The Replay: Deflategate, Colts, and Hoosiers

Every Friday, we post up The Replay: where hot shots and airballs collide. It’s your weekly roster of the most entertaining sports stories playing out in arenas local, statewide, and national.

» By the Balls: The Patriots proved they owned the Colts, destroying Indy on Sunday in the AFC Championship game, 45-7. But in the aftermath, some nifty reporting from WTHR’s Bob Kravitz got the balls rolling, giving the world #Deflategate and (the superior) #Ballghazi, and now even my mother knows the NFL procedure for pregame equipment prep.

Colts tight end Dwayne Allen tried putting things into perspective about Deflategate:

But by then, balls were in motion for a feeding frenzy. Even the NFL (or at least the person running its Instagram account) appeared to be trolling the Patriots.

Vice President Joe Biden announced to CBS News that he, too, liked “a softer ball”:

The New York Post dug deep and “revealed” Tom Brady’s supermodel wife Gisele to be at odds with the VP on the matter:

Predictably, NPR got all science-y, and Deadspin did the Deadspin thing before giving us “Tom Brady Talking About Balls: The Supercut.” Then, an Indy mom wrote an open letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that went viral. And, last, but not least, Sesame Street devoted an entire episode to the word “inflate.”

» Money Players: Forbes just released its list of NBA team valuations. The Pacers check in at No. 21, but the big news is that the franchise’s value ($830 million) increased 75 percent in a year.

» Do Your Happy Dance: In Big Ten action, No. 23 Indiana beat No. 13 Maryland at Assembly Hall. The 89-70 win gave the Hoosiers a share of the conference lead:

» Now Read This: Vice Sports brings us this juicy story about a sports startup that didn’t have a game plan and got sued by its former employees.

» And/Or This: An excellent piece from Charles P. Pierce over at Grantland on the “Foxborough Farce.”