Bettis: Patriots Have A Culture That Is Conducive To Cheating
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) – The New England Patriots and "DeflateGate" continue to dominate sports headlines ahead of the Super Bowl. Now, a Steelers legendary running back is weighing in on it.
Softer footballs wouldn't explain all of a rout that earned the New England Patriots a spot in the Super Bowl. But it's another example of Bill Belichick's reputation of searching for edges and bending any rules until he gets caught.
Vague injury reports. Spygate. Signing players with intel on opponents. And now, an open NFL investigation into whether the team cheated during its AFC championship win.
"Because it's the Patriots and they have a history, that brings in a different issue," former All-Pro running back Jerome Bettis said on ESPN. "There's some type of culture there that's conducive to cheating and that's a problem."
According to reports, 11 of the 12 balls the Patriots supplied for their AFC Championship Game were underinflated.
Today, Belichick addressed the matter for the first time.
"All right, I'll start off by addressing the football issue here," Belichick said. "When I came in Monday morning, I was shocked to learn of the news reports about the footballs. I had no knowledge whatsoever of the situation until Monday morning. I would say I've learned a lot more about this process in the past three days than I knew or have talked about it in the last 40 years that I've coached in this league."
According to a CBS Boston report, the only time Belichick manipulates footballs, he said, comes during practice, when he tries to present the most difficult situation possible for his players.
"Let me just say that my personal coaching philosophy, my mentality has always been to make things as difficult as possible for players in practice," Belichick explained. "So with regard to footballs, I'm sure that any current or past player of mine will tell you that the balls we practice with are as bad as they can be. Wet, sticky, cold, slippery — however bad we can make 'em, I make 'em. And any time that players complain about the quality of the footballs, I make 'em worse, and that stops the complaining.
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