A little more than a year ago, the most tiresome scandal in recent professional sports history came to its official end: Deflategate, the final fallout of which being the forfeiture of a New England Patriots fourth-round draft pick in 2017. Before last year's draft, of course, the story of the slightly but scientifically explainable underinflated footballs was covered ad nauseam by networks all over the country.
One of the major players when it came to the media's coverage of Deflategate was Sports Illustrated after it echoed a report by ESPN that the air pressure levels inside the Patriots' footballs on the day of the 2014 AFC Championship Game were significantly below the guidelines allowed by the NFL.