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Deflategate: NFL says Patriots (likely) did it, and Brady knew (probably)

 
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady passes against the Colts in the second half of the Jan. 18 AFC Championship game. An NFL investigation has found that New England Patriots employees likely deflated footballs and that quarterback Tom Brady was probably "at least generally aware" of the rules violations. The 243-page report released Wednesday, May 6, 2015, said league investigators found no evidence that coach Bill Belichick and team management knew of the practice. [Associated Press]
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady passes against the Colts in the second half of the Jan. 18 AFC Championship game. An NFL investigation has found that New England Patriots employees likely deflated footballs and that quarterback Tom Brady was probably "at least generally aware" of the rules violations. The 243-page report released Wednesday, May 6, 2015, said league investigators found no evidence that coach Bill Belichick and team management knew of the practice. [Associated Press]
Published May 7, 2015

Tom Brady: Unbelievable.

The 243-report on Deflate­gate came out Wednesday and stopped barely short of calling the Patriots quarterback a cheater. It did, however, call some of his claims "implausible" and left little doubt he had a role in having footballs deflated before New England's AFC title game against the Colts in January and probably in previous games.

In his report, attorney Ted Wells said the quarterback "was at least generally aware" of all the plans to prepare the balls to his liking, below the league-mandated minimum of 12.5 pounds per square inch. Wells said it was "more probable than not" that two Patriots employees — officials' locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski — executed the plan.

For his trouble, McNally asked for expensive shoes and signed footballs, jerseys and cash. He brokered the deals over a series of salty texts with Jastremski that portray Brady as a hard-to-please taskmaster.

For the biggest home game of the season, McNally came through, taking the footballs from the officials' locker room into a restroom before delivering them to the field, the report said. The footballs — measured by officials at halftime — somehow lost pressure between being tested by the referee and the break.

The report exonerates coach Bill Belichick and his staff, head equipment manager Dave Schoenfeld and team ownership, stating "we do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing" by any the parties. Brady, though, is presented as not particularly forthcoming.

"During his interview, Brady denied any knowledge of or involvement in any efforts to deflate game balls after the pregame inspection by the game officials," the report states. "He claimed that prior to the events surrounding the AFC Championship Game, he did not know McNally's name or anything about McNally's game-day responsibilities, including whether McNally had any role relating to game balls or the game officials.

"We found these claims not plausible and contradicted by other evidence. In fact, during his interview, Jastremski acknowledged that Brady knew McNally and McNally's role as officials' locker room attendant. Similarly, McNally told NFL Security that he had been personally told by Brady of Brady's inflation level preference."

The penalties for all this? To be determined. League executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent is reviewing the report and will hand down the punishment.

Former NFL executive Bill Polian, familiar with the league's crime-and-punishment procedures after spending 19 years on the powerful competition committee, said the term Wells used — "more probable than not" — has been the standard of proof the NFL has used for competitive violations over the past six years. "In short, he is finding there was a violation," he said. "In many ways I think this report is as important as the discipline. It clearly says a violation occurred."

This offseason, the league has fined the Falcons $350,000 and stripped a fifth-round draft pick for pumping artificial crowd noise into the stadium during home games. It also suspended Browns general manager Ray Farmer for four games for sending texts to the sideline during games last season.

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By almost any account, this rules violation is more serious. It involves arguably the league's top star, a four-time Super Bowl winner who is bound for the Hall of Fame, and its marquee team — one that has spent almost the past decade under the microscope after getting caught in the videotaping scandal dubbed "Spygate" in 2007.

Owner Robert Kraft called the conclusion "incomprehensible." But he said the Patriots would accept the findings and any subsequent discipline.

The report cites evidence McNally took the game balls into a restroom adjacent to the field and stayed there for about 100 seconds — "an amount of time sufficient to deflate 13 footballs using a needle."

Other evidence included referee Walt Anderson's inability to locate the previously approved footballs at the start of the game — the first time that had happened to him in 19 years.

The report includes texts between McNally and Jastremski — sent in October and January — that imply Brady was requesting deflated footballs. The texts also imply that Brady had previously been upset with the quality of the game balls.

A footnote in the report mentions Brady put up better stats in the second half of New England's 45-7 romp over Indianapolis — after the Colts had relayed suspicions of under-inflated footballs and they had been pumped up to regulation level.

Still, footballs with less pressure can be easier to grip and catch. Some quarterbacks prefer footballs that have less air, and Brady played a role in a 2006 rewriting of the rules that allowed visiting teams to supply the footballs it would use on offense.

As the NFL investigation began, Belichick and Brady held news conferences in which each pleaded ignorance. The team avoided questions about the investigation in the days leading up to the Patriots' Super Bowl win over Seattle.

Wells said he was hindered by Brady's refusal to provide his own emails, texts or phone records. But using Jastremski's phone records, Wells detected an increase in the frequency of calls and texts between Brady and the equipment assistant shortly after suspicions of tampering went public. After not communicating via phone or text for six months, they spoke six times on the phone over the course of three days.

Nowhere in the 243 pages does Wells use the word "cheat" or "cheater" in reference to Brady or anyone else. But it's not hard to read between the lines: "We believe it is unlikely that an equipment assistant and a locker room attendant would deflate game balls without Brady's knowledge and approval," Wells wrote.

McNally is 48 and has worked at Gillette Stadium for 10 years, overseeing the officials' locker room since 2008. Jastremski is 35 and has worked for the Patriots since 2001.

Wells, one of the country's top defense lawyers, has experience working in sports. He was hired by the NFL in November 2013 to investigate the bullying scandal that engulfed the Dolphins. He led a special investigation into allegations of sexual harassment on Syracuse's basketball team and was hired by the NBA players union to look into allegations of inappropriate financial dealings at the union. His report, made public, led to the ouster of union chief Billy Hunter.

Brady's father, Tom Sr., told USA Today his son is being railroaded: "I don't have any doubt about my son's integrity — not one bit. In this country, you're innocent until proven guilty. It just seems Tommy is now guilty until proven innocent. … This thing is so convoluted. They say that possibly — possibly — he was aware of this. The reality is if you can't prove he did it, then he's innocent, and lay off him. That's the bottom line. The league had to cover themselves. The reality is they had no conclusive evidence. This was Framegate right from the beginning."

Information from the Associated Press, Hartford Courant and New York Times was used in this report.