If you ask the New England Patriots, Chris Mortensen once again supplied false information Thursday.
Mortensen appeared on Arizona Sports’ “Doug and Wolf Show” to address his original report — which later was proved incorrect — that 11 of 12 New England Patriots footballs were under-inflated by 2 pounds per square inch each. At one point during the interview, the ESPN reporter claimed Patriots owner Robert Kraft and president Jonathan Kraft both called him personally to “apologize” for the way Deflategate has unfolded.
But according to the Patriots, those phone calls never happened, WEEI’s “Dennis and Callahan” radio show reported Thursday night.
[tweet https://twitter.com/DandCShow/status/637062187685662720 align=’center’]
It would be strange for the Krafts to apologize to Mortensen, especially given the heavy punishments NFL commissioner Roger Goodell levied on the Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady.
Of course, Goodell is more to blame for that outcome than Mortensen, who said Thursday the league could have handled the whole situation better. Still, Mortensen’s incorrect tweet about 11 of 12 balls being under-inflated by two PSI each stood for about six months, and his original story on ESPN.com still contains the same information today.
UPDATE (11:30 a.m.): Fill-in host Gary Tanguay said Friday on “Dennis and Callahan” that sources told WEEI the Krafts informed Mortensen their issue wasn’t with him but with the source who gave him bad information and the NFL for not correcting it.
Not really an apology, but Mortensen evidently took it that way.
The Patriots haven’t publicly addressed Mortensen’s claim of an apology, but their beef with information leaks and the NFL is well known. Last month, the Patriots released emails from team officials imploring the league to publicly correct information it already knew to be incorrect. The league refused to do so.
Thumbnial photo via Twitter/@nflovernewz
