Bill Belichick stood at the podium Thursday morning looking more disheveled than usual. Gearing up for his sixth Super Bowl as a head coach thats just a little over a week away, Belichick projected himself as a man exhausted by a scandal that not only has legs, but might cost his team dearly, if not two Sundays from now, than in the future when the ultimate punishments are handed down by the NFL. In short, Belichick was already beaten.
“The National Football League is investigating this situation,” Belichick said. “We have cooperated fully, quickly and completely with every request they have made, and continue to be cooperative in any way that we can. I have no explanation for what happened, and that’s what they’re looking into.”
What the NFL is looking into is 11 tampered footballs that the New England Patriots used to great effect against the Indianapolis Colts in last Sunday’s AFC Championship game. Footballs deflated two pounds below the legal limit of 12.5 PSI. Footballs that were easier to grip, throw and catch, especially in bad weather, than they should have been.
In short, using a 10.5 PSI football is a performance enhancement for the quarterback and has been and will continue to be illegal. The Patriots are in trouble.
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But who’s to blame? Belichick has been busted cheating before with 2007’s SpyGate scandal and, conceivably, getting caught again could result in a significant punishment from the NFL. With NFL commissioner Roger Goodell nursing his own horrible reputation over discipline matters after the Ray Rice fiasco, this was not the time to willfully break the rules. This explains why Belichick came off so exhausted and, with some surprising honesty and candor, in Tuesday’s press conference. He knows what’s at stake, not only his legacy and his team’s legacy, but the remainder of his career that was already stained by one outrageous cheating scandal. This Super Bowl was a chance to finally put that to rest. Now that chance is forever lost.
“I had no knowledge of the various steps involved in the game balls and the process that happened between when they were prepared and went to the officials and went to the game,” Belichick said. “So I’ve learned a lot about that. I obviously understand that each team has the opportunity to prepare the balls they want, give them to the officials, and the game officials either approve or disapprove the balls and that really was the end of it for me. Until I learned a little bit more about this the last couple days.”
In the days since the revelation that 11 of the 12 footballs were tampered with, Belichick, the Patriots and the NFL have been the subject of countless editorial pieces and columns, calling for various forms of punishment. Everything from lifetime bans to disqualification from this year’s Super Bowl have been mentioned, but one thing hasn’t been talked about, not until today, was the culpability of quarterback Tom Brady. And, it was Belichick who brought it up.
“I think we all know that quarterbacks, kickers, specialists have certain preferences on footballs,” Belichick said. “They know a lot more about it than I do. They’re a lot more sensitive to it than I am. I hear them comment on it from time to time, but I can tell and they will tell you that there is never any sympathy whatsoever from me on that subject. Zero. Tom’s personal preferences on his footballs is something he can talk about in much better detail and information than I can possibly provide.”
And Tom did come out and talk about it. At 4:15 p.m. ET Brady was shoved out onstage before a throng of angry reporters to answer for his part in the cheating scandal. Brady, who has made it clear for years that he preferred to play with a “deflated ball,” was asked point black if he was a cheater. His response was, “I don’t believe so.”
Not exactly a ringing endorsement for himself, but nonetheless Brady stood at the podium like a punch-drunk Gerry Cooney, wobbling and chuckling, occasionally giving a facial-tickish smile at some of the questions, looking every bit like a teenager busted for shoplifting by his dad.
“I didn’t alter the ball in any way,” Brady said at his press conference, which is probably true since he likely could have gotten a ball boy or one of the equipment people for the Patriots to do it for him. Brady claimed that the football is just like any other piece of equipment and after he picks out his game balls, he doesn’t pay attention to them anymore. He said he could not tell that the footballs were two pounds of PSI lighter than they should have been. According to former quarterback Mark Brunell and Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis, now both with ESPN, that is simply a lie.
Brunell followed that, saying, “Those balls were deflated, someone had to do it and I don’t believe there’s an equipment manager in the NFL who would, on his own initiative, deflate a ball without the starting quarterback’s approval.”
“I couldn’t believe what I heard,” Bettis said. “I was so disappointed… It’s clear that the equipment managers are doing what you want them to do.” On Wednesday, Brunell and Bettis demonstrated how they could easily determine an under-inflated ball live on ESPN with Trey Wingo.
Mark Brunell and Jerome Bettis demonstrate throwing and catching with 3 different versions of inflated footballs » http://t.co/N98gtN4MRe
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) January 21, 2015
It’s worth noting there too that the ball Brunell and Bettis picked out was inflated to 11 pounds. Brady’s footballs last Sunday were inflated a half-pound less than that when tested by the NFL.
It’s clear that there’s no way Brady didn’t know the balls were under-inflated and almost ridiculous to think he was not complicit in their alteration.
So what will the NFL do with Brady? It’s difficult for anyone to believe that this is the first time Brady has altered balls to make his performance better. In fact, Brady and the Patriots offense is better in cold weather below 36 degrees than in warm weather, averaging 7.52 yards per pass attempt verses 6.88 yards per attempt in milder conditions. If you compare that to any other team, it stands out like a flashing red light. Even Aaron Rodgers’ numbers go down in cold weather, with a 7.88 yards per attempt when its warm verses 7.71 when it’s cold. The Steelers are 0.36 points worse in the cold, the Giants are 0.15 worse and the Ravens are a full 0.90 worse. Only the Patriots and Tom Brady seem to improve in frigid conditions. Now we know why.
And yes, someone could argue that the difference in Brady’s performance wouldn’t have changed the outcome of last Sunday’s 45-7 win over the Colts and maybe they’re right. But what about the week before when the Pats had to come back from two 14-point deficits, only using the passing game, to barely beat the Ravens 35-31. Anyone want to argue it didn’t make a difference in that game?
Brady enhanced his performance illegally and should be punished the same way he would if he’d taken a performance enhancing drug, with a lengthy suspension. Baltimore Ravens defensive end Chris Canty made the same point on Thursday.
“To me there is no difference than performance-enhancing drugs,” Canty said. “You are cheating at that point. You are getting a competitive advantage outside the rulebook and there has to be some sort of consequences for that.”
Goodell could do a lot for his deteriorating reputation and to make up for his horrible year by suspending Brady for the Super Bowl. He’s guilty. Believing anything else is just foolish.
The real crime will be if the only punishment from this is brought down on some low-paid equipment manager or doe-eyed ball boy. Goodell and the NFL can’t let that happen. The integrity of the game is at stake and they’ve already screwed up once with the Patriots. They can’t do it again.
