FOXBORO — There have been underinflated footballs in Gillette Stadium on Sunday, and the Patriots have been 100% to not blame.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick confirmed that kicking balls have been 2-to-2.5 PSI underinflated within the first half of Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs. MassLive first reported on the problem earlier this week. Patriots kicker Chad Ryland and Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker each missed discipline targets within the first half.
“Yeah, we were aware of it in the first quarter,” Belichick mentioned. “The officials handle that, and they were underinflated by like 2, 2.5 pounds. I think you could see that by the kicks. Both kickers missed kicks, and Butker hadn’t missed a kick all year. Kickoffs, we had two that almost went out of bounds. And so there were six balls. It was both sets of balls. It was all six of them. You’d have to talk to the league about what happened, because we don’t have anything to do with that part of it. They control all of that. And they fixed them at halftime but didn’t do it before then, which is another question you could ask. But we don’t have anything to do with it. Were we aware of it? Yeah, definitely. But they were all, as I understand it, they were all the same.”
The NFL declined to touch upon the state of affairs to the Boston Herald.
Footballs are purported to be inflated 12.5-to-13.5 PSI. The Patriots know that higher than anybody based mostly on the Deflategate controversy of the 2014 playoffs. Tom Brady was suspended 4 video games and the Patriots have been fined $1 million when footballs have been discovered underinflated through the 2014 AFC Championship Game towards the Colts.
Patriots particular teamers appeared upset in regards to the difficulty after Sunday’s sport earlier than the mishap went public.
“Again, things that are out of our control, I don’t know. I don’t know what the explanation is,” Belichick mentioned. “It was the same for both teams, so whatever that means, but yeah. I mean, Butker had a perfect season going.”
Butker was 23-of-23 on discipline targets and 34-of-34 on further factors heading into the sport.
Source: www.bostonherald.com