The Ted Wells report may have concluded that Tom Brady was “was at least generally aware” of the underinflated footballs that led to Deflategate, but those closest to the New England Patriots quarterback have started the counterattack.
First of all, his father said his son was the victim of “Framegate” and now his agent, Don Yee, has launched a lengthy attack on the NFL’s investigation. Indeed, Yee believes that the Patriots were the victims of a sting operation.
“What does it say about the league office’s protocols and ethics when it allows one team to tip it off to an issue prior to a championship game, and no league officials or game officials notified the Patriots of the same issue prior to the game?” said Yee in a statement. “This suggests it may be more probable than not that the league cooperated with the Colts in perpetrating a sting operation [before this year’s AFC Championship game].”
Indeed, Yee appears to believe that Wells’s investigation was far from impartial. “The league is a significant client of the investigators’ law firm; it appears to be a rich source of billings and media exposure based on content in the law firm’s website,” the statement continues. “This was not an independent investigation and the contents of the report bear that out – all one has to do is read closely and critically, as opposed to simply reading headlines.”
Yee also expresses his anger that his client’s testimony was not published in full. “It was clear to me the investigators had limited understanding of professional football,” says Yee. “For reasons unknown, the Wells report omitted nearly all of Tom’s testimony, most of which was critical because it would have provided this report with the context that it lacks Mr Wells promised back in January to share the results of this investigation publicly, so why not follow through and make public all of the information gathered and let the public draw its own conclusions?”
On Wednesday, Brady’s father, Tom Sr, had mounted a similarly vigorous defense of the player. “I don’t have any doubt about my son’s integrity – not one bit,” Brady Sr told USA Today. “In this country, you’re innocent until proven guilty. It just seems Tommy is now guilty until proven innocent.”
