The Published Wells Report.

Deus Irae said:

You're missing the point here. With regards to the teams/coaches/owners, Goodell has an easier time with guilty 'verdicts' and with punishments, because there is no CBA to protect that group.

Kraft can't win. His only other option is to go nuclear despite the findings and impending punishments. I'd go nuclear, and it would be one hell of a press conference when I did so, but that's not Bob's style.

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For his own exoneration, he and Brady should commission their own investigation by a completely different investigating agency with no ties to the Pats or NFL...

IMO a large risk, costly, but potentially a much greater reward..

Dr Pain said:

See that the PSI readings vary by as much as .45 PSI on the same ball and that Blakeman reads every Pats ball significantly lower and every Colts ball significantly higher. From 12.5 at 72 degrees, expected is 11.27 PSI. Prioulea has 8 of 11 above this, one at 11.2, 1 at 11 and 1 at 10.9. Are they claiming the Patriots let out .07 PSI, .27 PSI and .37 PSI on 3 balls only? This is an insane accusation.

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Even if you allow both measurements and simply average both ref's findings out to one total for each ball, you would still only have 5 balls falling below that 11.27 spec, by amounts of 0.57, 0.42, 0.24, 0.14 and 0.12 PSI... You would have to think that at least the last 3 of those could simply be explained by the insertion/removal of the gauge and the battering the took while being handled by LeGarrette Blount. As for the two higher ones, are we expected to believe Jim McNally is secretly ducking into a bathroom to let out 0.5 PSI of two footballs?

grux said:

The NFLPA is going to have a field day with "more probable than not".

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The NFL probably requested that language. I like how the impossibility of deflating 12 balls in 90 seconds played no role.

Tom E. Curran retweeted
Mike Garafolo ‏@MikeGarafolo 2h2 hours ago
Colts warn NFL about deflated balls. Walt Anderson reminded to follow procedure. Balls disappear. No one checks them until halftime? Shady.

SalemPats said:

Why should Brady give his text messages to this farcical witch hunt. Wells and Goodell are the scum of the earth and a waste of life.

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He doesn't have to. I'm just saying it might have helped him clear his name but he decided not to. I'm sure he had his reasons, and it may well have been that he didn't want to add fuel to the fire. That said, by not providing them, it's going to make people suspicious for what was in them. That is human nature.

I'm not sure how anyone could not say there were suspicions about Brady but that doesn't mean Wells should have come to the judgment he did.

Sounds like a year long process to get brady and after all that your evidence is from a disgruntled employee.

How is this even a thing after that

Like I said: next cold weather game, video record the whole process from recording psi pre-game to recording it during half time. See how much the footballs drop in PSI and share it with the world.

I really hope that the Patriots hire lawyers to make Wells and goodell look like idiots. As well Brady should file a defamation suit against the NFL.

Your evidence that brady was involved in this simply because you can't wrap your brain on why someone would do it without his knowledge is fine.

But that's not real evidence to me

BradyManny said:

What, if anything, could TB12 do?

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Appeal. The NFLPA will be on his side, and they've been kicking Goodell's ass in court for years.

I haven't read every page of the report, so I can't give a conclusive take. Here's what I can say, though, based solely upon what I have read:

Unless the texts about the 16 psi by the officials can be specifically traced to a post official check/pre start of game McNally check of the pressure, even a first year lawyer could destroy this report in a court of law.

zimmy said:

He doesn't have to. I'm just saying it might have helped him clear his name but he decided not to. I'm sure he had his reasons, and it may well have been that he didn't want to add fuel to the fire. That said, by not providing them, it's going to make people suspicious for what was in them. That is human nature.

I'm not sure how anyone could not say there were suspicions about Brady but that doesn't mean Wells should have come to the judgment he did.

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That's his personal text messages. He doesn't want to give some idiot any fodder to make him liable. These scumbags will make anything look bad. Don't show them anything is the best approach.

Bobsyouruncle said:

The NFL probably requested that language. I like how the impossibility of deflating 12 balls in 90 seconds played no role.

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Well, see it takes 12 minutes to check 12 footballs, but it only takes 100 seconds to deflate them. Yes, I know the action is basically the same, but one requires reading, and apparently that's a time-consuming process for NFL officials.

What amazes me is that by the scientists own charts, the Patriots balls fall within their bounds, yet they are willing to just accept that the NFL officials took as long as they did. Um, isn't the most likely scenario that the officials just checked them within the first two minutes, and they were exactly what you thought they'd be?

Surprised by such unscientific analysis by scientists.

Bobsyouruncle said:

The NFL probably requested that language. I like how the impossibility of deflating 12 balls in 90 seconds played no role.

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In its very first footnote the report explicitly says the NFL essentially requested the "more probable than not" language:

Wells report said:

Under the Policy [on Integrity of the Game & Enforcement of Competitive Rules], the “standard of proof required to find that a violation of the competitive rules has occurred” is a “Preponderance of the Evidence,” meaning that “as a whole, the fact sought to be proved is more probable than not.”

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rlcarr said:

Agreed.

However, the report says the investigators told Brady they were willing to get the info via Brady's lawyer and that Brady's lawyer could screen out non-germane things:

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Never turn over anything without a warrant.

Let me repeat that:

Never turn over anything without a warrant.

YOUGOTMOSSED said:

I could see this coming a mile away. To all those who thought the Wells report was going to be an objective analysis of evidence by a true neutral- welcome to the real world.

As expected, it's a result-orientated work of art by an advocate of Goodell and the NFL office with specious conclusions based on cherry picked data taken out of context and conjecture.

Moral of the story- The guy you give money to write an "objective" report, probably has the same funny idea of what "objective" means as the guy paying him.

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Lets get real here. Neither the NFL, or Goodell, have a vested interest in damning the Patriots. In fact it's quite the opposite. So I don't believe for a second that the inquiry was designed to be biased against the Patriots. Did they come to the right conclusions, I don't know, but was it a corrupted investigation, I highly doubt it.

Jeff Howe ‏@jeffphowe 1h1 hour ago
"Brady wouldn't let us see his texts!" sounds like every episode of Maury I've ever watched.

shalise manza young ‏@shalisemyoung 1h1 hour ago
8. there's no hard evidence of Brady's involvement but circumstantial - after 6mos of no texts to Jastremski, he began texting him Jan 19;

Bobsyouruncle said:

The NFL probably requested that language. I like how the impossibility of deflating 12 balls in 90 seconds played no role.

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No doubt. They are trying to find a way out of this mess without looking like idiots. To late.

Deus Irae said:

Appeal. The NFLPA will be on his side, and they've been kicking Goodell's ass in court for years.

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But Brady can't appeal until if/when he's suspended.

So I should be rooting for Tom Brady to get suspended.

Oh it's a weird day indeed.

BRADY LIKES THEM AT 12.5

he said so. It's his fault because he told employees they are inflating them too much?

I think not. Telling them how he wants them is not the same as saying he wanted them deflated.

SVN said:

shalise manza young ‏@shalisemyoung 1h1 hour ago
8. there's no hard evidence of Brady's involvement but circumstantial - after 6mos of no texts to Jastremski, he began texting him Jan 19;

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I don't understand why it's odd that Brady would text Jastremski on January 19th after the allegations. Naturally he'd go to the ball handler. I do find it a little odd that they say they weren't talking about the balls specifically, and that's one of the few head scratchers for me on this one.