 2015.
Main Image: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
