In a column framed around the accusation that the Patriots deflated balls in Sunday’s 45-7 AFC Championship Game win over the Indianapolis Colts, Sports Illustrated listed many other ways in which the Patriots “cut corners.” Here are some: –Patriots staffers who supply the visiting team with towels eavesdrop and report back findings to the home team. –Opposing coaches put locks on their locker room to prevent Patriots staffers from walking in to grab play sheets. –Head coach Bill Belichick didn’t follow the unwritten rule to run by his ineligible formations with the league office before running them last Saturday –Belichick instead ran it by NFL referee Bill Vinovich before the game in hopes to confuse and intimidate the official.
Read more at: http://nesn.com/2015/01/sports-illustrated-patriots-cross-lines-other-teams-wouldnt-dare-crossing/
When Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson picked off Brady deep in Colts territory during Sunday’s AFC championship game, that’s when deflate-gate started.
According to New York Newsday and WCVB in Boston, Jackson noticed the ball wasn’t inflated as much as usual. He told a Colts equipment manager the ball felt under-inflated and gave it to him. The equipment man told Colts coach Chuck Pagano on the sideline. That message was relayed to Colts general manager Ryan Grigson in the press box, who told NFL director of football operations Mike Kensil, Newsday and WCVB said. Kensil told the on-field officials at halftime about the balls. Someone told Bob Kravitz of WTHR in Indianapolis, because he broke the story of the Patriots possibly deflating their game footballs – which would help them throw and catch it better in the rain