Locker room attendant may be NFL's focus in Patriots "deflate-gate" scandal
Patriots owner Bob Kraft is lashing out over leaks in the investigation as the NFL tries to get "deflate-gate" behind it, so people will start focusing on one of the biggest sporting events in the world.
A locker room attendant may be the focus for the NFL in the deflated footballs investigation, reports CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford.
"I am disappointed in the way this entire matter has been handled and reported upon," Kraft said.
Kraft said the Patriots did nothing wrong -- and that Ted Wells, the lawyer hired by the NFL to investigate, eventually will reach the same conclusion.
"If the Wells investigation is not able to definitively determine that our organization tampered with the air pressure in the footballs, I would expect and hope that the league would apologize to our entire team," Kraft said.
The latest reports raise even more questions. One leak says surveillance video shows a Patriots locker room attendant taking the footballs to another room before bringing them out on the field. But another report indicates the attendant was in that room -- a bathroom -- only about 90 seconds, raising questions about whether he could have deflated the footballs in such a short time.
Kevin Clark, the Wall Street Journal's NFL reporter, is skeptical that a low-level Patriots' employee was solely responsible.
"There is no way that's going to happen with Tom Brady, probably the best quarterback of his generation; Bill Belichick, the best coach," Clark said. "This idea that they wouldn't be ordering it, quote unquote, is crazy. The public wouldn't buy that."
Head coach Bill Belichick refused to address the latest report.
"My attention is totally turned now and focused on the Seattle Seahawks," he said.
Wells said in a statement it could be weeks before he's finished and that no conclusions should be drawn from the sequence of interviews. He added: "In the interim, it would be best if everyone involved or potentially involved in this matter avoids public comment."
While the NFL is reportedly looking at the conduct of the unnamed locker room attendant, Fox Sports also said at this point, investigators have not yet determined that individual is in fact responsible for any wrongdoing.