Deflategate Dominates Super Bowl Hype

Anyone who watches football should be well aware of the Deflategate controversy, as it’s the biggest thing in sports these past two weeks, and everyone is talking about it, from CNN to ESPN to Fox News.  This controversy swirls around the New England Patriots. 

League sources have reported that during their AFC Championship blowout win against the Indianapolis Colts, 11 out of 12 footballs used by the Patriots were deflated by about two pounds of air pressure per square inch. Referees are supposed to inspect the footballs before using them in a regulation game, and they are to be in accordance with 12.5 to 13.5 PSI. 

Some people may be wondering what the big deal is about the balls being deflated, but no one has stepped up or been exposed to be responsible for these deflated balls. 

"I have no knowledge of anything," Tom Brady, Patriots starting quarterback, said.  "I was as surprised as anybody when I heard Monday morning that this happened."  

These deflated balls are a big deal because having a little bit of the air leaked out of the football makes it easier to catch, hold, throw and carry in rainy weather, which was the case of the January 18 AFC Championship game. 

The deflated balls also have no impact on the weight and acceleration of the ball through the air, so it is virtually unnoticeable in gameplay.  The number one argument against Brady saying that he had some say in the deflation of the football is that no one would just deflate the football without his approval. 

John Madden is also a firm believer of this argument as well.  "That would have to be driven by the quarterback," Madden told The Sports Xchange on Wednesday.  "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." 

Bill Belichick also had some things to say about the whole controversy, being the coach and all.  Belichick had some scientific explanation as to why the footballs deflated over the course of the game, but he was quickly shot down by the one and only Bill Nye. Bill Nye is a mechanical engineer probably best known for his television show from the 1990s.  

Nye said that Belichick’s explanation “didn't make any sense."  He even went as far as to say on television that the only way to change the inflation of the football is with “one of these: the inflation needle.”