Chris Mortensen denies that he was played by an NFL source regarding Deflategate, even though his initial report — which later proved to be false — helped kick the scandal into high gear and made the Patriots look a lot worse than the true numbers actually indicated.
Mort’s original report shortly after the AFC Championship Game stated that 11 of 12 Patriots footballs checked at halftime of the game were underinflated. His report said the balls were underinflated by two pounds per square inch, and he later amended that to say that they were “significantly underinflated.” The language and details from his report helped frame the coverage of the controversy and made the Pats seem like much bigger cheaters than maybe they really were.
Information obtained in the Ted Wells investigation determined that Mortensen’s report was inaccurate. Despite that proof, the league never apologized for the bad info, nor did ESPN/Mort try to correct the record until recently. Patriots owner Robert Kraft even blasted the league for not correcting the info.
However, Mort says the Krafts actually apologized to him over Deflategate. Seriously. He also denies being used by the league to make the Pats look bad.
Mort appeared on “Doug & Wolf” on Arizona Sports 98.7 Thursday and talked mostly about Deflategate.
Mortensen told the hosts that he heard about the initial Bob Kravitz report that sparked the whole controversy and decided to look into it. He says he inquired about how many balls were underinflated.
“The whole narrative that somebody from the league deliberately leaked false information to me is so much baloney,” Mortensen told the hosts. “It actually is insulting, because I made the inquiry.”
He says he was told by two sources that 11 of 12 footballs were underinflated. One source told him the balls were two pounds per square inch under, while another source told him the balls were significantly under.
“If I could’ve changed the tweet — and I should have changed the tweet — it simply would have been to the dialogue I used, which was 11 footballs — that was my focus, not the PSI, 11 footballs — were confirmed to have been underinflated. You can argue whether they were ‘significantly underinflated’ or not, but I stand by that story.”
Then Mort said the Krafts apologized about how things went down.
“I understand the passion of the fanatical nation that is in New England and certainly anybody who’s going through this would,” Mortensen said. “I’ve had both Krafts — Robert Kraft and Jonathan Kraft — call me and apologize for just the way this thing has gone down.”
Hmm, is Mortensen lying about that? Someone seems to think so:
Just spoke with the Patriots and once again Chris Mortensen is wrong, the Krafts did not apologize. Details tomorrow morning at 6.
— Dennis and Callahan (@DandCShow) August 28, 2015
Either the Krafts have done one thing in private and are saying another to the public, or Mort is simply lying about the Krafts apologizing to him.
Unfortunately the hosts did not ask Mort to comment on this incredibly ironic comment about Patriots reporting he made in 2008.
