Releasing National Football League’s special investigator Ted Wells’ 243-page report about the New England Patriots deflating footballs for 37-year-old quarterback Tom Brady in the Jan. 18 AFC Championship game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft dismissed the findings. Kraft rejected any allegations Jan. 27 of breaking NFL rules by deflating footballs, attributing pressure differences to the cold weather, something he heard from scientists and engineers. Patriots’ coach Bil Belichick also denied knowing anything about Brady’s deflated footballs, suggesting pressure changes in game balls were related to rubbing balls before they were put into play. With 11 out the 12 Patriots’ game balls under the league minimum of 12.5 psi, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell asked Ted Wells to conduct and independent investigation.
NFL’s long-awaited report confirmed the shenanigans presenting a series of text messages between Patriots’ employees Jim McNally and equipment assistant Jim Jastremski, essentially detailing the calculated and deliberate attempt to deflate game-balls at the request of quarterback Tom Brady. Wells report concluded that “it is more probable than not” that a locker room attendant and equipment assistant “participated in a deliberate effort to release air from the Patriots’ game-balls,” fingering Patriots’ employees in breaking NFL rules about proper ball inflation. Denied by Brady and Belichick at press event in the strongest possible way Jan 22, Wells findings raise serious doubts about Brady and Belichick’s truthfulness when the faced they media shortly after scandal broke Jan. 18. Brady and Belichick’s forceful denials raised more doubts about a possible cover-up.
Whether or not the deflated footballs gave Brady a competitive advantage in the AFC Championship game or any other game is anyone’s guess. Wells’ report points to subterfuge and NFL rules violations, whether or not it helped the Patriots win games. “I didn’t alter the ball in any way. I have no knowledge of wrong doing,” Brady said at a Jan. 22 press conference with Belichick. Brady’s comment that he didn’t personally alter the ball doesn’t rule out that he asked his equipment assistant to perform the dirty deed. McNally in text messaged referred to himself as the “deflator,” warning that “they didn’t go to ESPN yet . . .” “Based on the evidence, its also is our view that its is more probable than no that Tom Brady . . . was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities. . . involving the release of air from Patriots’ game balls,” wrote Wells, refuting Brady and Belichick’s Jan. 22 denials.
Wells’ report finds a string of text messages linking deflated game-balls with Patriots’ employees McNally and Jastremski, frustrated by the pressure involved in deflating Brady’s game-balls, including supplying Jastremski with a needle to perform the deflations. To repay the favor, McNally and Jastremski were rewarded with Brady’s signed game-balls, holding considerable resale value in the sports memorabilia market. Despite the Wells Report commanding impeccable credibility, Patriots owner Kraft continued to insist on his discredited theory that game-day weather accounted for difference in game-ball inflation pressure. No one knows whether or not the deflated game-balls helped Brady with the AFC Championship. Wells’ report finds that Brady and Belichick’s Jan. 22 denials raise questions about the truthfulness of Patriots’ personnel in following NFL rules.
Belichick and Kraft went to great pains to explain away how 11 of 12 AFC Championship game-balls were below the NFL limit of 12.5 psi. Talking about various scientific explanations can’t explain the text message exchange between McNally and Jastemski, speaking disparagingly about Brady’s demands to deflate game-balls. “I didn’t alter the ball in any way. I have no knowledge of wrongdoing,” Brady told the media Jan. 22 at a press conference with Belichick. Kraft’s recent remarks continue to deny Wells’ report is astonishing. “To say we are disappointed in its findings, which do not include any incontrovertible or hard evidence or deliberate deflation of footballs at the AFC Championship Game, would be a gross understatement,” said Kraft, refusing to accept Wells’ thorough investigation. If incriminating text messages aren’t hard evidence, than what is?
Wells’ Report suggests that the front office, including Belichick, Kraft and equipment manager Dave Schoefeld, didn’t have prior knowledge of the DeflateGate scandal. Wells is very careful to say he couldn’t develop enough evidence to implicate the three but common sense tells you that someone who micromanages a team like Belichick wouldn’t have been informed of everything going on. What makes Belichick and Kraft look guilty is their carefully constructed, forceful denials of any wrongdoing. Had Belichick and Kraft simply said they had no knowledge of deflating game-balls but would wait and see what the NFL turned up, it would have helped their credibility. Carrying on about “scientific” reports of how balls could lose air in 50-degree weather sounded like malarkey Kraft’s “disappointment” relates the big fat black eye given to Brady and the New England Patriots.
