As one chapter of Deflategate comes to a close and another chapter opens thanks to a bombshell ESPN report, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots seem to be making a concerted effort to blame one organization for all of the troubles: ESPN itself.

The Patriots responded to the ESPN report that alleged that Bill Belichick was a masterful serial cheater (or at least loophole finder) and the seemingly oversized response from the NFL in Deflategate originated with Spygate, with a statement calling into question the report itself and ESPN’s credibility on the issue.

In the statement, the Patriots called the report unsubstantiated and mourned the alleged damage to the team’s reputation that the reporting on Spygate had done over the years. “As recently as last month, over seven years after the reaction and apology was issued, ESPN issued the following apology to the Patriots for continuing to perpetuate the myth: ‘On two occasions in recent weeks SportsCenter incorrectly cited a 2002 report regarding the New England Patriots and Super Bowl XXXVI,” the Patriots’ statement read. “The story was found to be false, and should not have been part of our reporting.'”

ESPN is an easy target for the Patriots and Brady to blame as the rubble that the Deflategate scandal created continues to smolder. It’s better for the league, and by de facto its team owner and star player, for there to be a public truce between them. After all, they mutually profit off of each other’s success and can more easily be rallied to move onto football. ESPN — and the media — on the other hand, in this case, are easily moved to be the villain that wants to talk about distractions and not the beautiful game.

So at the end of a scandal when everyone lost but no one really was punished, it’s easiest to levy consequences on the people who reported on it in the first place.

Meanwhile, Brady, who somehow seemed to have come out of cheating allegations surrounding his team’s playoff run to a Super Bowl unscathed, emerged for a victorious media lap on Tuesday morning. One stop: Boston radio station WEEI, where he said among other important tidbits about his marriage and love for European soccer, that he will cut back on interview availability to ESPN (among other outlets) — a media network built in the Patriots’ backyard that is generally credited with playing a large role in at least the public part of the spectacle of Deflategate.

But what promising to cut back on interviews for ESPN and other media outlets or calling their stories unfounded tries to make fans ignore is why a federal judge overturned Brady’s suspension. It wasn’t because he found that he did or did not cheat. What he found was that the disciplinary system in the NFL made no sense — something we’ve all known for a long time. As for the latest bombshell, it’s easier to shout that ESPN is dredging up old stories that aren’t true than it is to read through the entire thing and accept that it is.

When asked about what seemed like a coordinated campaign against them coming out of New England, ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said that ESPN serves “fans by covering all on-the-field and off-the-field aspects of the league aggressively on a daily basis. The league and its teams recognize we are a news organization and expect fair coverage.”