Bob Kravitz, the reporter from WTHR who broke the story of the New England Patriots potentially deflating footballs against the Indianapolis Colts, is calling for extremely harsh punishment for Bill Belichick if the NFL determines that the Patriots cheated.
Kravitz is calling for Roger Goodell to suspend Belichick for the Super Bowl and Patriots owner Robert Kraft to fire his head coach. He wrote on Wednesday that both Goodell and Kraft would take swift action if either has “an ounce of integrity.”
The basis of Kravitz’s argument — and many agree — is that there is simply no way 11 of 12 balls became deflated below the league standard by some sort of accident or coincidence. He reiterated his stance during an interview with 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher and Rich Show,” noting that he would call for Colts coach Chuck Pagano to be fired if the roles were reversed.
The interesting part came when Kravitz was asked if, by his reasoning, Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy should be fired. Earlier this season, Phil Simms said during a CBS broadcast that Aaron Rodgers once told him he likes to inflate balls beyond the legal limit. Rodgers also said on his radio show that it annoys him when officials take air out of the ball.
“No I would not call for Mike McCarthy’s firing,” Kravitz said. “First of all, we don’t know if Aaron Rodgers is doing this with (McCarthy’s) knowledge. Second, he has not had a problem beforehand. If this was a one-time incident with Bill Belichick, I would look very differently at it.”
That argument is fine, but it makes no sense why Kravitz said he would call for Pagano to be fired if the Colts were deflating balls. To my knowledge, Pagano is not a repeat offender like Belichick.
Now that the Patriots have seemingly been caught, we’re going to hear a number of stories that try to excuse what they (allegedly) did. We already shared one of them with you, which stems from a Super Bowl that took place more than 10 years ago. There will be no shortage of opinions, as usual.
