The Published Wells Report.

[Bella*chick]

I just. Look I get it, the texts look bad. But....what do they really prove? That two idiots were *****ing about their job and making overinflated jokes because they know the QB doesn't like the football to be rock hard. I just am not really seeing a smoking gun...just a lot of stupid banter.

 

[karguy85]

So two guys who make pennies compared to what the good looking, NFL Star who is married to a supermodel, are talking crap about the larger than life star to make themselves feel better. Definitely means the NFL Star must be a cheater (even though we have zero other evidence).

 

[RobAllan]

You know what- the more I think about it, the more I wish the Patriots would spend a season or two intentionally cheating at everything possible as an organizational effort. And then, when caught, admit to it straight off. You'd still play out the full year or two... even if you're caught right away and admit it the NFL would spend a year compiling a report. You'd also go 19-0 and blow out every meaningful NFL record ever.

Just so people would see what ACTUAL cheatriots would look like. The 2007 team would look at a team like that and say "haaammmmmm girl." (Sorry for the oddly placed "Community" reference. Couldn't resist.)

 

[Sfpat]

The sad thing about this story is that the Pats would be handicapping themselves if they were using underinflated balls as it's proven that lower inflated balls don't fly as well as higher inflated ones (witness the 1st half of the Colts game). So the punishment, if any, will be for trying to give the Colts a chance to be competitive against the Pats.

 

[SVN]

I just. Look I get it, the texts look bad. But....what do they really prove? That two idiots were *****ing about their job and making overinflated jokes because they know the QB doesn't like the football to be rock hard. I just am not really seeing a smoking gun...just a lot of stupid banter.

Agree and the Patriots have given that explanation to wells who has disagreed with it in the report. Thats the issue with the slanted investigation. There is nothing independent about this.

 

[bbobbo]

Yet we heard from Jim Daopoulos, a former ref, that refs often ask attendants to do this for them.

yes, attendants take the balls after they've been asked to. mcnally took the balls without anyone's authorization:

Unknown to Anderson, and without Anderson‟s permission or the
permission of any other member of the officiating crew, McNally had taken the
balls from the Officials Locker Room towards the playing field.

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

More Texts - Pre Chicago Bears. "Needle" reference will be heavily referred to as evidence seen by Wells that this was habitual:

Read the texts I've quoted above, then read Well's interpretation of them. This is the type of thing they're hanging Brady on.

According to both McNally and Jastremski, McNally had asked Jastremski to provide two needles so that the officials would not need to switch the needle back and forth between the gauge and pump when they inspected the game balls prior to the game. In response to questions, Jastremski said that the joke was that he finally would provide a needle for both the gauge and the pump, and that his text message had nothing to do with the deflation of footballs using a needle. We do not view these explanations as plausible or consistent with common sense. We believe that the most plausible reading of the messages between 18:47:21 and 18:54:40 is a reference by Jastremski to a “needle” that he will provide to McNally, followed by a response by McNally that he will use the needle to inflate rather than deflate the game balls.

 

[TBR]

BillSimmons
The Wells Report should have ended with a recap of Brady going 37 for 50 for 4 TDs with properly inflated balls in the Super Bowl.
2015-05-06, 2:28 PM

 

[Bella*chick]

Wells seems to read a lot into text messages. But like anything in print, they are so prone to be really out of context.

 

[YOUGOTMOSSED]

I genuinely hope the Patriots defense goes head hunting when they play the Colts.

Who gives a rats ass about 10 15 yard penalties? Just bring em a world of pain.

What good does that do? Hurt a bunch of players that didn't have anything to do with the Wells report?
We could tar and feather Goodell and run him out of town on a rail if he's stupid enough to show at Foxboro for the opening game (which would be dumb . . . fun but dumb) OR
turn this sh*t off once and for all if the league is seriously going to conduct business this way. This way is far more effective.

BOYCOTT is the ONLY ANSWER!

 

[luuked]

The release of that report today also made Rand Gatlin land on my ****list.

Rand Getlin @Rand_Getlin · 1h1 hour ago
Kudos to Ted Wells and his staff on conducting such a thorough investigation. And kudos to the NFL for aggressively seeking out the truth.

Rand Getlin @Rand_Getlin · 21m21 minutes ago
Interested to see how Brady is punished. If the sanctions are too light, others will believe the reward of cheating far outweighs the risk.

Rand Getlin @Rand_Getlin · 15m15 minutes ago
Conversely, if the NFL imposes significant sanctions on Brady, et al, it is 'more probable than not' that it will deter similar conduct.

