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The 7 deflategate questions that need to be answered

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Breaking down Patriots’ rebuttal of Wells Report


BEN VOLIN I ON FOOTBALL

Boston Globe

 

<snip>

 

1. Why did Patriots employee Jim McNally call himself the 'Deflator?’

 

This answer was dissected by pretty much everyone in the country on Thursday, so we won’t spend too much time with it.

 

“Mr. McNally is a big fellow and had the opposite goal: to lose weight. 'Deflate’ was a term they used to refer to losing weight.”

 

And the “going to ESPN” comment was about McNally getting memorabilia, not deflating footballs.

 

Yeah, OK. It’s hard to find a rational-thinking person in the country who buys this answer. It severely damages the credibility of the rest of the Patriots’ arguments. If this was the best the Patriots could come up with, perhaps they shouldn’t have released this report.

 

2. Why didn’t the Patriots make McNally available for a follow-up interview with Wells?

 

This, to me, is one of the most damning pieces of evidence against the Patriots. If McNally were innocent, they’d have no trouble making him available.

 

Instead, we see through a chain of e-mails how the Patriots’ attorneys gave Wells the run-around.

 

Before Wells began his investigation, the Patriots’ attorney e-mailed Wells, “The interviews will be arranged so that, barring unanticipated circumstances, there will not be future multiple interviews of the same person.” It is unclear if Wells accepted these terms.

 

So Wells and his team received all of McNally’s and fellow Patriots staffer John Jastremski’s text messages when the investigation began. They parsed through the communications made during the 2014 season, and had about a seven-hour sit-down interview with each person.

 

In the days or weeks after interviewing McNally, Wells discovered the “Deflator” text that also joked about “going to ESPN” from May 2014. Naturally, he wanted to ask McNally about those comments, and said he offered to drive to McNally’s home in New Hampshire for the follow-up. Here is where the Patriots “lawyered up” instead of giving the “full cooperation” they promised.

 

They contend that Wells discovering the text wasn’t an “unforeseen circumstance.” He had the texts in his possession, and sorry, he already had his crack at McNally.

 

“I have also pointed out to you that the 'new’ areas explored in the fourth Jastremski interview that you requested did not address issues that could not have been covered in an earlier interview,” the Patriots’ attorney wrote. “For all these reasons, I remain disinclined to ask him to return again.”

 

Regardless of when Wells found those texts, the Patriots should have made McNally available to answer for them, one way or another.

 

3. Why did Brady not hand over electronic correspondence?

 

The one argument for this that has some credence is that Brady did not want to set a bad precedent for the NFL Players Association by letting Wells see his cellphone. That’s an NFLPA mistake, not necessarily a Brady mistake (the NFLPA was not present at Brady’s meeting).

 

But the other argument — that Wells already had Jastremski’s texts, therefore there would be nothing new on Brady’s phone — doesn’t hold much water.

 

Maybe there was other correspondence that added more detail? Maybe he just wanted to confirm the correspondence? In a full investigation, you don’t take suspects at their word. Brady refusing to show any of his texts or e-mails smacks of someone with something to hide.

 

4. Why did McNally go into that bathroom and not the one in the officials’ locker room?

 

Apparently the bathrooms connected to the officials’ locker room were too crowded, so McNally had to leave the locker room (with the footballs) and go into the bathroom by the field, which he said he had done before. And while in the bathroom, the Patriots state that “the report does not address whether one minute and 40 is consistent with the time that it takes a gentleman to enter a bathroom, relieve himself, wash his hands, and leave.”

 

And apparently, “With the start of the game having been delayed, there was no reason for Mr. McNally to rush any efforts to deflate footballs in the bathroom if that was the task at hand.”

 

Except, you know, not to get caught.

 

5. Why did Brady say he didn’t know McNally?

 

Brady said he’d never heard of McNally, but in Wells’s report Jastremski said that Brady clearly does. The Patriots’ report said “not a single witness ever observed a substantive conversation between Mr. Brady and Mr. McNally.”

 

No one’s claiming the two were Sunday barbecue buddies. But McNally has been with the team for 32 years, and Brady for 15. McNally is on the sidelines and works closely with the equipment department (as we have found out). It stretches credibility to think Brady doesn’t at least know who McNally is.

 

6. Did the Patriots instruct Wells to approach with a 'fresh start?’

 

The Patriots complained last week that they didn’t make McNally available for a fifth interview because it was a tremendous strain on his time as it is. Then we find out Tuesday that Wells only got one crack at McNally, and he was told to approach the investigation with a “fresh start,” as if the three interviews between McNally and NFL Security never happened.

