The Published Wells Report.

[juny]

So what is Exponent's involvement with this issue?

They were the science "experts" for the league.

From the LA Times article:

"But Exponent's research has come under fire from critics, including engineers, attorneys and academics who say the company tends to deliver to clients the reports they need to mount a public defense.

"If I were Toyota, I wouldn't have picked somebody like Exponent to do analysis," said Stanton Glantz, a cardiologist at UC San Francisco who runs a database on the tobacco industry that contains thousands of pages of Exponent research arguing, among other things, that secondhand smoke does not cause cancer. "I would have picked a firm with more of a reputation of neutrality."​

 

[festy1986]

I mean.. top news on msnbc?

 

[Kdo5]

Wow, local news is totally misrepresenting the outcome, "Pats caught cheating again"

Honestly. Local media may well be worse than the national media.

 

[FrodoBagginz]

 

[JMC00]

They were the science "experts" for the league.

From the LA Times article:
"But Exponent's research has come under fire from critics, including engineers, attorneys and academics who say the company tends to deliver to clients the reports they need to mount a public defense.

"If I were Toyota, I wouldn't have picked somebody like Exponent to do analysis," said Stanton Glantz, a cardiologist at UC San Francisco who runs a database on the tobacco industry that contains thousands of pages of Exponent research arguing, among other things, that secondhand smoke does not cause cancer. "I would have picked a firm with more of a reputation of neutrality."

And they completely botched the science on it, go look at my post above from the reddit user.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

It's clear that they are acting on TBs request that the balls be 12.5 psi prior to giving them to the refs. Absolutely nothing wrong with that

Gave you a "like" but not an "agree."

Can't say that "it's clear" they're just getting the ball to the desired bottom end of the range. But also can't say the reverse, which is what's important when you're weighing (again) what penalty if any to apply.

Already livid. Watching Chris Matthews after work, whom I don't like even though I'm generally on the same "side" as him politically. He's got some talking head on saying this is just more of the Patriots "playing fast and loose with the rules in the BB era," and how that's "The Patriot way."

For "more probable than not."

I'm off to read the complete report just to get my hate on. They have physical evidence at their disposal; I would hope these texts are just more quotable. If the physical evidence isn't the bulk of the report, we're dealing with the level of "jurisprudence" of "if you float in the pond you're a witch."

 

[moejr]

We're going to hear about this all season during the Pats games. God I wish I could get Goodell and Wells alone and drill them both in the mouth.

 

[Patstopia]

Even after all this, people still expect fair and honest from the NFL? Just wait for the punishment, I am sure THAT will be very fair and honest!

 

[ctpatsfan77]

We're going to hear about this all season during the Pats games. God I wish I could get Goodell and Wells alone and drill them both in the mouth.

Well, if it's along the lines of "That's the seventh time the Patriots have scored 50 points since the Deflategate report was released . . ." I'm not going to complain too loudly.

 

[Ross12]

In conclusion the actual balls were slightly wetter and colder than the experimental setup. Thus the "4 minute window" is not accurate and the PSI could be explained through natural conditions. Here I have shown that the "rainwater" in the experimental setup wasn't cold enough, and that it wasn't applied to the balls in a manner that would simulate gameplay conditions. Combined, these effects could explain away the entire PSI discrepancy.

"So the balls were getting freezing cold rain poured on them all game... What do you guys figure is a good way to approximate that? Hey Billy, go fill this spray bottle with some water from the sink over there. I'll spritz 'er every 15 minutes or so. Yeah, that's about the same as a pouring freezing rain, I figure."

Exponent: getting your hair wetted before a haircut = being in a 48 degree rainstorm

 

[Sfpat]

Interesting, wasn't aware of that language.

This report is the same as saying one is the Boston Strangler because you once told a friend that you would like to go to Boston

 

[BradyFTW!]

A post on reddit calling into question their PSI experiment

NOTE: none of what follows is mine it is from reddit user IllumiZ on Pats Reddit.

36 For these and subsequent experiments a “wet” football was one in which a hand held spray bottle was used to spray a football with water every 15 minutes during the period simulating the first half of game play. The spray bottle with its contents was kept at the same environmental conditions as the footballs undergoing spraying. Each time the footballs were sprayed they were toweled off.

I think this is a huge problem. The tight timing window for measuring the balls at halftime is a big factor in the report's conclusion (that deflation was not likely due to natural conditions). They claim that the Patriot's balls would have had to be measured within 4 minutes of halftime in order to fit the experimental data:

...only if the testing of the Patriots balls began immediately once the footballs arrived in the Officials Locker Room at halftime and took no more than 4 minutes, and only if the majority of the Patriots game balls were wet. As noted, testing of the Patriots balls is likely to have begun no sooner than 2 minutes and is likely to have taken approximately 4 to 5 minutes...

1) The water used to spray the balls was at ambient temperature. However, rainwater is colder than ambient because it is falling from the (colder) atmosphere.

