Bill Belichick goes all in: 'We have followed every rule to the letter'
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick decided to call a surprise news conference on Saturday to let everyone know that he feels his team did nothing wrong.
He was defiant and frustrated over the entire deflate-gate controversy, in which the Patriots were accused of deflating footballs during the AFC championship game. So in this news conference he described in excruciating detail the experiments the Patriots have done to footballs to determine what happened. And he is convinced that the Patriots did nothing wrong.
"I believe now, 100 percent, that I have personally and we as an organization that we have followed every rule to the letter," Belichick said. "I feel on behalf of everyone in the organization – everyone that is involved in this organization – that we need to say something."
Belichick reiterated his thoughts from Thursday, in which he said he knew nothing of the preparation of footballs or the air pressure of them. So, as we'd expect from Belichick, he threw himself into the subject to figure it out.
What Belichick told the media was that the Patriots replicated the process that footballs go through on game day. And the explanation for how the balls became under-inflated was two-fold: The pregame preparation process to rub the balls down inflate the pounds per square inch (PSI) and so does the change in weather.
First, he discussed the preparation before the officials inspect them two hours and 15 minutes before the game. The Patriots rub the balls to get the texture correct for the quarterbacks, and Tom Brady in particular. Many quarterbacks have described the process of breaking the balls in. That's common in the NFL. Quarterbacks hate slick footballs. Belichick said that rubbing process changes air in the football and the PSI. He said they never did that in a heated room or in front of the heater. It just happens.
"We rub it to get the ball to the proper texture," Belichick said. "I don’t know what’s vigorous, what’s not vigorous, we’re not polishing fine china here. We’re trying to get a football to the proper texture that the quarterbacks wants it to grip it. Does that stimulate something within the football to raise the PSI? I would say yes, it does."
The other part is the weather. The temperature outside was colder than it was in the locker room. It was 51 degrees at kickoff. Belichick compared the change in the air pressure due to the weather to parking your car outside overnight in the cold, and that changing the air pressure in your tires. He suggested that also changed the air pressure in the footballs.
He also experimented with the quarterbacks. He said they had a tough time differentiating between under-inflated footballs and ones that were within the NFL rules of 12.5 to 13.5 pounds per square inch.
"We had our quarterbacks look at a number of footballs," Belichick said. "And they were unable to differentiate a 1 pound per square in difference in those footballs. They were unable to do it. On a 2-pound differential there was some degree of differentiation but not a consistent one. A couple ones they could pick out, but they were also wrong on some of those other ones. So, you’re welcome to do that yourself."
Belichick sounded frustrated about the whole thing (he said at no point did the Patriots compromise the integrity of the game, and even passionately answered the follow-up questions about Spygate years ago), and rightfully so. This controversy has come during an important week as the Patriots prepare for a Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks, and during a week in which the team should be reveling in its accomplishment of winning the AFC. If Belichick's experiments are accurate and correct, then he has spent a lot of time this week dealing with a made-up controversy.
"I’m embarrassed to talk about the amount of time that I’ve put into this relative to the other important challenge in front of us," Belichick said. "I’m not a scientist, I’m not an expert in footballs, I’m not an expert in football measurements, I’m just telling you what I know."
Belichick called the impromptu news conference to discuss deflate-gate in full and exhaust the topic from his end because he seemingly doesn't plan to discuss it again before the Super Bowl.
"This is the end of this subject for me for a long time," Belichick said.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab