No Deflategate Here: Bill Belichick Confirms Patriots-Chiefs Footballs Were Underinflated

FOXBORO, Mass. — Bill Belichick and his staff knew something was off with the footballs used by kickers and punters during last week’s Patriots-Chiefs game.

Belichick on Friday confirmed a report from MassLive.com’s Mark Daniels that the K-balls used by both teams in the first half of New England’s 27-17 loss to Kansas City were not properly inflated.

Officials fixed the issue at halftime, but Chad Ryland and Harrison Butker both missed first-quarter field goals with the underinflated balls.

“We were aware of it in the first quarter,” Belichick said. “… The officials handle that, and they were underinflated by two, 2 1/2 pounds. I think you could see that by the kicks. Both kickers missed kicks, and Butker hadn’t missed a kick all year. Kickoffs — we had two that almost went out of bounds. It was both sets of (kicking) balls. It was all six of them.”

Belichick said questions about how this mistake occurred — and why it wasn’t remedied earlier in the game — should be directed toward the NFL. Teams do not manage their own kicking balls, which have different PSI regulations than those used on standard plays.

“You have to talk to the league (about) what happened on that, because we don’t have anything to do with that part of it,” the Patriots head coach said. “They control all that, then they fix them at halftime — but didn’t do it before then, which is another question you could ask. But we don’t have anything to do with it. Were we aware of it? Yeah, definitely. But as I understand it, they were all the same.”

Ryland and Butker made all four of their field goals and extra points after halftime, and both teams saw their average kickoff and punt distances rise in the second half.

“I don’t know what the explanation is,” Belichick said. “But it was the same for both teams, whatever that means.”