May 14--The New England Patriots have released a detailed, 20,000 word response to investigator Ted Wells' report on the Deflategate scandal that led to quarterback Tom Brady's suspension and the team's loss of draft picks.
"The conclusions of the Wells Report are, at best, incomplete, incorrect and lack context," Patriots attorney Daniel Goldberg wrote on WellsReportContext.com.
The website was created for the sole purpose of knocking the wind out of the Wells report, which found that found the Patriots used underinflated footballs for an advantage in last season's AFC Championship game. The rebuttal website has the full Wells report along with Patriots annotations to several excerpts of the report.
According to Goldberg, among the revelations overlooked because of a lack of context is the fact that Jim McNally, the Patriots staff member allegedly responsible for the deflation of the footballs, and equipment assistant John Jastremski apparently used the term "deflator" to describe weight loss.
In his notes, Goldberg gives evidence of the usage in a text message between the two men: "Deflate and give somebody that jacket," McNally texts to Jastremski.
However, the focus of the annotations consistently points back to Patriots Coach Bill Belichick's assertion that the ideal gas law, an approximation to the behavior of many gases under many conditions, offers an explanation for the loss in pressure in the footballs.
Goldberg also points out that the Patriots weren't the only ones with footballs below the minimum 12.5-pounds-per-square-inch air pressure level required by the NFL.
Three of the four Indianapolis Colts footballs tested were underinflated on one of the two gauges used to measure the pressure of the balls, he contended. The other eight Colts balls weren't tested.
Goldberg also wrote: "There is no evidence that Tom Brady preferred footballs that were lower than 12.5 psi and no evidence anyone even thought that he did."
