FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The NFL took the Patriots’ underinflated balls and punted Friday.
Claiming it doesn’t yet know why the footballs used by New England in the first half last Sunday were underinflated, the league went into delay mode by announcing an investigative committee and no timetable for a decision on whether to punish the Patriots.
As a result, it appears Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the Patriots will face no punishment before Super Bowl XLIX against the Seahawks next week — and, perhaps, no discipline at all.
“While the evidence thus far supports the conclusion that footballs that were under-inflated were used by the Patriots in the first half, the footballs were properly inflated for the second half and confirmed at the conclusion of the game to have remained properly inflated,” the league said in a statement released Friday afternoon, five days after the controversy erupted following the Patriots’ 45-7 rout of the Colts in the AFC Championship Game.
“The goals of the investigation will be to determine the explanation for why footballs used in the game were not in compliance with the playing rules and specifically whether any noncompliance was the result of deliberate action.”
In his first comments on the matter, Patriots owner Bob Kraft said in a statement Friday afternoon his team has cooperated with the league and would continue to do so out of respect for “competitive balance and the integrity of the game.”
“During the three days [NFL investigators] were here, we provided access to every full- and part-time employee the league’s representatives requested to speak with and produced every communication device that they requested to search,” Kraft said. “It is an ongoing process that the league and our team are taking very seriously.”
The NFL offered no specifics about how deflated the balls were or what prompted the tests, despite commissioner Roger Goodell’s vow to be more transparent in the wake of the Ray Rice debacle last fall.
But former longtime NFL referee Gerry Austin, acting on information he said was from the league, told ESPN on Wednesday that 11 of the 12 Patriots balls tested at halftime were 2 pounds per square inch (PSI) below the NFL minimum of 12.5 psi and the 12th was at least 1 psi under the minimum.
Significantly underinflated footballs are considered by many quarterbacks to be easier to throw and catch in cold or wet conditions.
While common sense and the laws of probability would point to 0-for-12 as a conspiracy by the Patriots, especially considering all 12 balls supplied by the Colts were properly inflated, the NFL decided to play dumb just like Belichick and Brady had done the day before.
“We have not made any judgments on these points and will not do so until we have concluded our investigation and considered all of the relevant evidence,” the league said.
The most glaring sign the NFL wants the controversy to go away at least until after the Super Bowl was the naming of Manhattan attorney Ted Wells to lead the investigation, along with chief league attorney Jeff Pash.
Wells previously headed an NFL investigation into the Dolphins’ 2013 bullying controversy that dragged on for months. The investigation’s findings — while tough-sounding — weren’t released until after the season and resulted in no punishment for Richie Incognito or the other alleged ringleaders.
Earlier in the week, however, NFL vice president of football operations Troy Vincent had said the league wanted to wrap up the investigation and not distract from the Super Bowl.
“We obviously want to … get that behind us so that we can really get back to the game itself,” Vincent told NBC’s “Pro Football Talk Live.”
The NFL, which said it already has conducted nearly 40 interviews since the allegations were reported, also is bringing in a private investigative firm with “sophisticated forensic expertise to assist in reviewing electronic and video information,” a move that should make the probe even more time-consuming.
“The investigation is ongoing, will be thorough and objective, and is being pursued expeditiously,” the league said.
The NFL also credited the Patriots with being cooperative in the investigation, even after awkward press conferences Thursday by Belichick and Brady in which they both claimed to have no idea how the alleged cheating could have happened.
“As we develop more information and are in a position to reach conclusions,” the league said, “we will share them publicly.”