The Deflategate Controversy got Tom Brady out of the NFL briefly. Who will be ousted this time after the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots concluded? Apparently, the Pats got the short end of the stick as they lost to the Chiefs with a final score of 17-27. This 10-point deficit could have been less if the referees had checked on the K-Balls before the game began.
Some exciting news surfaced online after this game, and fans call it Deflategate 2.0. Various sources have reported the tampering of the balls and the refs doing nothing about it. Recently, there have been a lot of questions about the state of officiating in the league. Is this the last draw for the “recklessness” of the officiating committee? Mass Live made a report about the whole scenario.
How a minor mistake decided the outcome of the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots game
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Though the lore is deep, Dov Kleiman’s tweet summarized what happened in the best manner possible. The tweet says that in the Sunday game between the Chiefs and Patriots, the officials failed to inflate the kicking balls properly to be used by the special teams. The balls weighed 11 pounds instead of the designated 13.5 pounds. Suspicions arose when the Patriots and the Chiefs’ kickers Chad Ryland and Harrison Butker missed field goals in the first half.
REPORT: NFL officials failed to properly inflate the kicking balls for the #Patriots–#Chiefs game on Sunday via @ByMarkDaniels
"According to multiple sources, the footballs that are meant for each team’s kicking units were underinflated by two pounds."
"After team complaints,… pic.twitter.com/sB5NJqXrEu
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 20, 2023
Both special teams were upset in the locker room after the game ended, and rightfully so. It was the Pats who raised the concerns first, and the issue was later rectified by the referees. Per sources, the ball traveled less in the first half after the kick, but after the problem was resolved, it was noticed that the footballs traveled further. It all started when Butker’s kick landed on the 3-yard line, and the Pats were apprehensive about it.
As the game went on, it became clear that the trajectory and the hang time of the balls were somehow not right.
How the botch-up came to light
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Harrison Butker was 23-23 on field goals coming into the game but then missed a 39-yard attempt because of this alleged botch-up by the officials. That’s not all; the Pats’ Chad Ryland also missed his 41-yard shot in the first quarter. There was no way that the special teams could have known it before because they were not allowed to kick the ball before the game began.
The referees get the balls 2 hours and 45 minutes before the game; they are put away in the box with no one having access to them. It’s the referees’ job to thoroughly check the balls before they are declared game-ready. Though the Chiefs also received the bitter end of this mess-up, the Pats were the most upset because they lost the game.
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Should the refs be fined for this? Is this the resurgence of Deflategate?
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