 

Did the Patriots promise a “fresh start?” They never address that in their report.

 

7. Why suspend Jastremski and McNally if they’re innocent?

 

The Patriots went to great lengths to try to prove that McNally and Jastremski did nothing wrong. So why did the team suspend them indefinitely? This also wasn’t addressed.

 

The Patriots made a lot of salient points in their report, no question about it. And while the team will likely have to take its punishments, Brady seems to have a decent case that his suspension was too harsh.

 

But there are still big, nagging questions.

 

Notice that the title is, “The Wells Report in Context.” The report pokes many holes into the NFL’s arguments and paints an interesting, if not entirely believable, picture of the league having it out for the Patriots.

 

But what doesn’t the report say?

 

“We didn’t do it.”

 

And while the Patriots continue to poke holes, a strong denial of the charges would help their case a lot more than a 19,682-word report.

I just wanta play everyday despite small nagging injuries --

and go home to a woman who appreciates how full of crap I truly am. ~ Crash Davis

 

Social Distancing since 1962

 

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This is what I think, there already rumors flying around Gillette that other teams were accusing the Patriots of deflating balls. The texts between McNally and Jastrmski or whatever his name is were a running joke because of i, they never thought that they would be directly involved in the investigation. Once the NFL checked the balls during the AFC championship and an investigation ensued they had to come up with a story, once they found out the team had to turn over text messages

 

I agree with the Patriots on point 2. How many bites of the Apple do you give wells team, they should have been better prepared this isn't z murder investigation

 

I agree with Brady on point 3, he is a private guy with a lot of business dealings and wants to keep that stuff private.

 

 

I have no opinion on point 4 either way

 

I have worked for the same utility for 20 years, 12 of them in the same location and I still don't know everyone here by name, even though I see most of them around

 

 

Number 6 who cares

 

Number seven I can see, they acted unprofessional even if they didn't deflate balls, and Yastrzemski was giving away equipment that he shouldn't have been, so that doesn't mean they are guilty of deflating bqlls

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Here are 10 additional questions from PatsPulpit:

 

1. Tom Brady Didn't Know "Burt"

 

Mr. Brady said that until stories broke after the AFC Championship Game, he did not know Mr. McNally was responsible for taking footballs to (or from) the Officials’ Locker Room — and, in fact, did not know whether game or League officials carried the footballs to the field. When asked about Mr. McNally’s nickname, Mr. Brady insisted that it was "Burt" not "Bird" — that was how little he knew about him even by the time of his interview.

 

Tedy Bruschi said it best when he said that players don't know McNally by his name- if they know him, they know his nickname of "Bird." Brady didn't even know that much.

 

The Wells Report notes that Brady signs autographs for McNally, to which the Patriots respond, he signs them for everyone. If everyone with a Brady autograph was suspicious, the entire New England region wishes it was banned from footbal- wait!

 

2. Colts Cheated

 

8. During the second quarter of the AFC Championship Game, a ball thrown by Tom Brady was intercepted by a player for the Colts and the ball was taken to the Colts sideline. On the sideline, Colts equipment personnel used a pressure gauge to measure the inflation level of the ball, determined that it was below the minimum 12.5 psi level and informed a game official and other NFL personnel.

 

Once the game starts, neither team is allowed to gauge the footballs, pump them, or the like. That is solely the province of the referee, who is to be the "sole judge" of whether footballs comply. The Colts, with advance concerns about psi, did not take the issue to the referee. They took the matter into their own hands and had an intern gauge the football. (pg. 63) This conduct was in violation of Rule 2. Nowhere does the Report identify this conduct as a violation of the Rule.

 

Formatted text is the Patriots response. Yes, it turns out that the Indianapolis Colts, by testing the intercepted football on the sideline, was in violation of the same exact rule that the Patriots are being crucified for. Sure, the circumstances were different- the ball wasn't going back in play- but isn't this about integrity?

 

3. Text Context

 

This is a long section that tries to provide context to Jim McNally's text calling himself the deflator and that he was going to go to ESPN. Essentially, John Jastremski might have been taking shoes from the Patriots equipment room and giving them to McNally. These guys were probably stealing official gear from the team. They were not talking about rewards from deflating footballs- they were trying to take official Patriots gear. This explains all the talk about shoes.

 

As for the "deflator" moniker, former Patriots player Matt Chatham explained that "there's a long standing tradition of offseason weight-loss competitions between Patriots staff and coaches." The nickname is ridiculous. So is the McNally calling Jastremski "Dorito Dink." It's all ridiculous.

