New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been waiting all offseason for an apology for the DeflateGate accusations leveled against his team concerning under-inflated footballs used in the AFC Championship game.
He’s going to be waiting a while.
With the release of the Ted Wells report Wednesday morning, the NFL made its findings clear, that it is “more probable than not that New England Patriots personnel participated in violations of the Playing Rules and were involved in a deliberate effort to circumvent the rules.”
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The report specifically implicates three people: Patriots officials locker room attendant Jim McNally, Patriots equipment assistant John Jastremski and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in the intentional deflation of footballs.
NFL Senior Vice President of NFL Player Engagement Troy Vincent is presently assessing the penalties that Brady and the Patriots will face going forward. It’s unlikely that McNally or Jastremski will ever work in professional football again.
NFL considering discipline for Tom Brady, locker attendant Jim McNally, equipment asst John Jastremski, per source close to investigation.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 6, 2015
Damningly for Brady and the Patriots, through the transcriptions of multiple text messages between McNally and Jastremsky, it’s clear that balls were not only purposefully deflated for the AFC title game against the Colts, but in other games this season as well.
The first exchange between McNally and Jastemsky takes place on Oct. 17 after a Thursday night against the New York Jets:
McNally: Tom sucks…im going make that next ball a f—kin balloon
Jastremski: Talked to him last night. He actually brought you up and said you must have a lot of stress trying to get them done…
Jastremski: I told him it was. He was right though…
Jastremski: I checked some of the balls this morn… The refs f—ked us…a few of then were at almost 16
Jastremski: They didnt recheck then after they put air in them
McNally: F—k tom …16 is nothing…wait till next sunday
Jastremski: Omg! Spaz
McNally at times in texts transcribed in the report refers to himself as “The Delflator” and made it clear that expected compensation to prepare the footballs to Tom Brady’s specifications. There’s no indication that McNally had any direct contact with Brady concerning the footballs, but that Jastremski acted as an intermediary, delivering Brady’s instructions, and “the needle” that McNally could use to deflate the balls.
On Oct. 24, 2014, Jastremski and McNally passed these texts back and forth:
Jastremski: I have a big needle for u this week
McNally: Better be surrounded by cash and newkicks….or its a rugby sunday
McNally: F–k tom
Jastremski: Maybe u will have some nice size 11s (shoes) in ur locker
McNally: Tom must really be working your balls hard this week
McNally also received two autographed footballs and a game-worn autographed jersey from Brady on Jan. 7, 2015:
McNally: Remember to put a couple sweet pig skins ready for tom to sign
Jastremski: U got it kid…big autograph day for you
McNally: Nice throw some kicks in and make it real special
Jastremski: If ur lucky. 11?
McNally: 11 or 11 and half kid
While McNally and Jastremsky turned over their texts in the NFL’s investigation, Brady was not so forthcoming. In fact, he refused to turn over any correspondence related to the investigation, even if his own lawyer got the chance to review it first.
Blinded with science
As part of the NFL’s investigation, they hired Exponent, a leading scientific and engineering consulting firm to test out any possibility that the deflated footballs could have occurred naturally due to weather conditions as Patriots head coach Bill Belichick famously alleged. Exponent ruled, as every serious scientist on planet Earth already had, that “the reduction in pressure of the Patriots game balls cannot be explained by basic scientific principles, such as the Ideal Gas Law, based on the circumstances likely to have been present on the day of the AFC Championship Game.”
The report also released the halftime PSI ratings of all the Patriots footballs from the AFC Championship game as well as the Colts’ footballs that were also tested.
So while Belichick’s Juggalo membership probably won’t take a hit from his misunderstanding of ninth-grade science, he shouldn’t expect to be invited to do a Ted Talk on atmospheric pressure anytime soon.
While Jastremsky and McNally’s culpability is clear, the biggest problem for the Patriots in the report is Brady’s actions, his efforts to hinder the investigation, and how impossible it would have been for any of this to happen without him ordering it. Especially since the texts between McNally and Jastremsky make it clear that he did.
“Jastremski’s text message thus attributes to Brady knowledge of McNally’s efforts to get the footballs ‘done’ and the stress involved,’” the report states. “We reject as implausible the reading offered by Jastremski, McNally and counsel for the Patriots that certain portions of this exchange refer to a person other than Brady. Moreover, taking the text messages as a whole, Brady is a constant reference point in the discussions between McNally and Jastremski about inflation, deflation, needles and 18 items to be received by McNally.”
Even though Brady wouldn’t share his texts and emails, the investigators were able to find what they call a “material increase in the frequency of telephone and text communications between Brady and Jastremsky shortly after suspicions of ball tampering became public…”
Before that, according to the report, Brady and Jastremsky had not had a phone call or text message between for the previous six months.
Brady also tried to work over Jastremsky personally according to the report.
“Brady also took the unprecedented step of inviting Jastremski to the QB room (essentially Brady’s office) in Gillette Stadium on January 19 for the first and only time that Jastremski can recall during his twenty-year career with the Patriots,” the report states. “And Brady sent Jastremski text messages seemingly designed to calm Jastremski (‘You good Jonny boy?’; ‘You doing good?’). For his part, Jastremski sent Brady text messages confirming that he was okay (‘Still nervous; so far so good though’) and cautioning Brady about questioning (‘FYI…Dave will be picking your brain later about it. He‟s not accusing me, or anyone…trying to get to bottom of it. He knows it’s unrealistic you did it yourself…’).”
Ultimately though, the findings on Brady come back to the same reasons every current and former NFL quarterback has stated regarding DeflateGate.
“…we believe it is unlikely that an equipment assistant and a locker room attendant would deflate game balls without Brady’s knowledge and approval.”
What’s going to happen?
Tom Brady surely will face some punishment from the league. He may even be suspended the entire 2015-16 year, but it could be more than that. It could also spur more investigations, since it’s clear that Brady has been ordering his equipment people to deflate footballs for some time.
Robert Kraft statement on Ted Wells report: http://t.co/9HScFbK0OD pic.twitter.com/WXk0mJOjzp
— NFL (@NFL) May 6, 2015
What isn’t clear, since report seems to exonerate Belichick and the Patriots organization, is what kind of punishment they’ll face. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made it clear that “ignorance is not an excuse” when he suspended New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton over the BountyGate investigation. Again, if I had to wager on it, I’d guess the Patriots will be fined, lose a 2016 first-round draft pick and Belichick will be suspended for at least half a season. We’ll find out soon enough.
