ESPN’s Chris Mortensen deleted his tweet from Jan. 20. The tweet incorrectly stated that the “NFL has found that 11 of the Patriots footballs used in Sunday’s AFC title game were under-inflated by 2lbs each, per league source.”
On Monday, Mortensen had admitted his mistake on The Dan Le Batard Show, but said he had not made the correction on Twitter.
“I didn’t correct it on Twitter, and that was a mistake,” Mortensen said on Le Batard’s show. “I’m still trying to figure it (Twitter) out.”
On Tuesday, the tweet was gone.
Although some had questioned why Mortensen never deleted the tweet or sent out a correction, the report lived on for six month before coming back into focus last week. First, Robert Kraft called attention to the report when he addressed the media last Wednesday.
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On Friday, the Patriots released email correspondence with the NFL from February. The e-mails, sent from the team’s attorneys to the NFL’s attorneys, detail just how stubbornly the NFL refused to correct the false report from ESPN that 11 of the 12 footballs were 2 PSI under the legal limit.