The NFL is investigating whether the New England Patriots deflated footballs that were used in their AFC championship game victory over the Indianapolis Colts. We are looking into it, league spokesman Brian McCarthy wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Monday. We do not have anything further to add at this point. The inquiry was first reported by the website for WTHR-TV in Indiana, citing an unnamed source. The Patriots have come under scrutiny with regards to NFL rules in the past, most infamously when they were punished for videotaping sideline signals used by the New York Jets during a 2007 game. Coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000, and the team was docked $250,000 and stripped of its 2008 first-round draft pick. According to the NFL rule book, home teams are responsible for furnishing playable balls at all time. Each team brings 12 primary balls, while home teams are required to also bring 12 backup balls. Once the referee makes sure the footballs are properly inflated, theyre delivered to ball attendants provided by the home team. The leagues game operations manual notes: If any individual alters the footballs, or if a non-approved ball is used in the game, the person responsible and, if appropriate, the head coach or other club personnel will be subject to discipline, including but not limited to, a fine of $25,000. Deflating a football could change the way it would be gripped by a player or the way it travels through the air. The Patriots beat the Colts 45-7 to reach the Super Bowl. New England will play the defending champion Seattle Seahawks for the NFL title at Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 1. In Sunday nights lopsided AFC finale, quarterback Tom Brady threw for three touchdowns and running back LeGarrette Blount gained 148 yards while scoring three touchdowns to send New England to its sixth Super Bowl in the past 14 years. Colts quarterback Andrew Luck had his worst game as a pro, completing only 12 of 33 passes for 126 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. On his regular weekly morning-after-game appearance Monday on WEEI radio, Brady said he wasnt aware of the report about the leagues investigation into whether footballs were properly inflated against Indianapolis. I think Ive heard it all at this point, Brady said with a laugh. Thats the last of my worries, he said. I dont even respond to stuff like this. ___ AP Sports Writer Howard Ulman in Boston contributed to this report. ___ Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich ___ AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/AP_NFL Domantas Sabonis Jersey . He, the 25-year-old Toronto backup net-minder and Manitoba native, would be making just his fourth start in the past 16 games against the Jets the following evening. 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Leaf Jersey .com) - The disappointing Ottawa Senators hope to record consecutive wins for the first time since early November, as they visit the Boston Bruins on Friday for the opener of a home-and-home series.SAKHIR, Bahrain -- Mercedes further demonstrated its early-season dominance by outpacing its rivals in Fridays practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix, indicating the team is well poised for a third straight win to start 2014. Lewis Hamilton followed up his victory last week in Malaysia by having the fastest time in both sessions, the second of which was held under lights for the first time at the Bahrain International Circuit, which has switched to being a night race. Hamiltons time of 1 minute, 34.690 seconds was one third of a second faster than teammate and championship leader Nico Rosberg, and more than a second faster than third-place Fernando Alonso of Ferrari. "The car feels better than when we were testing here -- balance-wise, it was extremely good," Hamilton said. "There are still some tweaks we need to make it feel perfect, but Im feeling good." Defending four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel was a distant seventh on the timesheets, behind his fourth-place Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo -- who carries a 10-grid-place penalty into Sundays race. The pair was split by Felipe Massa of Williams and McLarens Jenson Button. Vettel, who was a competitive third in Malaysia, was downbeat aboout Red Bulls prospects of hanging on to the Mercedes coattails on Sunday.dddddddddddd "They are very quick. It is not a surprise, they were very quick in the testing here. They have proved that again," Vettel said. "It will be a long way for us to catch up." Even more dispiriting for Mercedes rivals was that the dominance reflected by their lap times on lighter fuel and soft tires was even more pronounced when using higher fuel loads to practice for race conditions. Williams had a distinctly different approach to the days practice, doing relatively few laps to extend engine life, reckoning that it had all the data it needed about the Bahrain track after extensive preseason testing there. Toro Rosso rookie Daniil Kvyat was eighth fastest, ahead of McLarens Kevin Magnussen and Force Indias Sergio Perez. The night session, which began in falling desert temperatures at 6 p.m. local time -- the same as Sundays race -- saw many drivers struggling to get sufficient heat in the tires, misjudging braking distances and running off track. Max Chiltons Marussia went into a violent spin after a front brake failure, while Saubers Adrian Sutil and Caterhams Marcus Ericsson both had sudden power losses. 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