 

4. Interviews without Representation

 

Patriots management had not yet been advised that an investigation had started, but Mr. McNally, having nothing to hide, talked freely to the League personnel without even asking if someone from the team should be there with him. The second and third interviews happened within the next several days. Again, Mr. McNally gave these interviews without any Patriots representative with him.

 

His phone was offered to League personnel for imaging, but they advised that they did not need his phone. (His phone data was later provided to the Wells investigators upon their request and prior to their interview with him.) At his third interview with League Security personnel, he was subjected to very aggressive questioning and demeaning assertions that he was lying when he denied any knowledge of improper football deflation.

 

McNally spoke with the NFL investigators three times without anyone from the Patriots with him. This is completely absurd, especially for a part time employee. If the league became hostile in their third meeting, then of course he wouldn't want to meet with them any more than he had to.

 

The icing on the cake, is that Wells and company had all of these texts prior to their meeting with McNally. Wells' team stated, "The interviews will be arranged so that, barring unanticipated circumstances, there will not be future multiple interviews of the same person." The Patriots did not deem Wells not reading his own information carefully enough as reason worthy of a second meeting, but were willing to relay individual questions if they wanted clarification.

 

Essentially, the Patriots were docked a 1st and 4th round pick, as well as $1 million because Wells wasn't a thorough reader.

 

5. NFL refused to correct false info leaks and lied to the Patriots...

 

"In fact, one of the game balls was inflated to 10.1 PSI, far below the requirement of 12.5 to 13.5 PSI" - NFL Senior Vice President of Football Operations David Gardi

 

The above is what the league initially reported to the Patriots. This is what was leaked out to the world. This is 100% incorrect information.

 

6. ...and kept correct info away from the Patriots for two months.

 

Patriots’ counsel also requested from the outset that he be provided with the actual halftime psi measurements. That information was not provided until March 23, over two months into the investigation. It was provided then only on the condition that it not be disclosed and, particularly, that it not be disclosed to the media until the final report was issued. This condition was imposed in the face of the extensively reported misinformation about halftime football psi that the League had refused to correct. One can only speculate why it was so important for the League that the accurate halftime information be withheld from the public until it was ultimately part of a report that downplayed the science and instead relied on selective texts.

 

And even when the league knew the corrected information, they didn't bother telling the Patriots or correcting the rumors on the streets. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport announced that the information was false on February 1st, which was well before the league notified the Patriots. That's completely unacceptable. And the league let the media run with the incorrect narrative while leaving one of their franchises hanging out to dry.

 

Furthermore, the league clearly withheld the correct information from the Patriots, letting New England think of the 10.1 PSI level, throughout all of the interviews. It is more probable than not that this was a purposeful decision to use the wrong information to try and obtain an admission of guilt.

 

7. Wells didn't investigate the league's leaks: the NFL investigated internally

 

We learned last night from Ted that the issue of how League personnel handled the pursuit of the low psi issues, including whether there were inappropriate prejudgments and unfounded presumptions of wrongdoing, selective leaks of information and misinformation, failure to correct obviously misreported information, and the like, are not part of what the Paul Weiss firm has been asked to investigate. I understand that the League has opted to investigate those matters internally. - email between Patriots counsel and NFL's VP Jeff Pash

 

"Hey, Rog, can you handle this internal investigation?"

 

"Sure...Hey everyone, did you leak info?"

 

"Nope!"

 

"Sounds good to me!"

 

This is probably one of the more appalling facts. There was no attempt fair attempt to try and find out who was behind the leaks that harmed the Patriots, just like how Wells never interviewed Roger Goodell throughout the investigation.

 

8. The security tapes show that the officials watched and allowed McNally to take balls out of the locker room and to the field

 

Mr. McNally, a physically big man, hoisted two large bags of footballs and lumbered past all these League officials and out the door of the Officials’ Locker Room. As is clear from the report, no one objected; no one told him to stop; no one requested that he wait to be accompanied by a League official; no one told him that a League official had to carry the footballs to the field.

 

After he walked past all of these League officials and out the door of the Officials’ Locker Room to the hallway, he then walked past James Daniel, an NFL official and one of the people who had been alerted to the Colts psi concerns pre-game (pg. 45). Mr. Daniel, as seen on the security video, looked at Mr. McNally carrying the bags of footballs toward the field unaccompanied by any League or game official, and made no objection to Mr. McNally continuing unaccompanied to the field.

 

In short, if officials lost track of the location of game footballs, it was not because Mr. McNally stealthily removed them. (Omitted from the investigation were interviews with all those League officials whom Mr. McNally walked past with the bags of footballs on his shoulders.)

