Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll may need a lifetime to sort out what happened to his team at the end of Super Bowl XLIX.
Here's what he had to say:
"No. No it didn't affect anything," Carroll said at a USC Hall of Fame induction ceremony over the weekend. "I think this was an opportunity for the league to step up and do the right thing. Nobody wants to play this game thinking that somebody has some kind of an advantage, players and fans alike, and so they did the right thing in following up on it, but you know, it was game time, it was ... it didn't have anything to do with that."
Of course, the investigation was already in full swing by the time Carroll and the Seahawks arrived in Arizona for Super Bowl week. There's no way the Patriots would have been brazen enough to try and doctor footballs with more eyes on them than ever.
However, it does add to an endless series of what-ifs Carroll may be enduring. What if Brady was suspended for the Super Bowl? What if the punishment included retroactive losses?
Poor Carroll already had enough on his plate, although it seems like he's ready to move on from talking about deflated footballs.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast welcomes Lindsay Rhodes to discuss the Patriots' response in the "Deflategate" saga and the latest names revealed on the "The Top 100 Players of 2015" countdown. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.