 

[ChoWZa]

"We have no evidence, but we were 'really' expecting to find evidence, so much that you should treat our conclusion as if we did actually find evidence"

Shame on Kraft for rolling over. I guess I should be happy he didn't outright back the report in his statement.

 

[RobertWeathers]

You can discipline him for (in their view) lying to investigators.

The report states that is less clear how involve or knowledgeable Brady was to the process. All they say is he,"probably" knew.

It was carefully worded. By publicly accusing Brady of lying based on conjecture which was in turn based on circumstantial evidence is a rabbit hole the NFL was very careful not to fall in.

Putting in "probably" didn't let TB off the hook publicly but IMO let him off the hook from facing league discipline.

 

[Deus Irae]

Example of the problem with looking at text messages without context:

Person A: Make sure dinner is on the table when I get home tonight.
Person B: GFY.
Person A: If it's not on the table when I walk through the door, I'll kick your ass.
Person B: You're going to be home at X o'clock, right? Dinner will be ready then.

We all know, or at least every single literate one of us knows, that the above exchange could be deadly serious, and could be two people screwing around.

 

[SVN]

Its very much possible that brady complained to these guys after games about the air in the balls and these guys took it upon themselves every game even after the refs did their measurement to satisfy tom regardless of the rules. No way it says that brady asked them to ensure the air is correct by putting a needle in after the refs measured them. And the measure of the psi post the jets game at 16PSI is clear that its not a practice.
Of course none of this will be bought out.

 

[Satchboogie3]

So Well's just assumes that the text messages MUST refer to tampering with the balls illegally, not refer to the legal game day preparations. I don't see anything in those texts that points to anything illegal.

 

[KingOfTheCourt]

You know what- the more I think about it, the more I wish the Patriots would spend a season or two intentionally cheating at everything possible as an organizational effort. And then, when caught, admit to it straight off. You'd still play out the full year or two... even if you're caught right away and admit it the NFL would spend a year compiling a report. You'd also go 19-0 and blow out every meaningful NFL record ever.

Just so people would see what ACTUAL cheatriots would look like. The 2007 team would look at a team like that and say "haaammmmmm girl." (Sorry for the oddly placed "Community" reference. Couldn't resist.)

This happening and then BB and TB12 retiring into the sunset with 2 middle fingers set squarely against Goodell after they win SuperBowl 50 would make my day!

 

[Dr Pain]

The report states that is less clear how involve or knowledgeable Brady was to the process. All they say is he,"probably" knew.

It was carefully worded. By publicly accusing Brady of lying based on conjecture which was in turn based on circumstantial evidence is a rabbit hole the NFL was very careful not to fall in.

Putting in "probably" didn't let TB off the hook publicly but IMO let him off the hook from facing league discipline.

No as the NFL does not need beyond reasonable doubt. This report is a total mess and they got the science wrong

 

[Efstratios]

You know what- the more I think about it, the more I wish the Patriots would spend a season or two intentionally cheating at everything possible as an organizational effort. And then, when caught, admit to it straight off. You'd still play out the full year or two... even if you're caught right away and admit it the NFL would spend a year compiling a report. You'd also go 19-0 and blow out every meaningful NFL record ever.

Just so people would see what ACTUAL cheatriots would look like. The 2007 team would look at a team like that and say "haaammmmmm girl." (Sorry for the oddly placed "Community" reference. Couldn't resist.)

I can see it now. And better yet, how about we take a page out of several other teams that have bent the rules to worse degrees than we have?

Step 1: Tamper with Muhammad Wilkerson, Jets style.

Step 2: Circumvent the cap, Broncos style.

Step 3: Pump in fake crowd noise to hell and back. Falcons style.

Step 4: Enact rule changes that favor our squad, Colts style.

Obviously PED's and headhunting aren't out of the question because hey, it's not "all that bad" when the other 31 teams do it

 

[Kontradiction]

The release of that report today also made Rand Gatlin land on my ****list.

Rand Getlin @Rand_Getlin · 1h1 hour ago
Kudos to Ted Wells and his staff on conducting such a thorough investigation. And kudos to the NFL for aggressively seeking out the truth.

Rand Getlin @Rand_Getlin · 21m21 minutes ago
Interested to see how Brady is punished. If the sanctions are too light, others will believe the reward of cheating far outweighs the risk.

Rand Getlin @Rand_Getlin · 15m15 minutes ago
Conversely, if the NFL imposes significant sanctions on Brady, et al, it is 'more probable than not' that it will deter similar conduct.

If Brady is punished at all, it will be a crock of ****. There isn't any evidence that he did anything wrong. Just Wells taking a guess that he and the organization acted with malice. If he's suspended the entire season, I won't be following the NFL at all in 2015.