default-cbs-image

It all started with a harmless little interception. OK, not a harmless one, but when D'Qwell Jackson picked off Tom Brady late in the first half of the Patriots-Colts game, who would've imagined 72 hours later the world would be screaming about the respective weights of various urethane bladders?

Here we are, though, firmly embroiled in Deflategate, the controversy surrounding whether or not the Patriots deflated footballs. 

On the surface, there's nothing here, because the Team A straight rolled Team B in football no matter how much air was in the football. But nothing is ever that simple. 

Here's nine things to know about Deflategate.

1. The Rulebook: First things first. We gotta understand what's at issue. In this case, a lot of hot air, literally. Here's the direct quote (with some emphasis added by me) from the NFL rulebook, Rule 2, Section 1, aptly titled "The Ball." 

The Ball must be a “Wilson,” hand selected, bearing the signature of the Commissioner of the League, Roger Goodell. The ball shall be made up of an inflated (12 1/2 to 13 1/2 pounds) urethane bladder enclosed in a pebble grained, leather case (natural tan color) without corrugations of any kind. It shall have the form of a prolate spheroid and the size and weight shall be: long axis, 11 to 11 1/4 inches; long circumference, 28 to 28 1/2 inches; short circumference, 21 to 21 1/4 inches; weight, 14 to 15 ounces.

The Referee shall be the sole judge as to whether all balls offered for play comply with these specifications. A pump is to be furnished by the home club, and the balls shall remain under the supervision of the Referee until they are delivered to the ball attendant just prior to the start of the game.

The good news here is there's a limited amount of time where the Patriots -- or anyone -- could pull a couple pounds of air out of the footballs and actually be culpable. The bad news is there's only a limited amount of time here: if someone purposely deflated the balls, we've got to be talking about a pretty carefully preplanned operation here. 

2. Patriots Problems: Right up until Tuesday around 11 p.m. ET, the whole Deflategate thing was absolutely overblown. It probably still is. But the NFL, according to Chris Mortensen of ESPN, found 11 of 12 Patriots footballs were deflated.

(You can listen to the entire Eye on Football Podcast by subscribing via iTunes right here)

That's an unfortunate number. It's not a perfect score so the Pats can't just blame improper equipment or a mistake by the referees. That's problem No. 1.

Blaming the zebras might be off the table anyway, as PFT's Mike Florio reports the NFL has already reviewed that portion of the process and determined "the balls were properly checked" by officials before the game. That's problem No. 2. 

Florio also reports the NFL doesn't believe the refs would notice the difference in two pounds of pressure while handling the football throughout the game. 

3. Why do we care? Because, in large part, this is the Patriots we're talking about. If the situation were reversed and Andrew Luck and his neckbeard were out there winging around balls with less pressure, leading to a victory over the Patriots, there would be concern. A lot of it.

But the level of vitriol and national concern over this -- Deflategate has hit "national news" level and hit it quickly -- wouldn't be nearly where it is because we're talking about New England, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. 

After a stretch of winning in the early 2000's, Boston sports teams became pretty hateable for the general public. Add in the issues with Spygate and the lack of a Patriots title since then (a large section of the population believes they need to validate their original three titles) plus a general belief that Bill Belichick's always trying to bend the rules and you've got a full-blown NFL crisis on your hands. 

4. Previous Concerns: The Colts reportedly expressed issues over the Patriots inflation of the footballs when the two teams met in Week 11, with New England shredding Indy 42-20. This could mean the Patriots had less air in their balls previously, or it could simply mean the Colts are really mad about losing. 

The one thing I don't get about this ... if the Colts were worried the Pats deflated the footballs before the game, why wouldn't they be more closely monitoring them? Grab a ball after an incomplete pass and act like it feels light and file a complaint with the refs then. Stir it up and throw some jabs to get the Pats off their game! 

5. Tom Brady likes deflated footballs: Not helping Brady much in all of this? The fact that he said back in 2011 he prefers playing with deflated footballs! 

"When Gronk scores -- it was like his eighth touchdown of the year -- he spikes the ball and he deflates the ball," Brady said. "I love that, because I like the deflated ball."

At least Gronk was willing to take the blame here.

The reality is, for the majority of the world, playing with a deflated football makes throwing and catching substantially easier. Why else would Brad Johnson cop to paying $7,500 before a Super Bowl to get the footballs scuffed up and prepped just to his liking? 

6. Not for everyone though!: Specifically, Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers talked about this recently and said he likes his balls fully inflated. In fact, Rodgers thinks playing with a deflated football is a "disadvantage."

"The majority of quarterbacks, I would say more than half, are maybe on the other end of the spectrum and like it on the flatter side," Rodgers said. "My belief is that there should be a minimum air-pressure requirement but not a maximum. There's no advantage, in my opinion -- we're not kicking the football -- there's no advantage in having a pumped-up football."

7. Everyone Does It? Former NFL quarterback Matt Leinart -- now with Fox Sports -- tweeted that "everyone" tampers with footballs in the NFL.

Ostensibly this is no different from athletes in other sports, like baseball. CBS Sports Jason La Canfora has a great breakdown of how it relates to pine tar and baseball plus plenty of quotes from former NFL quarterbacks (Rich Gannon, Boomer Esiason, Steve Beuerlein) about the issue.

8. Pastry Profit: The Boston Coffee Company came out with some delightfully, Finkle-esque little football cookies on Wednesday morning, but in terms of pastry companies seizing the moment, no one can top Krispy Kreme firing a shot at the Patriots and their sponsor, Dunkin' Donuts. 

9. Certification? Following the Saints bounty scandal, the NFL alerted teams it would require a annual certification to ensure the "integrity of the game." Basically each CEO, President, GM and Head Coach is required to sign a certificate confirming they didn't knowingly break any rules during the previous year.

Per the league, there's no specific mention of inflation/deflation of footballs within the certificate, but it would fall under the general category of compliance.

Those certificates are due on March 30 (we'll assume the Patriots haven't filed theirs with the season on going) and the filing of a false certification "shall be considered conduct detrimental to the League." 

10. Punishment: According to Goodell's pre-certification memo in the NFL Game Operations Manual, "the standard of proof required to find that a violation of League rules has occurred
shall be a Preponderance of the Evidence."

In layman's terms: there doesn't have to be indisputable proof of guilt; the evidence of guilt just needs to outweigh the evidence of innocence. 

Once Goodell begins to institute the punishment, he can base a specific punishment on a few things, including one notable factor (emphasis mine): 

I will impose discipline based on all relevant facts and circumstances, including the nature and materiality of the violation, the prior record of the party committing the violation, prior treatment of similar violations, the extent to which the club and relevant individuals cooperated with the investigation, and, insofar as possible, the actual competitive impact of the violation.

There's a good chance, given the parties involved here (i.e. the Pats and Bill Belichick), we could see the loss of a draft pick and a fine. The Game Ops Manual calls for "a fine of $25,000" although that's simply a starting point. The NFL could go as high as it wants up to $500,000 if it believes the actions here caused a serious competitive impact. 

The nuclear option is also technically on the table, with Goodell possessing the authority, under Rule 17, Section 2 of the NFL Rulebook to impose "the reversal of a game’s result or the
rescheduling of a game" should he deem an "extraordinarily unfair act" occurred and "such action a major effect on the result of the game." 

Probably not happening, but just understand everything is on the table here. 

These footballs are causing a problem. (Getty Images)