Rachel Joyce and Sabrina Lepley – LRHS News

(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL) – On Jan. 18 the New England Patriots faced off the Indianapolis Colts for the American Football Conference championship. The Patriots ended up winning the game 45-7. But that isn’t the whole story.

During the second half of the game Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson intercepted the ball and handed it off to his teams equipment staff. It later came out that the ball was slightly deflated.

This incident has been the talk of the football world since, but many people are unsure whether this gave the Patriots an unfair advantage.

“It doesn’t matter because the patriots still would have creamed them,” stated LRHS senior Austin Wicks.

Junior Alexis Koppelmann, at a loss to explain the incident, said, “I don’t understand. It wasn’t logical for them to cheat because they won by such a large gap.”

Sophomore Thomas Scott expressed, “I think it’s not something to be concerned about. The inflation of the ball won’t take back a five touchdown loss for the Colts.”

Deflating a football could create some advantages. For instance, it makes the ball easier to grip which would be important in the slippery conditions of the game. There is no proof, however, that deflating a football is an advantage.

Freshman Nick Limoncelli took the Colts’ side.

“The patriots are accused of cheating because they did,” he said. “And they cheated because they’re cowards.”

Sports fans everywhere are making jokes at the beg fuss made over the whole ordeal.
Even some LRHS teachers took to cracking jokes.

“I went outside today and my basketball was deflated. I should call for a congressional hearing #inflatethis.” said World History teacher Mathias Emmerton via Twitter.