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UPDATE: Wells Report Says Tom Brady was “Aware” of Deflated Balls, “Probable” Pats Staff Broke Rules
By Jim Adair
Published:
The report from investigator Ted Wells on “deflate gate” is in to the NFL. The full Wells Report is 243 pages long — you can check it all out here — including a whole section on autographs and gifts given from Brady to the man who self-identified as the ball deflater. According to the section “Conclusions Regarding the Game Balls Used by the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game,” it’s likely this whole thing wasn’t a mistake:
Based on the evidence developed in connection with the investigation and summarized in this Report, we have concluded that it is more probable than not that New England Patriots personnel participated in violations of the NFL Playing Rules and were involved in a deliberate attempt to circumvent those rules. In particular, we conclude that it is more probable than not that Jim McNally and John Jastremski participated in a deliberate plan to circumvent the rules by releasing air from Patriots game balls after the examination of the footballs by NFL game officials at the AFC Championship Game.
We believe that McNally and Jastremski were aware that the inflation level of the Patriots game balls following pre-game inspection by the game officials would be approximately 12.5 psi and planned for McNally to deflate the balls below that level following the pre-game inspection using a needle provided by Jastremski. Based on the evidence, we also have concluded that it is more probable than not that Tom Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski involving the release of air from Patriots game balls.
We do not believe that the evidence establishes that any other Patriots personnel participated in or had knowledge of the violation of the Playing Rules or the deliberate effort to circumvent the rules described above. In particular, we do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Patriots ownership, Head Coach Belichick or any other Patriots coach in the matters investigated.
We’ll have more in this post as more is reported.
UPDATE: Looks like Tom Brady having a bad game changed the way these dudes handled his balls.
And according to the report the balls were checked at halftime of the Colts/Patriots game and all 11 of the Patriots balls were under-inflated.
UPDATE 2: Discipline could be handed down:
When he's not writing about sports here or ranting about them on Twitter, Jim is probably watching X-Files on Netflix or drinking a beer somewhere. Jim has nothing against hockey, it's just not his style. He once met Duce Staley at a Sixers game.