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Felger & Mazz: With Patriots On Verge Of Immortality, Why Is New England Still Talking About DeflateGate?

BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots have a chance to win their fifth Super Bowl in franchise history. Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have the opportunity to become the only head coach and quarterback to ever win five Super Bowls, cementing their places as perhaps the greatest in the history of the game.

There is certainly a lot of history at stake in Super Bowl LI. So with the Patriots on the verge of immortality, why is New England still bringing up DeflateGate?

That's what Felger & Massarotti wondered as they opened Monday's program from Radio Row in Houston to kick off Super Bowl week. To Michael Felger and Tony Massarotti, it seems that most national media and fans are ready to forget about the controversy that got Brady suspended for four games to start the 2016 season. But they can't believe that the team, the local media (excluding themselves), and the fans continue to hammer the DeflateGate and Roger Goodell storyline instead of talking about the team's chance at immortality.

Massarotti was particularly miffed at what he believes is Tom Brady Sr. acting as a mouthpiece for his son when he publicly rips NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

"Why is it that when Tom Brady needs a message out there, it has to come from his old man and not Tom Brady himself?" asked Massarotti. "I just kind of get irritated by the filter of it always coming through the old man, because I don't doubt that that's how Brady feels and that's how his father feels."

Felger is more irritated by the very idea that DeflateGate is still such a hot-button topic in New England when it's no longer such a huge controversy nationally - and it shouldn't be a bigger storyline than the chance to become the greatest of all time.

"You know when I hear [about DeflateGate]? I hear it when a local Boston person says, 'Did you hear what so-and-so said?'" said Felger. "The only time I hear when they say something is that someone in Boston is crying about it.

"It is so much more interesting and meaningful to be the greatest football team in the history of the sport. ... And they sit around here about what Goodell is going to do on the podium ... it's ridiculous."

Felger believes the Patriots themselves aren't innocent in the matter. He doesn't like that Robert Kraft continues to broach the topic in interviews and that Brady agrees to appear on an ESPN The Magazine cover reading "Brady's revenge."

"I really think most of the life gets breathed into [DeflateGate] by Mr. Brady or a local media guy going nuts about it, when they're really not hammering you with it nationally. They're really not," said Felger. "That's just sort of aggravating where I think it's such a side topic. ... I can't believe you're so fixated on that, when you're about to be the greatest team in the history of the freaking sport."

Listen to the full podcast below:

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