Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski mock Indianapolis Colts for DeflateGate complaints

BOSTON -- Do you remember DeflateGate? You must remember DeflateGate. I sure remember DeflateGate.

It was so stupid.

Some have permanently blacked it out of their memories, but the entire world lost its collective mind for about two years over a topic they had never once cared about before and have not cared about since. This "controversy" about PSI levels in footballs led national news broadcasts, it made its way deep into the United States court system, and it inspired some people who take themselves seriously as sports analysts to say things like "Tom Brady is only good because of his low PSI footballs." Brady went on to win four Super Bowls, five conference championships and a league MVP after the hubbub started, from ages 37-43, while setting records for every meaningful passing stat that's kept by the NFL.

It was a lot. And two guys who were in the thick of it -- Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski -- reminisced a bit about those days on Edelman's podcast, "Games With Names." The duo chose to discuss the regular-season meeting between the Patriots and Colts in Indianapolis, which came to be known as The Jonas Gray Game. It was also the night that Gronkowski famously threw Sergio Brown out of the club.

The Patriots won that game, 42-20, and Gronkowski believes the events of that night laid the groundwork for the Colts to make deflated ball accusations a couple of months later in the playoffs.

"This game, I swear, led to the DeflateGate. They needed to find some B.S. answer of why they kept losing to us every single year, year in and year out," Gronkowsi said. "And they weren't just losing to us. We were absolutely pounding that ass every single time we played them."

Edelman informed Gronkowski that the timeline aligned for this theory to be true.

"That was so stupid, bro. I'm telling you, they just came up with that because we were whooping 'em so bad every game," Gronkowski said.

Edelman made a mocking voice, saying, "Hey guys, this ball's a little flat."

"Are you kidding me?" Gronkowski said after doing his own mocking voice. "We ran the ball for 300 yards."

"DeflateGate," as it came to be known, really kicked off after D'Qwell Jackson intercepted one of Tom Brady's passes in the first half of the AFC Championship Game. The Colts -- who had been given a hot tip by the Ravens, who had lost to the Patriots the week before in a game where head coach John Harbaugh couldn't keep up with Bill Belichick -- claimed that football felt underinflated, leading to a poorly executed testing of footballs at hafltime and even a threat from NFL executive Mike Kensil. From there, the story blew up, thanks in large part to some inaccurate reporting and then an NFL-funded "investigation."

Man, it was a lot. 

And it all stemmed -- according to Gronkowski, at least -- from the hurt feelings left over from The Jonas Gray Game.