Bill Belichick confirms kicking balls were underinflated vs. Chiefs: Patriots 'don't have anything to do with it'
NFL officials are responsible for properly inflating kicking balls, not the teams themselves
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick confirmed Friday that the kicking balls in last week's 27-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs were underinflated.
In a nod to the Deflategate scandal from the 2015 postseason, Belichick also confirmed that the Patriots had nothing to do with it.
Kickers from both teams missed midrange field goals in the first half, raising suspicion that something was wrong. Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker missed a 39-yard field goal on Kansas City's opening drive. It was his first missed field goal of the season. Patriots kicker Chad Ryland then missed a 41-yard field goal on New England's ensuing drive.
“We were aware of it in the first quarter,” Belichick told reporters. “The officials handle that, and they were underinflated by 2-2.5 pounds. I think you can see that by the kicks. Both kickers missed kicks. Butker hadn’t missed a kick all year. Kickoffs, we had two almost went out of bounds."
Kicking balls are supposed to be inflated to between 12.5-13.5 pounds per square inch. Game officials are responsible for managing kicking balls.
Butker, who has an 87.1% touchback rate this season, sent the opening kickoff short of the goal line. Per MassLive, which first reported that the balls were underinflated, Butker's kickoff initially raised a flag on the Patriots sideline that something was wrong with the ball.
“There were six balls, it was both sets of balls, it was all six of them," Belichick said. "I don’t know, you’d have to talk to the league on what happened with that, because we don't have anything to do with that part of that."
Belichick said the that balls were fixed at halftime. Both kickers made all of their ensuing kicking attempts after the early misses. Belichick didn't have an answer as to why the balls weren't weren't fixed sooner.
"Then they fixed them at halftime, but didn’t do it before then, which is another question you can ask," Belichick continued.
An NFL spokesperson declined to comment on the situation Friday.
And again, the Patriots had nothing to do with the underinflated balls.
"But we don’t have anything to do with it," Belichick said. "Were we aware of it? Yeah, definitely."
Underinflated balls are a sensitive subject in New England. After deflategate, the Patriots were fined $1 million and docked two draft picks, and quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for four games. The NFL accused the Patriots of underinflating game balls in their 2015 AFC championship game win over the Indianapolis Colts en route to their Super Bowl win over the Seattle Seahawks. The NFL never presented any direct evidence that Brady or the Patriots deliberately deflated balls.
