You'll be waking up to some more news about DeflateGate and it's probably still nothing. ESPN's Outside the Lines reports that, "a locker-room attendant for the New England Patriots tried to introduce an unapproved special teams football into last month's AFC Championship Game."
The report states that a Patriots locker room attendant tried to give an alternate referee an unapproved kicking football (K Ball) in the first half. The traditional K Ball is delivered to and held by the referees until game time, unlike the offensive footballs that quarterbacks get to break in before approval.
The report says that they don't know at what point the attendant tried to "introduce" the unapproved football in the first half. The Patriots took the only field goal with 9 seconds left in the half. They had one punt the whole first half, which was fumbled by the Colts and recovered by New England.
There are eight kicking balls used every game, and they aren't designated by team. There is no declaration of intent by the Patriots in the report. There's also no indication that anything was wrong with the football, beyond the fact that it wasn't approved.
This is a non-information leak to the highest degree. Much like the bathroom break, this could be an entire projection because come on, there has to be a smoking gun, right? It could very well just be a case of a ref asking for a kicking football and some guy on the sideline handing him the nearest kicking football. When there's only eight footballs and they're all signed by the head official, it makes no sense to try and introduce another football. What was the reasoning and circumstance for giving the official the football? No one knows.
By using terms and actions that depict nefarious acts ("tried to introduce", "tried to give"), ESPN is continuing to push the narrative that the Patriots are guilty, without proof. The league continues to leak incomplete information to the media in order to portray New England in a certain light- and with Bill Belichick not scheduled to speak at the combine, let's be serious, this is probably a well-timed attempt to have another impromptu science lesson.
Time and time again during this ordeal, bad information has spilled out, only to be refuted shortly after. There are zero indications that this report should be held with any more weight than the others that have been so readily discarded.
We'll report more when available. For now, it seems like a whole lot more of nothing.