The New England Patriots will see a familiar face on Sunday's AFC Championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs. The game's referee will be Clete Blakeman.
He was an official for the Patriots' 2014 AFC title game, later to be known as the "DeflateGate" game and Blakeman was one of the men responsible for measuring the air pressure of footballs used by both the Patriots and Indianapolis Colts in that game. As Boston fans will never forget, there has been plenty of stories about the testing procedure of the footballs and the physics experts who say it was fraught with major issues.
The Patriots had to forfeit multiple draft picks, were fined $1 million and Tom Brady was suspensed for four games by the NFL.
But that's not all. Blakeman is also known by Patriots fans as the man who decided to pick up a flag on the last play of the game, and disallowing New England a chance to win the game from the 1-yard line.
All-time, Blakeman has been an official for eight Patriots games since 2010 and New England is 3-5 in those games. That .375 winning percentage is compared to the Patriots winning percentage of .795 (124-32) in all other games during that span.
And on top of all that, it's suppose to be blistering cold in Kansas City on Sunday – which means the air pressure of footballs may become a factor.