Jonathan Kraft Denies Apologizing to Chris Mortensen over Deflategate Report

The role of ESPN's Chris Mortensen in the New England Patriots' Deflategate controversy is once again at the fore after Mortensen told an Arizona radio station the Kraft family called him to personally apologize for the criticism he has since received. Patriots team president Jonathan Kraft has since refuted that claim.

During an interview on Arizona Sports' Doug & Wolf Show, Mortensen told the hosts that Robert and Jonathan Kraft reached out to express regret with the aftermath of the whole affair.

However, the younger Kraft was a guest on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston and contradicted that story. He spoke to Marc Bertrand and Chris Gasper of Patriots Preview and said he doesn't blame Mortensen or any other NFL reporter who might have built their story on incorrect information provided by league sources.

"Still, it hasn't been corrected publicly. I think when the Wells report came out, some of those details were made public," Kraft then added. "We've still never gotten an explanation from the league why the erroneous reports weren't corrected. And I think the sources for the misinformation are the only ones who should be apologizing to the reporters. We haven't, and we really have no need to."

Mortensen initially drew the ire of Patriots fans throughout the Northeast following his January report that all but one of the 12 game balls used by the eventual Super Bowl champions had been underinflated by two pounds per square inch apiece.

In May, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio provided facts to the contrary, countering that only one ball registered under two PSI, per the measurements from game officials Clete Blakeman and Dyrol Prioleau.

In an interview earlier this month, Mortensen was a guest on The Dan Le Batard Show (via Kevin Duffy of MassLive.com) to explain his side. He said he should've done a "better job vetting" the story but denied the NFL intentionally leaked false information to him in order to smear the Patriots.

On Thursday night, Florio again took Mortensen to task, providing a point-by-point breakdown of potential issues in Mortensen's reporting and subsequent defense of said reporting. His biggest sticking points include the implication of the Patriots' role in the underinflation of the footballs and Mortensen's minimizing his initial story about the 11 balls being underinflated.

While you can't directly lay the blame at Mortensen's door, you could argue his reporting—combined with that from many of his colleagues—in part fed the reaction which led to the punishments meted out to the Patriots and Tom Brady by the NFL.