Former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski still hasn’t forgiven the Indianapolis Colts for the media circus surrounding Deflategate.
The whole controversy came during the 2014 AFC Championship Game, when Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson handed an intercepted pass from Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to the Colts’ equipment manager to keep as a souvenir.
NFL officials were then notified by the team of an issue with the inflation level of the football. Even though Jackson claimed he never noticed the difference, the entire ordeal created a circus that was much to do about nothing.
The referees didn’t even log the pressure of the footballs during the game. There was never any proof of wrongdoing, and still, the league made the decision to suspend Brady for four games, fine the Patriots’ organization $1 million and force the team to forfeit two draft selections.
“I absolutely hate the Colts bro,” said Gronkowski, when appearing on Julian Edelman’s “Games With Names” podcast. “They needed to find some B.S. answer of why they kept losing to us every single year. And they weren’t just losing to us. We were absolutely pounding that ass. I don’t like them. You can’t be any bigger of a loser pulling that off, you know? ‘Oh guys, we lost by 50.’ Are you kidding me? We ran the ball for 300 yards.”
The colts had no answer for the Pats. pic.twitter.com/yaBHSgeI0i
— Games With Names (@gameswithnames) December 12, 2023
Gronkowski does have a point about the Patriots typically owning the Colts. They went on to win that AFC Championship Game 45-7. There’s clearly no love lost between the two teams nearly a decade later.
