New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said his feelings got hurt by the allegations that he's a cheater. Heading into the Super Bowl, Brady said he took the "DeflateGate" allegations personally but has since moved on to focus on preparing for the Seattle Seahawks.
Following New England's AFC Championship win against the Indianapolis Colts, the conversation should have been about how the Patriots would be making their sixth Super Bowl appearance in the Bill Belichick-Brady era. Instead, it was about how 11 of New England's 12 footballs used in the championship game were reportedly underinflated and whether the Patriots intentionally deflated them.
Brady's clean-cut image came under fire for the first real time in his career, with the media questioning whether he knowingly cheated. Appearing for his weekly spot on WEEI's "Dennis & Callahan" radio program, the future Hall of Famer admitted the accusations of being a cheater stung.
"I personalized a lot of things and thought this was all about me and my feelings got hurt, and then I moved past it because it's not serving me," Brady said Monday during the radio show, via ESPN. "I think what's serving me is to try to prepare for the game ahead, and I'll deal with whatever happens later. I'll have my opportunity to try to figure out what happened and figure out a theory like everyone else is trying to do.
"But this isn't the time for that, and honestly I'm not interested in trying to find out right now because we have the biggest game of our season ahead."
Brady has maintained his innocence in "DeflateGate," saying he never instructed anyone to deflate the footballs and didn't notice any of the footballs were underinflated in the AFC Championship game.