2) Wetting the balls with a handheld spray bottle and immediately wiping them off, once per 15 minutes, is not an adequate simulation of wet game conditions.

3) Look at figure 21 on that same page (42) - wetness has a significant impact on the ball's pressure. Specifically, it takes much longer for the wet ball to adjust to the inside temperature.

In conclusion the actual balls were slightly wetter and colder than the experimental setup. Thus the "4 minute window" is not accurate and the PSI could be explained through natural conditions. Here I have shown that the "rainwater" in the experimental setup wasn't cold enough, and that it wasn't applied to the balls in a manner that would simulate gameplay conditions. Combined, these effects could explain away the entire PSI discrepancy.

Considering that they only gauged four Colts footballs because they ran out of time, I think we can safely say they didn't measure all 11 Pats balls within 4 minutes.

If they could gauge 11 balls in 4 minutes, they would've had more than enough time to gauge all of the Colts balls while they were at it.

 

[SVN]

Manish Mehta Verified account‏@MMehtaNYDN
Did the Wells Report also have details on the Patriots trading out of the first round last week?
shalise manza young ‏@shalisemyoung 30m30 minutes ago
yup - right next to the details of you actually making good on all the bets you've made https://twitter.com/mmehtanydn/status/596078025973833728…

 

[Satchboogie3]

There is so much delusion... You guys will deny anything no matter how obvious it is if its badmouthing the patriots. Stop being so biased.

Wells only said it's probable because there is no concrete evidence so formally it is the right thing to say... but circumstantial evidence is enough to convict someone of wrong doing, and there's about 200 pages of circumstantial evidence here...

It is CLEAR from the texts that Brady was giving gifts to McNally.
He calls himself "the deflator" while saying he needs new kicks, new gifts.
Do you think the other assistant was giving McNally gifts without Brady's knowledge?
What about Brady's text messages to the other assistant asking him if hes okay and the assistant replying he's nervous? Why be nervous if you're innocent?

I love the Patriots and I love Brady, I really don't care if he bribed an assistant into changing pressure... but it's pretty obvious that Brady at least knew a bit about it.

There's no real circumstantial evidence. The scientific analysis doesn't reach ANY conclusions. Any good scientist will pick apart Well's interpretation of the data. The text messages point to nothing against the rules. Giving gifts isn't a sign of bribery, Brady gives gifts to a ton of people in the organization, McNally felt left out. The fact that he was asking for stuff actually supports Brady's statement that he didn't know McNally, as everyone he knew he gave gifts... (uggs thing)

He clearly got the deflator nickname when the Refs started pumping up balls and his job became making sure the refs kept that at 12.5 It's quite the logical way to interpret the conversations.

How is it unlikely that McNally worked under Jankeski and never had direct contact with Brady (which is supported by the lack of any directed calls/messages nor any reference of them communicating directly) and that Jankeski wouldn't go to Brady and say "Hey, this guy that works with me really wants some signed stuff/etc, could you help me out". That's assuming the texts weren't joking (and nothing was actually asked for/given).

You clearly have never gotten in trouble before. I've gotten nervous and probably done/said suspicious things when someone stole something/did something wrong, despite not having any knowledge of what happened. Even when I'm not accused I often get nervous, it's a normal response. Of course Brady contacted his ball boys and staff when the allegations were made. He was naturally nervous and the texts indicate that he wan'ted to make sure they didn't do anything wrong (totally legit way to interpret those texts). If someone I knew was accused of something, you bet I'm calling them to make sure I know whats up and that they are ok and nothing happened.

It's actually very common for Lawyers to deal with innocent people acting nervous/suspicious. It's a normal response when accusations start flying, even when you aren't directly the one being accused.

 

[Dr Pain]

I make no claims of objectivity, but these - along with the fact that the Colts balls didn't lose as much pressure as the report itself indicates they should - are serious gaps in the narrative. No matter how alarming the texts appear to be, if you cannot account for these discrepancies you have no business levying any punishment. If the NFL has satisfactory explanations, then I've have to begrudgingly accept that Tom did have a hand in it....

Which wouldn't alter my opinion that the whole thing is nonsense, but it is what it is.

Look that two different officials, measuring the same ball at the same time had variances of .45PSI and this is when they were writing them down. They have no credibility.

 

[resdubwhite]

We'll be listening to this **** for 5 years. More actually

 

[Tunescribe]

I am spartacus.

No, I am Spartacus.

 

[Jackson 2]

We're going to hear about this all season during the Pats games. God I wish I could get Goodell and Wells alone and drill them both in the mouth.

Well past "all season."

 

[Deus Irae]

Interesting, wasn't aware of that language.

That language is an attempt of Goodell's. It's not been upheld as acceptable.

 

[rexxar]

The reddit thread is hilarious.. why can't all of the other teams' fans be like that?