Peter King Regrets Patriots Scandal Reporting In Career Reflection

Deflategate dominated the football headlines nine years ago after the New England Patriots dismantled the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 in the 2014 AFC Championship Game.

The scandal eventually led to a four-game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady to start the 2016 season. The Patriots ultimately won the Super Bowl in both seasons, though the scandal still occasionally follows the team.

After ESPN’s initial break of the report, Peter King confirmed the story around the Patriots based on his own sources, a decision he regrets nearly a decade later.

“When I think about it, my heart sinks,” King shared on the “Maggie and Perloff” show on CBS Sports Radio on Tuesday. “I confirmed the ESPN story about the deflated footballs after Deflategate first hit the scene. … It turns out I was wrong. That brought me a lot of shame. That really bothers me to this day. It doesn’t matter who I talked to. It doesn’t matter who told me anything. It’s my rear end on the line when I say something.”

King added that the implications of getting the report wrong still “haunts” him to this day. With that said King also sounded off against the NFL for penalizing Brady and the Patriots on the grounds of manipulating footballs in home games. The longtime journalist reported that his own study of Brady’s production in passer rating for the Patriots in the relevant time period was virtually the same, both at home and on the road.

King announced his retirement from his weekly column on Tuesday after 44 years of covering the NFL, which included a variety of reports about the Patriots.