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Oh Patriots. Ohhhhhh Patriots. Chris Mortensen is the first to break the news that the NFL found that the New England Patriots used under-inflated footballs in Sunday's AFC Championship Game.
NFL has found that 11 of the Patriots footballs used in Sunday’s AFC title game were under-inflated by 2 lbs each, per league sources.
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) January 21, 2015
There was a report on Monday that the NFL was investigating whether the footballs were under-inflated, and the Patriots have since stated they are cooperating in the investigation. Underinflated footballs are not the reason the Patriots pounded the Colts, but obviously any kind of cheating is never welcome. Well, it's not welcome if you get caught. Hey-oh!
Jason LaCanfora has decided to get in the mix and potentially raise other issues.
As NFL investigates Deflate-gate would be wise to speak to Ravens. Some there believe kicking balls used in their playoff game underinflated
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) January 21, 2015
There appeared to be less air in some kicking balls which may have had an impact on the depth of punts and kickoffs in AFC Divisional game
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) January 21, 2015
An NFL spokesman said as of tonight they had no knowledge of a Ravens complaint about the kicking balls from their playoff game
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) January 21, 2015
It will be interesting to see what kind of punishment is imposed, as the Patriots very well could lose draft picks. Those picks would not go to another team, but instead just would basically be passed over when the pick came. So, if the Patriots were docked their first round pick, there would be 31 first round picks, and then the draft would move on to the second round.
It is worth noting, one member of the Patriots is not overly concerned about this.
Whoops lol pic.twitter.com/uLxN7A5cpq
— Rob Gronkowski (@RobGronkowski) January 20, 2015