Mike Florio: Deflategate Investigation 'Was A Prosecution' Of Patriots

ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio always has a hot take, and this time, it’s one New England Patriots fans will appreciate.

Florio called in to WEEI’s “Dennis and Callahan” on Friday to discuss his issues with the NFL’s handling of the Deflategate investigation. One of his biggest problems was with the false air pressure numbers ESPN’s Chris Mortensen received and the fact that the NFL never corrected them.

“When you consider what was going on with the false numbers that were out there, and there wasn’t any effort, any desire, any inclination to get the truth out there,” Florio said, “I think at some level, one or two people in the middle of this thing realized, ‘This is the best way to keep the Patriots off balance. This is the best way to keep them guessing, this is the best way not to investigate but to prosecute the Patriots.’ And that’s what this ultimately was. This wasn’t an investigation, it was a prosecution.”

Florio goes on to say he tried to get the real numbers from league sources but no one would give them to him, which he finds suspicious. He also thinks Mortensen should be angry about being given false information rather than standing by what he reported.

And at the end of the day, Florio thinks the Patriots acted how anyone who was treated unfairly would act.

“It’s human nature to dig in your heels when you feel like you’re being railroaded. … In hindsight, we have every reason to believe that it was perfectly reasonable for the Patriots to think they were getting screwed here because I think they were,” Florio said.

“I just get upset when I feel like there is an injustice being perpetrated. I got upset three years ago when it happened to the (New Orleans) Saints, and I got upset this year when it happened to the Patriots. I tell fans of other teams: ‘You need to care about this, because your team could be next.’”