Miss Georgia Wins Miss America Pageant After Answering a Deflategate Question

Miss Georgia Betty Cantrell won the 2016 Miss America pageant / Photo provided

Some hard-hitting questions were asked of the top seven finalists in the 2016 Miss America pageant, broadcast live from Atlantic City on Sunday night.

Celebrity judges inquired about various issues, with the first four addressing women on the $10 bill (it should be Ellen DeGeneres, thinks Miss Colorado), gun control (Miss South Carolina proposes education as the solution), Planned Parenthood funding (Miss Tennessee supports it), and Donald Trump’s lead in the Republican race (the party should be “terrified,” according to Miss Alabama).

It was then that guest judge Brett Eldredge brought out the really controversial stuff—Deflategate.

“Did Tom Brady cheat?” he asked.

Betty Cantrell, representing Georgia, asked him to repeat the question. He did.

“Did he cheat? That’s a really good question. I’m not sure,” said Cantrell. “I think I’d have to be there to see the ball and feel it and make sure it was deflated or not deflated.”

Let’s say this hypothetical inspection yielded questionable results.

“Then yes, I think he cheated,” she continued. “If there was any question to be had, I think that he definitely cheated and that he should’ve been suspended for that. That’s not fair.”

Two more contestants went on to answer questions about Kentucky clerk Kim Davis and the Black Lives Matter movement, but it was Miss Georgia—who had demonstrated top-notch deductive reasoning during the Q&A segment, which counts for 20 percent of the final score—that was crowned Miss America in the end.

No word yet on how guest judge and self-proclaimed “huge Pats fan” Kevin O’Leary or rival pageant Miss USA owner and Brady pal Donald Trump feel about this.

Watch the entire Q&A segment below.