New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick said the kicking footballs used in the first half of their home game against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday were "underinflated by 2, 2 1/2 pounds."
"We don't have anything to do with it. Were we aware of it? Yeah, definitely," Belichick said on Friday. "As I understand it, they were all the same. I don't know what the explanation is. It was the same for both teams."
Patriots rookie kicker Chad Ryland misfired on a 41-yard attempt, and Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker missed on a 39-yard try. Butker made all 23 of his field-goal attempts and 31 extra-points tries heading into that game, in which Kansas City beat New England 27-17.
"The officials handle that, and they were underinflated by like 2, 2.5 pounds," Belichick told reporters. "I think you could see that by the kicks. Both kickers missed kicks, and Butker hadn't missed a kick all year.
"Kickoffs, we had two that almost went out of bounds. And so there were six balls. It was both sets of balls. It was all six of them. You'd have to talk to the league about what happened, because we don't have anything to do with that part of it. They control all of that. And they fixed them at halftime but didn't do it before then, which is another question you could ask. But we don't have anything to do with it."
If Belichick sounded like he was on the defensive, consider that the Patriots were fined $1 million, docked two draft picks and saw then-quarterback Tom Brady suspended four games by the NFL for the scandal referred to as "Deflategate." The league determined that a scheme was afoot to provide improperly inflated footballs for the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts on Jan. 18, 2015.
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