Millions of football fans watching the Super Bowl on Sunday have good reason to question whether the "suspicious" New England Patriots reached the title game by cheating after coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady's disturbing "Deflategate" press conferences,
according to USA Today.
Belichick and Brady both denied on Thursday that they had any knowledge of how the footballs may been deflated during last weekend's AFC championship victory against the Indianapolis Colts. But sports writer Nancy Armour says their deflating answers just raised more questions.
"Cheating — in any form — calls the game's integrity into question, and that's not something the NFL can afford," Armour wrote, specifically "not this season" in the wake of the criticism of its "woeful" handling of the Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy domestic abuse cases.
Referring to Belichick and Brady's separate press meetings, Armour said: "The biggest control freaks in the NFL sure picked a convenient time to go oblivious. The Patriots are the most secretive, most suspicious, most aggressively competitive team in the league. Probably all of sports.
"Yet Bill Belichick has
'no explanation' for how balls might have been deflated during Sunday's AFC Championship. Tom Brady has 'no knowledge of anything' – except that he'd never do anything to break the rules, of course."
Armour said that Belichick has proven during his career "time and time again" that no detail is small enough to escape his attention and that he will do "just about anything" to gain a competitive advantage.
"That someone could be tampering with footballs without Belichick's knowledge and/or tacit approval simply begs credibility," she wrote.
"Brady swore he couldn't tell a difference in the balls Sunday night, saying he doesn't pay attention to air pressure. Yet he got pretty specific at one point, saying he likes balls at 12.5 PSI, the lowest allowed by the NFL because 'that's a perfect grip for the football.'"
"But nooo, neither would have any idea whatsoever how all of those footballs suddenly lost air pressure Sunday night."
Armour's comments came as Hall of Fame football coach and broadcaster
John Madden said nothing happens to footballs during games without the quarterback's knowledge, in this case Brady.
Armour concluded by saying: "With everything else an NFL coach has to do, especially one as obsessive as Belichick, the idea of him skulking around the bowels of a stadium before a game with an air gauge and needle in his hand is laughable. But so were his answers.
"In the 15 years that Brady has been his quarterback, Belichick has never, ever, had a conversation about what kind of game ball Brady prefers or the best way to get them to his liking?
"Maybe, maybe not. But in answering questions Thursday, all Belichick and Brady did was raise a few more."