The Published Wells Report.

SVN said:

@tomecurran Agree with @ESPN_Colin Don't think setting up the Pats was wrong. Even governments operate this way to catch illegal behavior.

Tom E. Curran ‏@tomecurran 17m17 minutes ago
Tom E. Curran retweeted Linda Cobra

Right. Like life-threatening, danger-to-society stuff. Crime.

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It doesn't even matter whether it was right or wrong though. It **proves** that the NFL believed that playing the AFC Championship Game with under-inflated balls was LESS IMPORTANT than catching the Patriots deflating balls.

This implies that either ball pressure does not impact the integrity of the game or the NFL does not care about the integrity of the game. Either the NFL itself cares nothing about integrity or this is much ado about nothing. You simply can't have it both ways.

Essentially the new evidence is that Brady complained about a ball that was likely at 16psi in October. And everything still relies on a guy deflating balls in 90 seconds to a level that's indistinguishable from what the atmospheric conditions could do.

Does that sum up the "proof"?

Hey Mr. Kraft how do you feel about your comments that you praised and trusted Ted Wells to independently investigate this whole thing?

emoney_33 said:

It doesn't even matter whether it was right or wrong though. It **proves** that the NFL believed that playing the AFC Championship Game with under-inflated balls was LESS IMPORTANT than catching the Patriots deflating balls.

This implies that either ball pressure does not impact the integrity of the game or the NFL does not care about the integrity of the game. Either the NFL itself cares nothing about integrity or this is much ado about nothing. You simply can't have it both ways.

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One can argue the validity of a sting operation, or whether this was a textbook sting, but that's not my issue. My issue is that, regardless of how one feels about a sting in general, this one was botched to the point where, allegedly, 1/2 of an NFL conference championship football game was played with illegally doctored footballs, when all that was needed was for the balls to have been re-checked on the sidelines, just prior to game time. When the balls were first checked, the PSIs weren't written down. Then, when they finally did re-check the balls, they didn't even check them all.

It was amateur hour.

upstater1 said:

I don't believe it simply because the balls tested as they should have according to the calculations of the NFL's own Wells report scientists.

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I agree. But I'm just trying to shrink the parameter space in which Brady is actually guilty of something, which is what his goal should be now. He shouldn't hang his hat on the word of these two ball guys.

SVN said:

Christopher Price ‏@cpriceNFL 1m1 minute ago
It Is What It Is >> Tim Hasselbeck on MFB: ‘Where I lost respect is that [Tom Brady] lied about this’ http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports/newengland/football/patriots/2015/05/07/tim-hasselbeck-on-mfb-where-i-lost-respect-is-that-tom-brady-lied-about-this/… via @WEEI

LOL

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The real question is did Hasselbeck weep when saying it?

SVN said:

Christopher Price ‏@cpriceNFL 1m1 minute ago
It Is What It Is >> Tim Hasselbeck on MFB: ‘Where I lost respect is that [Tom Brady] lied about this’ http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports/newengland/football/patriots/2015/05/07/tim-hasselbeck-on-mfb-where-i-lost-respect-is-that-tom-brady-lied-about-this/… via @WEEI

LOL

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and how does Hasselback know this? What a moronic statement to make

Deus Irae said:

One can argue the validity of a sting operation, or whether this was a textbook sting, but that's not my issue. My issue is that, regardless of how one feels about a sting in general, this one was botched to the point where, allegedly, 1/2 of an NFL conference championship football game was played with illegally doctored footballs, when all that was needed was for the balls to have been re-checked on the sidelines, just prior to game time. When the balls were first checked, the PSIs weren't written down. Then, when they finally did re-check the balls, they didn't even check them all.

It was amateur hour.

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Pretty much.

If they would have checked the balls as they are supposed to do, documenting the psi and then checked them again right before kickoff and domumented the difference, we would be in a whole different place. Proof one way or another would be there. Instead, the NFL, as usual, messed up the entire operation and knowingly played a championship game with balls that did not meet regulation.

robertweathers said:

Agreed.

If the league fines TB12 or wishes to suspend him, he will sue. I guarantee it.

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If he does, he'll have to give up his cellphone.

Deus Irae said:

One can argue the validity of a sting operation, or whether this was a textbook sting, but that's not my issue. My issue is that, regardless of how one feels about a sting in general, this one was botched to the point where, allegedly, 1/2 of an NFL conference championship football game was played with illegally doctored footballs, when all that was needed was for the balls to have been re-checked on the sidelines, just prior to game time. When the balls were first checked, the PSIs weren't written down. Then, when they finally did re-check the balls, they didn't even check them all.

