“We feel like we followed the rules of the game to the letter in our preparations, in our procedures and in the way we handle every game that we competitively play in as it relates to this matter,” Belichick said at a news conference called on short notice. “We try to do everything right. We err on the side of caution.”
The NFL is investigating and says the Patriots used under-inflated balls last Sunday in the first half of the AFC championship game in Massachusetts.
Eleven of the 12 game balls the Patriots provided for the game were under-inflated by about 2 pounds per square inch each, ESPN reported.
A ball with lower inflation is supposedly easier to grip and may give the passer a competitive advantage.
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“I made a great play on a great player, and I wanted to keep it as a souvenir,” Jackson said in an interview with CNN affiliate KNXV. “So I handed it off.
“The next thing I know I’m in the middle of Deflategate, so I don’t know how that happened, and I was just doing my job, and I seem to be in the middle of everything. But I’ve got a ton of respect for that organization, New England. They outright beat us hands down and that’s pretty much all I can say about it.”
The Patriots will face the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX on February 1 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Opinion: Throw the Patriots out of the Super Bowl
