Belichick: Pats followed every rule ‘to the letter’
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Saying his team “followed the rules to the letter,” New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick described in detail how his team prepares its footballs on game day and defended his players from chatter that they made it to the Super Bowl by cheating.
In an unscheduled availability Saturday, eight days before the Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks for the NFL championship, Belichick revealed the results of a study into how the balls are prepared to quarterback Tom Brady’s liking.
Most of the steps are designed to make them tacky for a better grip, he said, but the process could affect the air pressure. No effort to cheat
“There have been questions raised, and I believe now, 100 percent, that I have personally and we have as an organization absolutely followed every rule to the letter,” Belichick said. “At no time was there any intent to compromise the integrity of the game.”
The Patriots reached the Super Bowl for the sixth time in Belichick’s tenure when they beat the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 in the AFC Championship Game on Jan. 18. But that night, Indianapolis TV station WTHR reported some of the game balls provided by New England for the use of its offense weren’t sufficiently inflated.
The NFL has confirmed that it is investigating, and the Patriots vowed to cooperate. Belichick said last week that he didn’t know how the game balls were prepared, deferring to Brady; Brady also denied doing anything improper.
But in the days of slow news before Super Bowl week, the allegations received disproportionate attention, along with comparisons to the videotaping scandal of 2007, when the Patriots were hit with unprecedented penalties after Belichick was caught recording opposing coaches sending in signals from the sidelines.
Belichick denied there is a pattern of rule-breaking or bending them.
“It was wrong,” Belichick said of the scandal that came to be known as Spygate. “We were disciplined for it. That’s it. We never did it again. We’re never going to do it again. And anything else that’s close, we’re not going to do it, either.”
A football lifer who seems happy only on the sidelines, if at all, Belichick is known for an attention to detail that helps prepare his team for every situation. ‘A lot of variables’
But instead of getting ready for the Super Bowl, he said he has spent far too much time the past week studying science and learning about how varying conditions can affect a football’s pressure.
“I’m embarrassed to talk about the amount of time that I’ve put into this relative to the other important challenge in front of us,” he said. “There are a lot of variables. I’m not saying we’re trying to land a guy on the moon, but there are a lot of things that are hard to get a handle on.”
But Belichick seemed most emotional when he came to the defense of his team. Among the questions he and his players were asked last week was whether they cheated to be in the Super Bowl.
“This team was the best team in the AFC in the regular season (12-4); we won two games in the playoffs,” he said. “That’s what this team is. I know that because I’ve been with them every day.”
Game at a glance
When/where: 7 p.m. today; Glendale, Ariz. TV: ESPN. Texans in game: Offensive tackle Duane Brown, defensive tackle J.J. Watt.
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