The New England Patriots have come under scrutiny from all angles once it was discovered they played with slightly deflated footballs in their AFC Championship Game victory over the Indianapolis Colts, the latest coming from Ravens defensive end Chris Canty. He believes this incident is simply the latest in a pattern of rule-breaking from their rival.
"The Patriots are habitual line-steppers," Canty told NBCSN's ProFootballTalk. "If the allegations are true, then you are talking about attacking the integrity of our game and I have an issue with that. What I'm going to say about the deflating of the balls, to me there is no difference than performance-enhancing drugs. You are cheating at that point. You are getting a competitive advantage outside of the rulebook and there has to be some sort of consequences for that."
Patriots coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady denied having anything to do with changes in the game footballs, which were reportedly far below league inflation standards, in separate press conferences.
"To me, the integrity of the game is the most important thing," Canty said. "You want to be successful as a player, but you want to think that you are doing things that are within the rules and that you are out there competing, and it's not, whether it is performance-enhancing drugs or deflated footballs that is out there aiding in your performance."
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