NFL officials were so intent on not correcting the false Deflategate report that helped shape the coverage of the scandal that they turned down at least one “begging” reporter who was seeking the truth.
During an appearance on WEEI’s “Dennis & Callahan Show” Friday morning, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk described the Deflategate investigation as a “prosecution” against the Patriots. He also revealed that he desperately tried to get the actual pressure readings for the AFC Championship game balls during NBC’s Super Bowl pregame coverage and was stonewalled.
“I contacted multiple high-level people in the league during that show begging them to tell me the real numbers,” Florio said. “I was begging multiple league sources, ‘Give me the real numbers. Why not tell me the real numbers? We’ve got a five-hour platform, the audience keeps getting bigger and bigger as we get closer to kickoff, why not get the real numbers out there today?’ And no one would give me the real numbers. Now, what does that tell you?”
As most of you know, Mortensen’s initial report was that 11 of the 12 balls the Patriots used against the Colts were underinflated by a full two pounds per square inch each. That turned out to be false, and the NFL didn’t need to wait for the Ted Wells report to be released to correct that information. The psi readings that were used in the Wells report came from the NFL officials that measured the balls during halftime of the AFC Championship Game.
On Thursday, Mortensen basically stood by his report by saying the balls were “significantly underinflated” whether it was a full two pounds or not. Florio thinks Mort should stop defending his sources and apologize.
“It really is amazing to me that this continues to be a thing and it continues to be a thing because Mort keeps talking about it,” Florio said. “And I love Mort, he’s a pioneer in this industry, but there’s a point where you just have to say, ‘I got the report wrong, I was lied to and I’m not happy about it.’”
We have already been given reason to believe that an NFL official blatantly lied to the Patriots about the inflation level of one of their footballs. Not only that, but the guy who may have given Mortensen the bad information seems like he had it out for the Pats from the start.
If the public learned before the Super Bowl that Mortensen’s report was inaccurate and that only one ball was two pounds under (after accounting for the Ideal Gas Law and assuming the official who measured them forgot which gauge he used), would Deflategate have been as big of a controversy? I highly doubt it.
