Feels good to get this one on the books. Can help put the 'haven't won since Spygate' nonsense to bed, or at least just limit it to the true haters that weren't going to be reasoned with anyway. (for anyone that wanted to use that logic, this is the 3rd SuperBowl they had been to since. And went 18-1, with winning that 19th game until the last minute, the first year after. So it's weird that you can be very good without whatever the camera was providing, and then suddenly suck, I guess?)
Anyway, nice to get that one in, and puts Brady/Belichick even higher up in the ranks.
Too bad that this deflate-gate nonsense isn't wrapped up yet, and took a bite out of the fun the last two weeks, but can't see how this doesn't end with a retraction and apology now. Pretty much every single piece of leaked info has been debunked at this point:
-LB intercepted it and instantly knew it was deflated. He's come out and said BS, he didn't see any difference and didn't say anything anyway.
-Colts' coach was involved, reported it. Has come out and said he didn't.
-Balls were 2 PSI under legal limit. Well, it turns out that ONE ball was low, the rest were in the 12+PSI range, and mostly in the 12.3 or 12.4 range. Dunno what the story with the one low ball is, was this the one that the Colts ran around with for a while (chain of custody?), was it one that was used in the game, just a ball with a leak, what? Either way, turns out the balls were legal, slightly (very slightly in all but 1) deflated because it was cold and rainy, and end of story there.
-Ball attendant stole the balls and doctored them. Well, since it turns out they were at pretty much exactly the right PSI anyway (all but one), kinda kills that. But worst case, he was an older gentleman, and was in the bathroom with both teams' balls for 98 seconds per the video. Only leak he could really perform in that timeframe was into the urinal, but hey, conspiracy I guess. And of course ESPN points out we don't have any video of what he was doing in there. You know, because it's a bathroom. But if you wanted to play the common sense card, you'd assume it was his job to watch/guard the balls, so if he had to stop in the bathroom, you'd have to take them with you.
-NFL conspiracy/sting. Seems there's something here, and rumors are that the ravens were the driver for it. But either way, have the balls EVER been re-checked during halftime of a game? Can't seem to find anyone that has ever heard of this happening. And since the balls have now pretty much checked out, kinda hard to imagine what else was driving the spontaneous re-check. Something felt off about the ball that came in at 12.4 PSI? But not so off that any of the refs who handle the ball every play noticed DURING the game? Also odd that the NFL would let the Pats go into AFC Championship game with deflated balls to try and catch them 'red handed' later, but Goodell IS that incompetent, so who knows?
End of the day, seems like pretty much every part of this story is falling apart, and can't imagine what they come up with that brings it back to the Pats "cheating". Not sure where this goes, but anyone that hated the Pats before is going to latch on and keep saying things even after all the facts counter the argument. Kinda like Spygate, in that respect. Kinda hope Kraft goes after some of the reporters and networks that pumped up this "scandal" for ratings and click-bait, as not hard to argue that they hurt his brand and reputation. NFL will come out and say they found no evidence, but people will take that to mean conspiracy or that Pats got away with it, not that they didn't do anything, which is frustrating. But the superbowl ring will help ease the sting a little, I suppose.
In the interim, they can suck our fully-inflated balls
