National Football League

Aaron Hernandez lawyer makes Deflategate joke during murder trial

Published Feb. 5, 2015 3:54 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

FALL RIVER, Mass. — If the world needed one last "Deflategate" reference to officially make it overused, we got it — at the Aaron Hernandez murder trial, of all places.

Defense attorney James Sultan was winding up his cross-examination of a police investigator who specializes in car crash reconstruction. Sgt. Timothy Dowd of the Massachusetts State Police had gone to the murder scene to take GPS readings of several pieces of potential evidence.

“Now you’ve been doing this for quite a while, is that fair to say?” Sultan asked.

“Yes,” Dowd answered.

“And you’ve received a lot of specialized training?” Sultan asked.

“Yes,” Dowd answered.

“OK,” Sultan went on, “and one of the things you received specialized training in is tire deflation ... tire deflation devices. Right?”

“Ascertain kind of tire deflation device, yes,” Dowd answered.

“OK,” Sultan said, “did you ever receive training in football deflation devices?”

“No,” a seemingly befuddled Dowd answered.

People in the courtroom looked at each other quizzically after the exchange.

As inappropriate jokes go, it had nothing on this line in a Seattle Seahawks fan's obituary this week.

FOX Sports' Kevin Vaughan contributed to this report.

share

Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Football League