Deflate-Gate

Throughout the last couple of weeks the New England Patriots have dealt with a lot of suspicion after reportedly deflating eleven out of the twelve game balls used in the AFC Championship. Due to fan speculation, the Patriots have not had trouble focusing on the current task on hand, winning a fourth Super Bowl. On a local radio, the team's quarterback, Tom Brady, laughed at the fact that the NFL was investigating the ball deflation accusation and denied the allegation. 

Now that the results of the investigation have confirmed that eleven of the balls used in the second half were deflated, many football fans' loyalties are torn. Many would say that the deflation of the balls explain the 38 point lead the Patriots achieved in the second half of the game. In my opinion, the Patriots would have won the game in a blowout victory without the aid of ball deflation. Because, even with proper footballs the Patriots were the better team at the end of the day.

In a press conference discussing the matter, Tom Brady said that he always prepared the balls before the home games and that when he went into the locker room to check the game balls all of them were "perfect." Who knows what Tom Brady's meant when he said "perfect" as that could easily be construed as a perfect measure of deflation. Perhaps it was not Tom Brady's fault at all. The regular ball is 12.5 PSI but studies show that the footballs could have dropped down to to 11.5 PSI of air due to cold atmospheric temperatures since it was freezing in Foxborough during the game. At the same time, Tom Brady or head coach, Bill Belichick, could have instructed equipment management staff to drop the air levels in the balls thereby making the balls easier to catch and to throw. Also, in the press conference Bill Belichick denied any wrongdoing to the game balls. Instead of answering press inquiries head one, he kept referring the questions to Tom Brady since, per Belichick, Brady was always the one in the equipment room in charge of checking the footballs. Meanwhile, Tom Brady insisted that he was not doing anything wrong and that the press should get off the team's back in regards to these issues. 

This is not the first time the Patriots have been caught cheating big games. In the 2004 Superbowl where the Patriots were competing in, Beliechick reportedly bribed referees to give the Patriots all the calls in order to secure victory and to win the championship. All in all, I believe that from the Patriots have actually never cheated and that all of these allegations where created and blown up in the favor of boosting media ratings. In both the 2004 Superbowl and in this year's championships, the Patriots were and still are the better team and would have won the games with or without sketchy game aid.