Chris Mortensen nixes chance to explain false Deflategate report

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen was scheduled to appear on a radio show in Boston on Friday morning, but he pulled the plug after it became clear that the hosts were setting the stage to blast him for his Deflategate reporting.

Mortensen told WEEI’s “Dennis and Callahan Show” that he was not going to become the “centerpiece” of the Deflategate story because of one early report.

“You guys made a mistake by drumming up business for the show and how I would address my reporting for the first time,” Mortensen said in an email to the station. “I will not allow WEEI [Robert] Kraft or anybody to make me the centerpiece of a story that has been misreported far beyond anything I did in the first 48 hours. Maybe when the lawsuit is settled, in Brady’s favor, I hope, we can revisit. Don’t call.”

Mortensen had one of the first reports about Deflategate back in January, and the Ted Wells investigation proved that it was false. Mort cited a source who claimed 11 of the 12 game balls the New England Patriots used in the AFC Championship Game were two pounds per square inch underinflated. The Wells report revealed that only one ball used by the Patriots was two pounds under when measured on the lower of two gauges, and that was after the Ideal Gas Law — which was acknowledged by investigators — came into play.

After Mortensen canceled, John Dennis — one of the WEEI show’s hosts — reported that Mort got his false information from an NFL employee who used to work for the New York Jets.

Most reporters would have run with information from an NFL executive, so it’s hard to blame Mortensen for that. The surprising thing is that Mortensen hasn’t bothered to address or correct the report. Had the initial report stated that the Patriots’ game balls were slightly underinflated and weather accounted for some of the loss in air pressure, you have to wonder if the story would have exploded this much.