It happened in 2015. Specifically, the night of January 18, 2015.
If you were watching the AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, you probably remember the rain. It was a miserable, gray night in Foxborough. The Patriots were absolutely dismantling the Colts, eventually winning 45–7. But while the scoreboard was a blowout, the real story was happening in the equipment room and on the sidelines.
By the time the sun came up on January 19, the sports world had changed. We weren't talking about Tom Brady’s sixth Super Bowl appearance. We were talking about pounds per square inch. PSI. Physics. Ideal Gas Laws.
Honestly, it’s wild how one cold night in January 2015 turned into a multi-year legal drama that reached the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. You’d think we were debating international war crimes, not whether a football felt a little "squishy."
The Night Everything Deflated
The timeline of what year was Deflategate actually starts with a suspicious linebacker. D'Qwell Jackson of the Colts intercepted a pass from Brady in the second quarter. He thought the ball felt soft. He handed it to the equipment staff. Suddenly, the NFL was scrambling to measure air pressure at halftime.
Eleven of the twelve Patriots balls were found to be under the league-mandated limit of 12.5 to 13.5 PSI. Meanwhile, the Colts' balls were mostly fine. This wasn't just a 2015 problem; it became a "Patriots Dynasty" problem. Critics who already hated Bill Belichick after the 2007 Spygate scandal had all the ammunition they needed.
The media went into a feeding frenzy.
I remember the "Size Matters" headlines. The endless loops of Tom Brady at a podium saying he "didn't have any inkling" of ball tampering. It felt surreal. Here was the greatest quarterback of all time talking about how he likes the "feel" of a football while the world accused him of being a serial cheater.
The Ted Wells Report and the "Probable" Truth
By May 2015, the NFL released the Wells Report. This was a 243-page monster of a document. Investigator Ted Wells concluded it was "more probable than not" that New England personnel—specifically locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski—deliberately released air from the balls.
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The report also famously stated that Brady was "at least generally aware" of the activities.
That phrase—"generally aware"—became a meme before we really used the word meme for everything. It was vague. It was frustrating. And for Patriots fans, it was a witch hunt. The NFL suspended Brady for four games, fined the team $1 million, and stripped them of two draft picks.
But it didn't end in 2015. Not even close.
Why the Scandal Lasted Until 2016
Most people get the dates confused because the punishment didn't actually happen in what year was Deflategate originally triggered.
Brady appealed. Of course he did. He hired Jeffrey Kessler, the high-powered lawyer who has spent decades fighting the NFL. In September 2015, Judge Richard Berman actually vacated the suspension. He basically told the NFL their process was "fundamentally unfair." Brady played the whole 2015 season. He was brilliant. People thought the scandal was dead.
Then the 2016 legal reversal happened.
The NFL appealed Berman’s decision to a higher court. In April 2016, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the suspension. They didn't really care if Brady deflated the balls or not. Their ruling was about the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). They decided that Commissioner Roger Goodell had the broad authority to punish players for "conduct detrimental to the league," even if the evidence was shaky.
Brady finally gave up the ghost in July 2016. He served his four-game suspension at the start of the 2016 season.
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The Science That Everyone Ignored
Let’s talk about the Ideal Gas Law. $PV = nRT$.
Scientists from MIT, Berkeley, and even the University of Chicago weighed in on this. When you take a ball from a warm locker room (70°F) and bring it out into a cold, rainy New England night (around 50°F), the pressure drops naturally. It’s basic physics.
The NFL’s "Exponent" firm handled the data, but many independent physicists claimed the league didn't account for the gauges used. There were two different gauges (the "Logo" gauge and the "Non-Logo" gauge), and they gave different readings. Depending on which gauge the officials used before the game, the "deflation" might have just been... the weather.
It’s kinda funny, actually. The NFL spent millions of dollars to fight the laws of thermodynamics.
The Aftermath: Did It Even Matter?
If the goal was to stop the Patriots, it failed miserably.
- 2014 Season (The Deflategate Game): Patriots win the Super Bowl against the Seahawks (The Malcolm Butler interception).
- 2015 Season: Brady plays while the case is in court; they lose the AFC Championship to Denver.
- 2016 Season: Brady sits for four games, Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett start. Brady returns with a vengeance.
- The Super Bowl LI Miracle: The Patriots come back from 28–3 to beat the Falcons.
The image of Roger Goodell handing the Lombardi Trophy to Robert Kraft and Tom Brady after the 2016 season is peak sports drama. It was the ultimate "I told you so."
Why We Still Talk About 2015
Deflategate wasn't really about air pressure. It was about power. It was about the NFL wanting to show the Players Association who was boss. It was about the rest of the league being tired of New England’s dominance.
If this had happened to the Jacksonville Jaguars or the Tennessee Titans, it would have been a $25,000 fine and a one-day story. But because it was the "Golden Boy" and the "Evil Empire," it became a saga.
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We also learned that Tom Brady destroys his cell phones. That was a weird detail, right? The Wells Report made a huge deal about Brady replacing his phone right before he was supposed to meet with investigators. He claimed he always does that. The NFL claimed he was hiding texts with "The Deflator."
Wait, "The Deflator"?
Yeah, that was Jim McNally’s nickname for himself in texts. The Patriots claimed he used it because he wanted to lose weight. Honestly? Nobody believed that. It was a terrible excuse. But it added to the comedy of the whole situation.
Assessing the Damage
The legacy of 2015 is a cynical one. It proved that the NFL's disciplinary process was more about PR than facts. It also solidified the "Us Against the World" mentality in Boston that fueled another three years of championship runs.
If you are looking for the "TL;DR" on the timing:
The balls were measured in January 2015.
The report came out in May 2015.
The court battles raged through late 2015 and early 2016.
The suspension was served in September 2016.
Actionable Takeaways for Sports History Buffs
If you’re debating this at a bar or just trying to win a trivia night, keep these specific facts in your back pocket to look like the expert:
- Reference the Gauges: Mention that the "intercepted" ball was measured by three different officials and the readings didn't match. This points to the unreliability of the NFL’s equipment.
- The "Other" Balls: Note that the Colts' balls were also lower than the starting measurement when checked at halftime, but because they were checked later, they had more time to warm up in the room. This is the "Ideal Gas Law" defense.
- The Court Ruling: Clarify that Brady didn't lose in court because he was "guilty" of deflating balls. He lost because the court ruled that the Commissioner has the right to be a "harsh" or even "unfair" arbitrator under the CBA.
- Check the PSI: Next time you’re at a sporting goods store, pick up a football. The standard is 12.5 to 13.5 PSI. It’s actually harder than you think. A ball at 10.5 PSI (where some of the Pats' balls were) is noticeably softer, but not "flat" by any stretch of the imagination.
The Deflategate era taught us that in the NFL, the truth often matters less than the optics. It was a wild ride that started in the 2014-2015 playoffs and didn't truly settle until Brady held another trophy over his head.
Next Steps for Deep Diving:
To truly understand the technical side of this, look up the American Physical Society’s analysis of the pressure drops. They provide a much more objective view of the thermodynamics than the Wells Report ever did. Additionally, reviewing the Second Circuit Court of Appeals transcript from 2016 offers a fascinating look at how labor law governs professional sports, which is often more about contracts than the actual game played on the field.