Nearly four months after it was reported that the Indianapolis Colts believed that the New England Patriots deflated footballs more than the NFL rules allow during the AFC Championship game, Ted Wells’ investigation has finally been released. Wells found that it was “more probably than not” that the team did violate NFL rules and that Tom Brady knew about it.
The Patriots won the AFC Championship game against the Colts on Jan. 18 45-7 to make it to Super Bowl XLIX, which they eventually won. During the first half, the Colts started questioning the inflation level of the Patriots’ balls and 11 of them did fall under the 12.5 pounds per square inch minimum pressure level allowed by the league, according to Wells’ report (via Ian Rapoport).
Wells concluded that two members of Patriots personnel - 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.” He also found 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.”
The report notes that the evidence gathered could not determine how long McNally and Jastremski were deflating balls, but the evidence did pointing to their involvement was stronger than the evidence linking Brady. But text messages between the two appear to suggest that Brady was aware.
“We nevertheless believe, based on the totality of the evidence, that it is more probable than not that Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski involving the release of air from Patriots game balls,” the report reads. “Evidence of Brady’s awareness appears in text communications between McNally and Jastremski.”
However, the report does seem to clear any other higher-ups within the organization of wrongdoing. Wells and his investigators do not believe that even head coach Bill Belichick or head equipment manager Dave Schoenfeld knew about it.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who requested an apology from the NFL if Wells found no wrongdoing, already issued a statement today.
“While I respect the independent process of the investigation, the time, effort and resources expended to reach this conclusion are incomprehensible to me,” Kraft wrote. “Knowing that there is no real recourse available, fighting the league and extending this debate would prove to be futile. We understand and greatly respect the responsibility of being one of 32 in this league and, on that basis, we will accept the findings of the report and take the appropriate actions based on those findings as well as any discipline levied by the league.”
The deflated balls controversy quickly became known as Deflategate and was the second “-gate” for the Pats in a decade. In 2007, Belichick was fined for “Spygate” after the team was caught taping New York Jets signals.
image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com