Bill Belichick was defending everything he has ever accomplished
Forget deflated footballs and physics for a minute.
Bill Belichick's media conference Saturday afternoon was about defending everything he has ever accomplished.
How else can you explain the most guarded coach in the NFL — one who goes to the greatest of lengths to minimize distractions — passionately and publicly detailing a study the New England Patriots took time away from Super Bowl preparation to conduct, at a time a league investigation is ongoing?
Belichick pointed out he's not a scientist but did something he didn't two days earlier: tried to present a plausible explanation for how the Patriots' game balls lost pressure during the first half of last weekend's AFC championship win over the Indianapolis Colts.
On Saturday, Belichick entertained questions about the 2007 Spygate videotaping scandal, too. He was adamant the Patriots are "on the side of caution" about any potential rules violations.
"I'm embarrassed to talk about the amount of time I've put into this compared to the other important challenge in front of us," Belichick said.
Love him or loathe him, Belichick is an extraordinarily smart man. He knows some will always view his first three titles as tainted, even if, as Belichick said, plenty of other teams were videotaping signals that 80,000 people in the stadium could see, too.
The Patriots leave Monday for Arizona and Super Bowl XLIX against the Seattle Seahawks — a game set up as the best (and perhaps last) chance for Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady to silence skeptics of a modern-day dynasty that's gone a decade since its last title.
Instead, both have spent the bye week under heavy scrutiny over an issue to which most NFL observers probably had never given a thought until the allegation surfaced Sunday night.
If the Patriots beat the Seahawks, Deflategate will discredit this title in the minds of the same skeptics, no matter what the NFL investigation finds. All Belichick can try to do is win, and you can be damn sure that's his sole focus from here.
Offering an explanation, any explanation, for what happened to those footballs was his best option for minimizing a distraction that is inevitable as players face the media crush next week. They'll still hear the questions. Now they can defer to his answers.
For Belichick, this game was going to mean everything regardless. Now somehow it means even more.
Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero.
PHOTOS: Best of the AFC Championship Game.