Three-time National Sportswriter of the Year winner, Peter King, announced his retirement this Monday. The NBC columnist has etched his name as one of the greatest journalists in the NFL world, but a mistake that he made almost a decade ago still haunts him to this day. We are talking about the ‘Deflategate’ scandal, of course — which led to Patriots QB Tom Brady getting branded as a ‘Cheater’ by the league and its commissioner, Roger Goodell. King played a role in this, since he, one of the biggest faces of NFL reporting, confirmed that the Patriots with Brady on the helm were indeed cheating.
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During his recent chat on CBS Sports Radio’s ‘Maggie & Perloff Show‘, Peter King described how it all transpired in 2015. While labeling it as the biggest mistake of his career, so much so that it makes his heart sink every time he thinks about it, the NBC columnist expressed that he regretted confirming ESPN’s deflate ball story.
For reference, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported that the league had found 11 out of 12 footballs were inflated two pounds below the requirement in the first half of the 2015 AFC Championship Game. The Patriots defeated the Colts with a final score of 45-7. This resulted in the club getting fined $1 million, while Brady faced suspensions for four games. They also had to forego two draft selections in the 2016 draft.
When ESPN’s story actually came out, King reached out to two of his very reliable league sources, and they both confirmed it. King also confirmed in his report that Brady has been using deflated balls for the past decade — stating that his equipment guys always had control over the pigskin in home games. As it turns out, these claims were false — as a Wells Report would confirm that only one ball out of the 22 readings was inflated two pounds below the requirement.
King, at that time, faced a barrage of criticism from fans and media alike. He even offered his resignation to Sports Illustrated, the outlet he was working for, but they couldn’t accept it. In the interview, King expressed his remorse and took accountability for his actions.
“That brought me a lot of shame,” He said. “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, when I confirm a story. And I was wrong. And that is something that will haunt me, really. It bothers me, literally bothers me to this day.”
This scandal even led to legal battles, and, to this day, fans and pundits alike criticize the league for the way the situation was handled.
NFL World Reacts to Peter King’s Statement
King’s statement about the DeflateGate situation in the midst of his retirement announcement has sent the football world into a frenzy. While a few are appreciating the fact that the now-former NFL journalist acknowledged his mistake, others didn’t pull any punches. Take a look:
The DeflateGate incident will go down in history as one of the biggest NFL controversies. No one will forget the ‘Spy Gate’ situation either, but the majority of the NFL world has been convinced that it was taken way out of proportion. What do you think? Was Brady wrongly punished? Let us know in the comments below!
