Ted Wells took 3 1/2 months to issue his verdict on the New England Patriots.
Don Shula needed less than two minutes.
The Patriots used underinflated footballs in the AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts in January.
Appearing at a news conference to kick off the Dolphins’ 50th-season celebration Saturday, Shula took an immediate detour in his opening remarks.
“Always done with a lot of class and a lot of dignity, a lot of doing it the right way,” Shula said of his method of operation. “We didn’t deflate any balls.”
Perhaps inspired by the spunk emanating from rookiecamp, linebacker Chris McCain followed with a blockbuster tweet hours later:
“Pretty sure the deflatriots thought about deflating the footballs after that week one @$$ whooping,” McCain wrote, referring to Miami’s 33-20 victory over New England. “Super Bowl should be stripped.”
Shula, a former Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year and a longtime member of the NFL’s Competition Committee, didn’t go that far. But asked after the news conference about Deflategate’s impact on the integrity of the league, Shula did elaborate a bit on his comments.
“We always tried to live by the rules and set an example for those that are looking for an example,” Shula said. “And that’s what I take more pride in than anything else in the years that I’ve been associated with the Dolphins.”
Shula, who coached Miami from 1970-1995 and won two Super Bowls, always had a special spot in his heart for the Patriots — and it’s not a good spot — since the infamous Snowplow Game. That’s when a prisoner out on work-release plowed the way for a New England field goal in a 3-0 Patriots win in snowy Foxborough, Mass. Although the game was in 1982, Shula refuses to utter the name of then-Patriots coach Ron Meyer.
Shula also has referred to current Patriots coach Bill Belichick as “Beli-cheat.” And that was before Deflategate, which resulted in Wells implicating Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who could face a suspension. Following the news conference, Shula found it inconceivable such a stunt could occur.
“I coached for 33 years and I never once in that 33-year period ever even talked or heard anyone talk about the air in a football,” Shula said. “So I’m not going to start talking about the air in a football.”
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