Harbaugh on Deflategate Debate: 'The Real Issue Here ... Is Deflated Footballs'

The Ravens are contesting allegations that they gave a heads up to the Colts about the Patriots’ use of deflated footballs before the AFC championship game.

The Baltimore Ravens issued several statements Wednesday to provide context for information that sparked headlines in the Indianapolis Star and The Baltimore Sun about the team having knowledge of allegations that the Patriots deflated game balls.

“It seems like somebody is trying to distract from the real issue here, which is deflated footballs...” Harbaugh said Wednesday at a press conference, according to ESPN. “Any conversation...with the Colts had nothing to do with deflated footballs.”

In what has been termed “Deflategate,” New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for four games and the Patriots were fined $1 million and the team lost two draft picks as the result of an NFL investigation that showed the Patriots deflated game balls below regulation specifications in the 2015 AFC championship game, according to Bleacher Report.

Brady is making a federal case against the NFL, and included in the hundreds of pages of testimony released this week was a text message between a Ravens affiliate and the Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano.

The Ravens released the information from the text message Wednesday, which Harbaugh pointed out mentioned neither the Patriots nor deflated balls.

Here is the message, sent by Ravens kicking consultant Randy Brown:

“Make sure the refs rotate the kicking balls cause last week they wouldn’t let our ball in the game. Their ball was done so poorly that it was nearly impossible to kick off deep…It was hard and not worked in well at all…Let Tom (McMahon, Colts special teams coordinator) know he can call me at any time.”

The Ravens played the Patriots Jan. 10 in the divisional round of the playoffs, before the Colts took on the Patriots Jan. 17.

“Prior to the AFC Championship game, no one from the Ravens talked to the Colts about deflated footballs,” the Ravens said in a statement Wednesday. “We knew nothing of deflated footballs. John Harbaugh has been consistent in his answers to reporters about this since he was first asked on NBC-TV at the Super Bowl.”