Bill Belichick Says Balls Were Underinflated For Patriots-Chiefs

Bill Belichick has confirmed that the balls used for placekicking during Patriots-Chiefs last weekend were underinflated. "We don't have anything to do with it. Were we aware of it? Yeah, definitely. As I understand it, they were all the same. I don't know what the explanation is. It was the same for both teams. You'd have to talk to the league about what happened on that. That part of it, they control all that," Belichick said during his weekly press conference. The news was first reported by MassLive but any parallel to the infamous Deflate-gate scandal were dismissed as the issue affected both teams.

Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, who missed his first field goal of the season in the first half against the Patriots, said he was informed of the deflation at halftime. "[They told me] the balls were a little deflated [and] they just let me know they pumped [them] up," Butker said. Furthermore, he didn't blame his miss on the state of the ball. "I think it was technique, one of those misfires that you wish you had back. My second kick of pregame warmup, I had a 38-yarder middle, and it kind of sliced off to the right like that. So it showed up, kind of, in warmup. I made a lot of big kicks with flatter balls, and shoot, even in college, I kicked a lot of flat balls," Butker added.

Chiefs Kicker Explains Deflated Ball Situation

Furthermore, Butker revealed that a kicker can tell the different between balls in various states of inflation. "I didn't notice anything on that opening kickoff and then second half, once you make that [field goal], you have the kickoff and you can feel the ball. And it was noticeably more pumped up. But again, cold weather is going to make the inflation go down. I've even had games where the bladder of the ball might pop or something, and maybe you feel it on kickoff and then you just ask for a different ball. So stuff like that happens and you just roll with it. I've made decent kickoffs with balls that maybe aren't perfect 13 PSI indoor room temperature, but it's just kind of the nature of the game. Sometimes that stuff happens," Butker explained.

Despite Butker also calling the process "routine", the situation has called back memories of Deflate-gate. The Belichick-led Patriots were fined $1M, docked two draft picks, and lost QB Tom Brady for four games after it was determined that they purposefully underinflated balls to gain a competitive advantage in the 2015 AFC Championship Game.

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