Colts GM Says Team Alerted NFL About Patriots’ Footballs Before AFC Title Game
With countless questions still swirling around the NFL’s “Deflategate’’ controversy, an important one seems to be answered: How did this all start in the first place?
Speaking to the media at the NFL Scouting Combine on Thursday, Indianapolis Colts GM Ryan Grigson said that his team made the NFL aware they were suspicious the Patriots were using footballs that were not properly inflated prior to the AFC Championship game.
“Earlier in that week, prior to the AFC Championship Game, we told the league about our concerns,’’ Grigson said, via NFL.com. “We went into the game, we had some issues. We’re going to do what we can which is participate with the league and the investigation and wait until the Wells Report comes out. There’s no other recourse other than to wait until that investigation comes out.’’
After it was initially reported that the Patriots used improperly inflated footballs in the AFC title game, theories abounded as to what triggered the NFL to check the pressure of balls being used at halftime. Speculation ranged from Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson noticing the ball felt soft after his second quarter interception or a Colts equipment manager informing the league to possibility that the Baltimore Ravens tipped off the Colts following their defeat in a divisional-round playoff game.
In a press conference prior to the Super Bowl, NFL VP of Officiating Dean Blandino claimed that, to his knowledge, the NFL had not run a sting operation to catch the Patriots and that the investigation was triggered by events in the AFC title game. Grigson’s statement seems to call Blandino’s account into question.
“The issue came up during the first half, as far as I know,’’ Blandino said at his pre-Super Bowl press conference, via The Boston Globe. “There was an issue that was brought up during the first half, a football came into question, and then the decision was made to test them at halftime. There’s an investigation going on, can’t really get into specifics.’’
The NFL has yet to announce any findings or conclusions in their investigation, but footballs involved in the AFC Championship Game continue to generate headlines.
Citing four unnamed sources, ESPN’s “Outside the Lines’’ reported Tuesday that Patriots locker room attendant Jim McNally “tried to introduce an unapproved special teams football’’ into that game. ESPN’s Adam Schefter then reported on Wednesday that an NFL employee had been fired for mishandling footballs from that game. With confusion arising from Schefter’s initial on-air description of the person involved as a “league official,’’ the NFL Referees Association later issued a statement demanding an apology from ESPN and making it clear that “no NFL Game Official has been fired in connection with the circumstances involving footballs used in the AFC Championship Game.’’
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