The NFL has been mum on its ongoing investigation into the DeflateGate scandal, which of course pertains to the alleged use of illegally deflated footballs by the New England Patriots during the recently completed season's playoff run and, specifically, their AFC Championship Game victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
Rumors and theories have begun to emerge in recent days that paint head coach Bill Belichick, quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots in a much more favorable light and the Colts and Baltimore Ravens, the two teams against which the Pats were alleged to have used the tainted balls and whom, presumably, notified the league of their suspicions that the balls being used by New England weren't on the up and up, in a highly questionable light.
ESPN's Adam Schefter joined WEEI in Boston Friday and, following a line of questioning from the hosts as to whether or not there was anything to the theory that the Colts had in fact been the ones to deflate the football intercepted by linebacker D'Qwell Jackson in the AFC Championship Game, allowed that there are more than a few folks in and around the league who believe that that's exactly what happened.
"I do think there are people who believe that," Schefter said, according to Pro Football Talk. "I know there are people who believe that. . . . I'll just say, I'm not even going to specify, there are people who believe that, OK? There are people who believe that. And I think there are people who have heard that theory and who say, 'That's impossible.'"
While it seems far-fetched, former NFL quarterback and current CBS Sports analyst Boomer Esiason revealed Wednesday that he believes the NFL - a league he sees as built on insecurities and backstabbing - has developed a culture of pettiness, leading the Ravens and the Colts to actually team up to create the DeflateGate controversy in order to embarrass Pats quarterback Tom Brady.
Different reports have claimed that a varying number of New England balls used in the AFC Championship Game were underinflated, so the NFL investigation's eventual findings will, presumably, clear most of this up.
But with the ball intercepted by Jackson potentially being the only one the league found to be significantly underinflated, it's entirely possible that the Colts were, in fact, the ones to forcibly remove the cat from the bag (or the air from the ball, as it were).
