2/18/2015: Schefter Blows Up ESPN's Earlier Story

This is gold. This is really great stuff.

So much for transparency - the reason this whole thing came to light the way it did is b/c the NFL didn't want it to come out at all.

Enjoy the witch hunt Goodell because YOU are now the witch. We witch hunters don't stop until we get our witch.

BradyToAmendola said:

So is McNally doing anything wrong or...?

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NO!

ESPN just took a crap on a guy who was just doing his job and was victimized by NFL officials!

When does the Hollywood movie come out????????????

So where is Kelly Naqui waiting tables tomorrow?

It's now obvious Goodell's job is past its best before date. This clustereff is under his watch.

Time to step down sir. Enough is enough.

So Kelly Naqi, the writer of the story last night, spent three weeks chasing windmills on a story that it took one day for Adam Schefter to totally blow out of the water.

shmessy said:

Ben Volin ✔ @BenVolin
Interesting: @AdamSchefter just reported that Jim McNally was given footballs from 2 league employees, one of whom has since been fired


Mark Daniels @MarkDanielsPJ
@AdamSchefter drops a bomb and says one of the officials who handled the balls in the AFC championship was fired.


Mark Daniels @MarkDanielsPJ
The unnamed official stole one of the balls because he was going to send it off to his side business. Another ref noticed in game

Jeff Howe @jeffphowe
Bahahahaha RT @BartHubbuch: ESPN: Unnamed NFL official sold one of the Deflategate balls and has been fired. Wow.



@MarkDanielsPJ
Mr. Kraft might want to get ready for that apology...

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I can see how this destroys the already ludicrous OTL story, but I'm not sure how it ends the "deflategate" investigation or keeps it from continuing ad nauseum.

Great find by both you and Danger Zone. This is good news, but I'm still unclear about how good.

shalise manza young ✔ @shalisemyoung
seriously. RT @JDonaldsonProJo: Mr. Kraft? There's a Mr. Goodell on the line. Something about an apology? Are you available? #DeflateGate

patfanken said:

I can see how this destroys the already ludicrous OTL story, but I'm not sure how it ends the "deflategate" investigation or keeps it from continuing ad nauseum.

Great find by both you and Danger Zone. This is good news, but I'm still unclear about how good.

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Yeah that's what I'm wondering.

patfanken said:

I can see how this destroys the already ludicrous OTL story, but I'm not sure how it ends the "deflategate" investigation or keeps it from continuing ad nauseum.

Great find by both you and Danger Zone. This is good news, but I'm still unclear about how good.

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I'm not sure where the mystery is? Look on the previous page where all of Mike_Loyko's tweets were posted. The whole reason there was any issue with footballs to begin with was because one official stole footballs, so another brought in ones from the locker room that were given to the Patriots locker room attendant for circulation. These balls were seen as suspicious, but probably should never have been out there to begin with. Pretty damn big claim.

This takes a huge steamer on the whole inflategate crap. It makes the NFL look foolish and if I was Goodell I would start packing my bags.

signbabybrady said:

My opinion this is the leak that will change public sentiment enough for them to believe the Wells report is not a cover up when we get vindicated.

Maybe wishful thinking on my part but without this falling on the NFL being wrong no one was going to think it wasn't a cover up if we were found innocent.

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I think you may be right. If there's one target NFL fans would be just as happy, if not happier, to take out instead of the Patriots, it's the league itself. This kind of evidence is NBA officiating-level bad.

patfanken said:

I can see how this destroys the already ludicrous OTL story, but I'm not sure how it ends the "deflategate" investigation or keeps it from continuing ad nauseum.

Great find by both you and Danger Zone. This is good news, but I'm still unclear about how good.

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I don't think it ends Deflate-Gate, but it definitely ends IntroducingBalls-Gate.

What I find interesting is if it was the Official stealing footballs that prompted the investigation or is just a separate unrelated incident.

NFL Official #1 steals football.
NFL Official #2 notices footballs are missing and/or replaced and reports discrepancy to the League.
Kensil uses the above as an excuse to come in gunning for the Patriots.

patfanken said:

I can see how this destroys the already ludicrous OTL story, but I'm not sure how it ends the "deflategate" investigation or keeps it from continuing ad nauseum.

Great find by both you and Danger Zone. This is good news, but I'm still unclear about how good.

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It helps in that the whole world sees that the NFL is at fault for something and as you know mobs don't look closely at facts they follow the mob. The heat has shifted to the NFL and the mob might actually believe we're innocent now.

Or as you point out it could be unrelated.

Schefter has kept this one quiet for one reason, the guy actually has some integrity and pride in his work and has obviously been checking, double checking and triple checking ALL of his sources on this before running it.

In one word: PRICELESS!!

Thanks shmessy, dangerzone and others for these updates! Made by day!!

patfanken said:

I can see how this destroys the already ludicrous OTL story, but I'm not sure how it ends the "deflategate" investigation or keeps it from continuing ad nauseum.

Great find by both you and Danger Zone. This is good news, but I'm still unclear about how good.

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Ken, it sheds light on how the NFL OFFICIALS were handling the footballs during the game in general. If they were that lax (or "entrepeneurial") with the K- Balls, how careful could they have been with the other footballs? Who was the "compliance officer" in charge? Could it have been Mr. Kensil?

It has become painfully obvious that league officials were doing some pretty crazy things on the sidelines.

And the Patriots really are the only party at this point who have kept their mouths closed and seem completely innocent.

Big-T said:

Schefter has kept this one quiet for one reason, the guy actually has some integrity and pride in his work and has obviously been checking, double checking and triple checking ALL of his sources on this before running it.

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Schefter is great. I hope he never allows that to change. When other NFL "insiders" report things I am skeptical. When Schefter says it, I believe him.

Bombdog said:

This takes a huge steamer on the whole inflategate crap. It makes the NFL look foolish and if I was Goodell I would start packing my bags.

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The biggest thing is that the NFL did not disclose this information to the public and obviously had NO intention of doing so until Naqi issued her erroneous report and Schefter had to go dig up the truth.

Unbelievable. So the NFL has a crooked official on the payroll selling balls on the side, that's not noteworthy, but a Patriots employee taking a 90 second piss is.

@shmessy - you've had some "it's blowing up threads" before, but you know what, this time it's real. My goodness.