Retiring Peter King: 'Heart Sinks' About Patriots' Deflategate

Coverage of the New England Patriots' "Deflategate" scandal is the one regret tenured sportswriter Peter King over an otherwise legendary sports journalism career.

Long live the King and his legacy ... with one exception by his own admission.

Longtime sports journalist Peter King announced his intentions to retire from full-time writing on Tuesday, ending a sterling career best known for his time with Sports Illustrated (1989-2018).

Reflecting on his career on CBS Sports Radio's "Maggie and Perloff," King offered but one regret, namely his coverage of the New England Patriots' "Deflategate" scandal that surfaced after the 2014-15 AFC Championship Game victory over Indianapolis.

When news of the phenomenon was first broken by ESPN, King reported that about a dozen of the footballs New England used were underinflated by two pounds. But the report filed by Manhattan attorney Ted Wells later determined there was only one that met that criteria, a mistake that haunts King to this day. 

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“When I think about it, my heart sinks,” King told hosts Maggie Gray and Andrew Perloff. “I confirmed the ESPN story about the deflated footballs after Deflategate first hit the scene. It turns out I was wrong."

In the aftermath, the Patriots franchise was fined $1 million and quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season.

“That brought me a lot of shame,” King said of his error. “It doesn’t matter who I talked to. It doesn’t matter who told me anything. It’s my rear end on the line when I say something, when I confirm a story, and I was wrong ... that is something that will haunt me ... It bothers me, literally bothers me to this day.”

Why Did Patriots' 'Deflategate' Arise During Washington Hearings?

All parties wound up recovering from the incident and then some: King originally tenured a letter of resignation that was rejected by SI, where he spent three more years before moving on to NBC Sports. Brady, on the other hand, returned from suspension to headline the fifth of six Super Bowl runs with the Patriots, one that ended with the biggest comeback in the game's history against the Atlanta Falcons.

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