Hall of Fame football coach and broadcaster John Madden places blame for the New England Patriots' so-called "Deflategate" squarely on the shoulders of quarterback Tom Brady.
Madden, also known for the many football computer games named after him, commented on Wednesday, saying nothing happens to footballs during games without the quarterback's knowledge. His opinion was included in
Mike Florio's Pro Football Talk column for NBC Sports.
The Patriots are currently under investigation by the NFL for illegally deflating footballs the team used during their AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. A slightly deflated football would have made it easier to throw and catch in the cold and wet weather that day in Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
"That would have to be driven by the quarterback," said Madden. "That's something that wouldn't be driven by a coach or just the equipment guy. Nobody, not even the head coach, would do anything to a football unilaterally, such as adjust the amount of pressure in a ball, without the quarterback not knowing. It would have to be the quarterback's idea."
Florio wrote that the quarterback, who is the primary handler of the football during games, would know if anything has happened to the footballs and would have the power to register a complaint if something was not right.
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman weighed in Wednesday as well, agreeing with Madden on a Dallas radio station that Brady had to have known about the footballs.
"It's obvious that Tom Brady had something to do with this," Aikman, also a Hall of Famer, said on Sports Radio KTCK-AM, noted the
Dallas Morning News. "I know going back to when I played, they've loosened up the rules in terms of what each team is able to do with the footballs coming into the game.
"Used to, the home team provided all the balls. And now, each team brings their footballs the way they like them and break 'em in," Aikman continued. "Used to you couldn't break them in. So for the balls to be deflated, that doesn't happen unless the quarterback wants that to happen, I can assure you of that. Now the question becomes did Bill Belichick know about it."
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