FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said Thursday he had no role in the team using deflated footballs during the AFC championship game Sunday.

“Monday morning was the first I heard of it,” Brady said at a press conference at Gillette Stadium. “I didn’t alter the ball in any way.”

Brady added that he was just as perplexed by others that the Patriots used deflated balls.

“Yeah I have questions too, but there’s nobody I know who can answer the questions I have,” he said. “It’s a very serious topic. Obviously, the integrity of the sport is very important. We want to be the ones to set the great examples.”

Earlier Thursday, Coach Bill Belichick said he also had no knowledge the Patriots played with deflated balls Sunday – and that he is cooperating fully with the NFL investigation.

“I came in Monday and was shocked to learn of the news reports about the footballs,” Belichick told reporters at a Gillette Stadium press conference. “I had no knowledge whatsoever about the situation until Monday morning.”

He said the team will take measures to make sure the footballs are properly inflated to account for any possible deflation during games.

The NFL is investigating the team after it was discovered that 11 of the 12 game balls used by the Patriots in Sunday’s 45-7 win over the Indianapolis Cots were under-inflated by 2psi. Balls need to be inflated to between 12.5 and 13.5 psi to be used in games.

Belichick said he and the team were co-operating fully and quickly with the NFL, but added that he couldn’t speak about the league’s investigation.

With an overflow media crowd facing him, Belichick opened the press conference with a statement that lasted a little over eight minutes.

He said he deliberately makes it difficult for his players in practice by altering the condition of the footballs.

“I’m sure that any current or past player of mine will tell you that the balls we practice with are as bad as they can be,” said Belichick. “Wet, sticky, cold, slippery. However bad we can make them, I make them. And any time that players complain about the quality of the footballs, I make them worse and that stops.

“So we never use the condition of the footballs as an excuse. We play with whatever, or kick with whatever, we have to use. And that’s the way it is.”

He said quarterbacks and kickers, such as Tom Brady and Stephen Gostkowski, often have different preferences for how the ball is conditioned, but that he doesn’t get involved.

“Tom’s personal preferences on his footballs are something that he can talk about in much better detail and information than I could possibly supply,” he said.

Brady is scheduled to speak to the media at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Belichick said he has looked back at the situation several times since it came to his attention.

“Based on what I knew Sunday night, thinking back on this as I’ve done several times, I can’t think of anything I would have done differently based on what I knew then and what I knew now,” he said.

When pressed after his statement ended, Belichick repeatedly said, “I don’t have an explanation” or “I’ve told you everything I know.”

For many of the Patriots players, who were returning to practice Thursday after two days off, the deflated ball controversy is a non-story.

“If it’s not helping us win, it doesn’t matter to us,” said safety Devin McCourty.

Running back LeGarrette Blount said the controversy hasn’t bothered him at all.

“I just know that we did whatever we had to do to win the game, run the ball, throw the ball,” he said. “I don’t think the ball pressure played a role in any of it.”

Blount also said the ball felt the same to him. “When I get the football, I just grab it and run,” he said.

Wide receiver Brandon LaFell was asked if he felt a difference in the balls in the second half, after the deflated ones were replaced.

“No, all game it was cold,” he said. “The ball was hard all game.”

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