Patriots’ Deflategate Ball Sells Big At Auction

In what many hope will prove the end of the “Deflategate” saga, it has been reported that the most famous football in NFL lore has sold for $43 740 at auction.

Several months after the riotous incident, details are still scarce on how far the New England Patriots did go to bend the rules in their AFC Championship blowout victory against the Indianapolis Colts. So it only seems fair that the sale of the ball be shrouded in mystery too.

As far as anyone knows, this lone football – sold by online auction house Lelands – is the only known ball in the public domain tied to the events of that game. Still, it is unclear whether the ball was physically used by the Pats that afternoon, or even whether it was reinflated to regulation size before being put to auction.

But who exactly forked out the cash for such a pricey artefact of NFL infamy? Was it a salty Colts fan keen to bury the injustices of the past? Perhaps a long-brooding division rival planning to use it for voodoo magic? Or maybe even a Patriots fan, planning to destroy the ball and the crimes associated with it, a la the Steve Bartman fiasco in Chicago of 2003?

It seems the most important questions will continue to go unanswered for some time.

Whatever the case, one thing is for sure: for better or worse, the ball remains a physical representation of New England’s underhandedness that will not soon be forgotten.