New England Patriots Prepare To Face Seahawks In Arizona

The New England Patriots skipped town just in time to miss the snow, but the scandal that's dogged them since their win over Indianapolis has followed them to Arizona — where they're preparing for Super Bowl XLIX against the Seattle Seahawks.

With the big game fast approaching, and tongues continuing to wag, team owner Bob Kraft gave a defiant statement on "deflate gate."

"If the [NFL] 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, and in particular, Coach Belichick and Tom Brady for what they have had to endure this past week," Kraft said.

Doug Tribou, producer of NPR’s Only A Game. He tweets @DougTribou.