Bill Belichick confirms kicking balls were underinflated in Patriots-Chiefs game, NFL declines to comment

FOXBORO — There were underinflated footballs in Gillette Stadium on Sunday, and the Patriots were 100% not to blame.

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick confirmed that kicking balls were 2-to-2.5 PSI underinflated in the first half of Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs. MassLive first reported on the issue earlier this week. Patriots kicker Chad Ryland and Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker both missed field goals in the first half.

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“Yeah, we were aware of it in the first quarter,” Belichick said. “The officials handle that, and they were underinflated by like 2, 2.5 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. And so there were six balls. It was both sets of balls. It was all six of them. You’d have to talk to the league about what happened, because we don’t have anything to do with that part of it. They control all of that. And they fixed 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 they were all, as I understand it, they were all the same.”

The NFL declined to comment on the situation to the Boston Herald.

Footballs are supposed to be inflated 12.5-to-13.5 PSI. The Patriots know that better than anyone based on the Deflategate controversy of the 2014 playoffs. Tom Brady was suspended four games and the Patriots were fined $1 million when footballs were found underinflated during the 2014 AFC Championship Game against the Colts.

Patriots special teamers appeared upset about the issue after Sunday’s game before the mishap went public.

“Again, things that are out of our control, I don’t know. I don’t know what the explanation is,” Belichick said. “It was the same for both teams, so whatever that means, but yeah. I mean, Butker had a perfect season going.”

Butker was 23-of-23 on field goals and 34-of-34 on extra points heading into the game.

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