The Baltimore Ravens continue to try to distance themselves from anything involving the New England Patriots and Deflategate.
When the transcript of Tom Brady’s appeal hearing was released on Tuesday, an email from an Indianapolis Colts equipment manager to GM Ryan Grigson seemed to confirm that the Ravens were the ones who tipped the Colts off about New England’s alleged ball tampering antics. The equipment manager said the special teams coordinator from Baltimore called Colts coach Chuck Pagano to inform him that there were issues with kicking balls in Foxboro during the AFC Divisional Round playoff game.
Here's something new — confirmation that the #Ravens tipped off the #Colts pic.twitter.com/19rMJgl1xi
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) August 4, 2015
The Ravens released several statements on Wednesday denying that they had any involvement. John Harbaugh said that team kicking consultant Randy Brown sent a text message to Pagano on Jan. 16 suggesting the Colts pay attention to how the referees rotate kicking balls into the game. Here’s the text in its entirety:
“Make sure the refs rotate the kicking balls cause last week they wouldn’t let our ball in the game. Their ball was done so poorly that it was nearly impossible to kick off deep…It was hard and not worked in well at all…Let Tom (McMahon, Colts special teams coordinator) know he can call me at any time.”
There was no direct mention of funny business from the Patriots — at least in that particular message. Shortly after the Deflategate scandal erupted, a report indicated that the Ravens tipped the Colts off. A separate report claimed Baltimore was suspicious of the Patriots tampering with kicking balls.
Harbaugh clearly does not want the Patriots thinking he ratted them out, though there are plenty of people (here’s a good example) who don’t believe him. Even if the text message didn’t mention the Patriots, it’s hard to believe it wasn’t implied.
