Phoenix
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft defiantly defended his team, coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady on Monday as they opened Super Bowl week amid the football deflating controversy.
Kraft said that if the NFL’s investigation into the affair clears the Patriots of wrongdoing, the league will owe the team, and in particular Brady and Belichick, an apology.
“I’m disappointed with the way this entire matter has been handled and reported upon,” Kraft said. “We expect hard facts as opposed to circumstantial, leaked evidence to drive the conclusions of this investigation.”
Kraft said he composed his unexpected statement on the flight from Massachusetts to Phoenix, where the Patriots will take on reigning NFL champions Seattle in Super Bowl 49 on Sunday.
As the team travelled, Fox Sports reported that the NFL had obtained surveillance video of a Patriots locker room attendant, who took the Patriots’ footballs from the officials’ locker room to another room before bringing them onto the field for the AFC Championship game, in which the Patriots routed Indianapolis 45-7 to book their Super Bowl berth.
Belichick and Brady have insisted they have no idea how footballs used by the team in the first half of the game came to be under-inflated after meeting league inflation requirements in a pre-game inspection.
Less inflated balls in cold and wet conditions such as those during the game with the Colts could make the “pigskin” easier to grip, throw and catch.
According to the Fox Sports report, citing an unnamed league source, the league was trying to determine if there was wrongdoing by the locker room attendant, who is considered a “person of interest.”