 

Even after halftime, when obvious attention was being paid to game footballs and psi issues by League and game officials, who took control of the footballs at halftime, the security video shows Mr. McNally, with no objection, taking the footballs from the Officials’ Locker Room back to the field totally unaccompanied by any League or Game official.

 

That's a lot of text. Long story short, McNally had the footballs (with official Walt Anderson's permission), walked towards the field, was spotted and not stopped by a person who was aware of the Colts request for focus on the footballs, and then he did it again after the measurements at halftime.

 

No one cared. At all.

 

9. League selectively listened to officials

 

Once the footballs are taken to the field they are to be taken to the area adjacent to the replay booth. The outdoor security camera shows that is exactly what Mr. McNally did. Anyone actually concerned about the location of the game footballs could simply have checked that location. The security video shows Mr. Anderson coming out to the field and going there.

 

Not surprisingly, he found Mr. McNally was there with the bags of footballs. No one then reprimanded Mr. McNally for having taken the footballs without permission or accompaniment, although the report would have one now believe that officials thought Mr. McNally had done something wrong by taking the footballs himself. No official chastised him; no one re-checked football psi; no official suggested using the back-up footballs.

 

The Wells Report listened to the refs when they wanted to use context to show the Patriots broke protocol, or that they were acting in an unseemly matter. The refs absolutely knew the starting PSI of the footballs, and they definitely knew that McNally taking the footballs was something Anderson hadn't seen in his 19 years as a ref, and of course they knew that Anderson had a tremendous memory.

 

But they ignored the security tapes that shows McNally operating in the open without question. They ignored the security tapes that They ignored that Anderson forgot to approve a football, or which gauge was used before the game, or giving the Patriots 13 instead of 12 footballs.

 

The Wells Report gives so much more credence to the testimonials of the officials, that they ignore the video and science right in front of them.

 

10. This is all about less than half a PSI

 

And the science. This scandal isn't over multiple footballs 2+ PSI below the limit. We know that the Ideal Gas Law is responsible for the majority of the recorded "under"inflation. We know what the Patriots footballs were recorded at halftime and we know that the officials didn't use any real care in the pregame football preparation.

 

So we know that if the Patriots footballs were inflated to 12.5 PSI, we know that their pressure should have measured roughly 11.3-11.5. The Patriots footballs fit this measurement with one gauge. It was roughly 0.4 PSI below the limit with the other. (Editor's note: reader Joe Little notes that the Patriots were only 0.2 PSI below the Ideal Gas Law range with the other gauge. So it's not 0.4 PSI. It's only 0.2 PSI.)

 

0.4 PSI is absolutely nothing. This is what this scandal is about. This is the outcome. This is what the outrage is for.

 

NFL, I hope you're happy.

Edited by J
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The Patriots complained last week that they didn’t make McNally available for a fifth interview because it was a tremendous strain on his time as it is. Then we find out Tuesday that Wells only got one crack at McNally, and he was told to approach the investigation with a “fresh start,” as if the three interviews between McNally and NFL Security never happened.

 

If the bold is true, wow, just wow. They are liars to the absolute core.

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Suspended indefinitely without pay for participating in a weight loss program, alledgefly.

No No.......only one was dating Jenny Craig.........but both were merely joking and busting balls with the rest of the texts......allegedly.......and both mysteriously still off everyones radar.....even the Boston tv stations will be clamoring to talk to them.

 

 

Hmmmm,,,,,,remember that photo of Brady and Jordan playing golf? Wonder if McNally was driving Bradys cart and Jastremski was driving Jordans............tho of course, were that true, upon their return Brady probably wouldnt know who McNally is..... ;)

Edited by Vermonter
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I read this morning that they were stealing Patriots merchandise... Can't find the article at the moment  :shrug:

 

I'm looking forward to the season. Brady and company are PO'ed and they'll be out for blood. 

 

“If you shoot a king, you’d better make sure he’s dead.”

 

“Never do an enemy a small injury,”

 

The retaliation will be without mercy. :th:

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Another question I have is what was the baseline PSI for the footballs before the game started? Especially since both teams are allowed to custom the footballs to their QB's satisfaction until they are inspected by the ref. The reason for this question is because what if Brady likes a PSI closer to 12.5 and Luck likes 13.5. Given that, how could they know that the Patriots balls deflated more so than Indy's...Or worse, I wonder what the half time PSI readings were during the Patriots/Greenbay game this year...If the game time PSI was 12.5 for the Patriots and 14 for GB (since Rogers likes over inflated footballs), then were 12.2 and 13.1 respectively at half time, which ones deflated more?

 

Game time PSI was never given, only half time

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