# Deflategate

> A football-pressure dispute led to a four-game Brady ban, parodies and Free Brady shirts.

- Owner: null
- Kind: Moment
- Sector: Sports
- Seed date: 2015-01-19
- Peak proxy date: 2015-01-22
- Date basis: Proxy date; not a directly measured attention peak.
- Spread Score: 48 (Notable), v1.2
- Mechanics: Controversy, Platform jump, Press loop, Identity badge, Fandom mobilisation

## Summary

Kravitz’s report moved from Twitter into news, Facebook video and parody. The Wells Report led to a Brady suspension and Patriots penalties. Fans bought Free Brady shirts while court appeals and a courtroom-sketch meme kept the dispute in circulation.

## Timeline

- 2015-01-19 — Bob Kravitz (@bkravitz) (X) — Kravitz tweeted at 12:55 a.m. Eastern that the NFL was investigating possible football deflation.
- 2015-01-19 — NBC Sports / ProFootballTalk (Press) — ProFootballTalk relayed Kravitz’s report and raised the possibility of lost draft picks.
- 2015-01-20 — Chris Mortensen / ESPN (Press) — Mortensen reported eleven balls were underinflated by two pounds, a claim the later Wells data did not support.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/deflategate

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Deflategate.” Case HIS-01415. Spread Score v1.2: 48/100. Updated 2026-10-23. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01415