Early in the life of #DeflateGate, the process had more leaks than a guy on the brink of 50 who drank too much water too close to going to bed. (I can relate.) The information presumably was coming from the folks conducting the investigation, i.e., the NFL.
As the week has unfolded (and in the wake of the report from Chris Mortensen that 11 of 12 Patriot footballs were two pounds below the 12.5-PSI minimum), the leaks have stopped. No one is saying anything about the status of the investigation. At all.
Some (such as Tom Curran of CSNNE.com) have suggested that Mortensen’s report wasn’t precise, and that he didn’t clearly say each ball was exactly 2.0 pounds below the threshold. But with no reports contradicting or clarifying the item that took #DeflateGate to a new level of significance, it’s easy to accept Mortensen’s report as entirely accurate.
It’s possible that Patriots ownership insisted on discretion. It’s possible that the NFL decided that, if everything about the eventual investigation is going to be analyzed, scrutinized, and/or criticized, it’s better to stay quiet until the process ends. Either way, it’s gotten very quiet in the last two days regarding the status of the investigation.
Of course, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said Thursday that he has yet to hear from the league. That’s something we’ll try to make sense of in a separate item. Or that I’ll address on Friday’s edition of PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio.