The Baltimore Ravens say that documents presented on Tuesday indicating they tipped the Indianapolis Colts off to the possibility of DeflateGate aren't accurate. Instead, the team continued to insist its contact with the Colts had nothing to do with the footballs used in a postseason game between the Ravens and New England Patriots.
Ravens deny tipping Colts off to DeflateGate
The Ravens deny that the team had any knowledge of the Patriots tampering with footballs prior to the AFC title game.
On Tuesday, an email dated Jan. 17 (the day before the AFC Championship), was revealed that showed a conversation between Colts equipment manager Sean Sullivan and general manager Ryan Grigson. It claimed a Ravens assistant called Colts head coach Chuck Pagano to discuss concerns about the Patriots’ manipulation of kicking balls.
That Ravens assistant, special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg, admitted in a statement that he spoke to Pagano, but insisted that the conversation had nothing to do with footballs and instead focused on player substitutions.
“I’ve been consistent from the beginning when asked about whether the Ravens tipped off the Colts about deflated footballs,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said in a statement on Wednesday. “I’ll say it again -- we didn’t. We knew nothing about deflated footballs.”
Also in question was a text sent from Ravens kicking consultant Randy Brown to Pagano on Jan. 16 that read:
“Make sure the refs rotate the kicking balls cause last week they wouldn’t let our ball in the game. Their ball was done so poorly that it was nearly impossible to kick off deep ... It was hard and not worked in well at all ... Let Tom (McMahon, Colts special teams coordinator) know he can call me at any time.”
“Coach Brown’s text did not mention the Patriots and did not complain about anything the Patriots did,” Harbaugh said. “The Colts never responded to Randy’s text, and he had no further communications with the Colts on this matter.”
Previous reports have indicated that the Ravens and Colts have led the charge to suspend Tom Brady, although both team owners, Steve Bisciotti and Jim Irsay, have denied that they put any pressure on Roger Goodell to take action against the Patriots.
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