It was amateur hour.

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I dont know why this point is being conveniently ignored that half the game allegedly by the NFL themselves was played in doctored footballs thereby affecting the competitive balance .

Bobsyouruncle said:

Essentially the new evidence is that Brady complained about a ball that was likely at 16psi in October. And everything still relies on a guy deflating balls in 90 seconds to a level that's indistinguishable from what the atmospheric conditions could do.

Does that sum up the "proof"?

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He magically deflated the colts footballs too. Because they were also under the PSI limit

shmessy said:

If he does, he'll have to give up his cellphone.

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No. We are talking about a court of law. Not some 1/2 assed, railroad of a so-called independent investigation.

It would be a defamation suit to prove that the NFL reduced Brady's public image. Not set out to prove TB ordered a code red on footballs.

I must confess that I didn't read the entire report, which included text messages from Patriots personnel, but where are the text messages from the following individuals?

1) Kensil
2) Blandino
3) Anderson
4) Grigson
5) Irsay
6) Harbaugh

Wouldn't they have been questioned as well? And wouldn't they have been asked for their cell phone information, whereby their consent or refusal (to provide same) would also come into play in Wells' determination??

Also (and I'm sure this has already been suggested by others), wouldn't the matter of 16 PSI footballs (Jets game) be a non-issue if they routinely altered/tampered with them to get them to the "desired level"?? It wouldn't even have caused TB to raise an eyebrow...knowing full well that he had given instruction to the equipment personnel to deflate them to 12.5 PSI (or below?....assuming he ever did so). This alone calls into question any "preponderance of evidence" stuff....in that, if anything, the text messages would indicate that there was NO outright direction....nor understanding...by the equipment folks to deflate the footballs to any specific number, or below any specific number. What I DO believe was the case, is that the equipment personnel had a direct understanding that TB did not like over-inflated footballs. And that's really the only determination that a fair and unbiased investigation could conclude. Bottom line: The mere fact that he evidently got upset after the Jets game, would indicate that there was no explicit direction in place.

robertweathers said:

No. We are talking about a court of law. Not some 1/2 assed, railroad of a so-called independent investigation.

It would be a defamation suit to prove that the NFL reduced Brady's public image. Not set out to prove TB ordered a code red on footballs.

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Truth is a defense to defamation. The texts would be in play. Now, as to whether they could get his whole phone, that's a different question.

KontradictioN said:

On ESPN?

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Yes. Brady's people are only allowing press for the first 5 minutes of the interview for filming purposes. He will not be taking any questions from the press. Fans only. I don't know what happens after the 5. Maybe he'll have a feed on his Facebook page...?

TheBostonStraggler said:

The real question is did Hasselbeck weep when saying it?

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No Problem Timmy nobody around here ever respected you.

I finally made it through this entire thread and read some portions of the Wells report.

What jumps out the most to me is, if there really was some tampering going on, how little the league did about it before the game.

The Colts emailed the league office the week before the game and the message was passed around to various game operations people. On game day, Blandino spoke with Anderson, but didn't emphasize anything about potential tampering with the footballs or recommend that he document the pregame PSI.

When it came time for the balls to be moved to the field, the league followed their normal procedure. They could have had a league employee do that job or assign someone to escort McNally. This would have addressed the Colts concern, as it would have eliminated the opportunity for someone to tamper with them.

At halftime, instead of having the game officials measure the PSI in the balls, they could have had 2 non-working officials or league officials do it. That would have ensured that all the balls were tested.

Even if the league didn't notify the Patriots about any of this before the game, they could have explained things after and said they would be keeping an eye out for this sort of thing in the future. This would have avoided the whole controversy, the report, everything. I don't know if the league didn't consider this a high priority before the game or if they did and went about in the most ineffective way possible.

Tom E. Curran retweeted
bd ‏@OpeenIce 15m15 minutes ago
@tomecurran why can't you people in Boston just take responsibility and admit to the cheating and move on? Makes you all look bad.

SVN said:

Tom E. Curran retweeted
bd ‏@OpeenIce 15m15 minutes ago
@tomecurran why can't you people in Boston just take responsibility and admit to the cheating and move on? Makes you all look bad.

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Its amazing that the best they can come up with is 'more probably than not' something happened and 'more probably than not' Brady has some general knowledge of it, so that comes to what, about 25% chance that something did happen and Brady was aware, not involved, but aware, and the general tone across the country is Brady was proven to be a cheater.