Bill Belichick says the kicking balls against the Chiefs were not filled enough: It has nothing to do with the Patriots.
In the Patriots’ 27–17 loss to the Chiefs last week, head coach Bill Belichick admitted on Friday that their kicking balls were not inflated enough.
He also said that the Patriots possessed nothing to do with it, a reference to the Deflategate incident from the 2015 playoffs.
It was the first field goal for the season he missed. The next time New England played, kicker Chad Ryland missed a 41-yard field goal.
In the first half, kickers from both squads missed intermediate field goals, which made people think something wasn’t right. Harrison Butker, the Chiefs’ kicker, missed a 39-yard kick on the team’s first play.
The right amount of air for a soccer ball is between 12.5 and 13.5 euros per square inch. The game judges are in charge of keeping the balls from being kicked.
However, Butker missed the goal line with the first kickoff, even though he boasts a 87.1% touchback percentage this season.
According to MassLive, the Patriots’ bench first noticed that there was something was wrong with the ball after Butker’s kickoff. This was the first sign that the balls were not inflated enough.
In the middle of the game, Belichick declared that the balls was changed. After missing the first few kicks, both kickers made every of their next tries. Belichick didn’t know why the balls hadn’t been fixed sooner.
Balls that aren’t filled enough are a touchy subject in New England. In the wake of deflategate, the NFL fine the Patriots $1 million, took away two draft picks, and suspended qb Tom Brady to four games.
The NFL said the Patriots didn’t blow up the game balls enough when they beat the Indianapolis Colts in the 2015 AFC championship game on their way to beating the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl.
The NFL never showed direct proof that Brady as well as the Patriots purposely weakened balls. According to, the balls for both teams that kicked were two pounds underinflated.
No, but there was a problem with the way the balls were kicked during New England’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs on the road in Week 15.
Both teams complained about the “K-balls,” so the officials checked them out at halfway and found that they weighed eleven kilograms per square inch as opposed to the legal 13.5 PSI.
When the judges saw what was wrong, they pumped the puck up to the right PSI for the second half.
“Underinflated from 2½ pounds,” as reported by ESPN, was confirmed by Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
“Sure, of course,” Belichick replied. “From what I know, they all appeared to be the same. I’m not sure what the reason is.
Both teams had the same thing happen. You should talk to the team about what took place. Everything in that part is run by the league.
On the Patriots bench, they first knew something was wrong when Butker’s first kickoff hit at the 3-yard line. Butker’s kickoffs have led to touchbacks about 87% of the time this season.
On top of that, both teams had much shorter hang times during kickoffs and punts. Butker missed his very first field goal in the season because of this mistake by the judges.
The Chiefs veteran had completed all 23 of his throws this season before his 39-yard try in the first quarter of this game went wide to the right.
once the balls were fixed in the second half, Butker made both of his field goal tries from 29 and 54 yards out.