The question that needs to be asked: Why did McNally call himself the "deflator"?

sieglo said:

If Brady had him illegally deflating balls prior to the Jets game, then why is it after the Jets game Brady goes to Jastremski with the rule book citation and asks him to make sure the balls are at 13?

It just makes no sense.

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Yeah, the timeline really, really doesn't sync at ALL.

May - McNally calls himself 'the deflator'; Wells assumes this to mean McNally is in charge of illegally deflating footballs after officials have measured them.

October - McNally and Jastremski text about overinflated balls during the Jets game (16 psi), and how pissed Brady is. This calls into question the assumption above, that McNally's been deflating footballs after officials measure them. Brady tells Jastremski to have the McNally bring the rulebook to the officials, to show them the correct range.

In what world does it make sense that Brady would do this if McNally ('the deflator') had been tasked with deflating footballs? Did he have the foresight to get that documented in case they were caught, to say 'no I told them to talk to the officials about the PSI!'

The only thing you can conclude from this is that Brady wanted McNally to bring the rule to the officials attention. The 'deflator' comment from earlier in the year is directly contradicted by both the Jets balls being overinflated, and the request to have McNally talk to officials. It's just like the intercepted football measuring at 11.7-11.4 psi: it's clear as day if you choose to use basic fifth grade logic. Wells chose not to, and he's gonna get burned because of it.

I'm not worried about the ESPN comment. He made jokes in October about secretly recording teams' practices and being out of film while calling Belichick a goon. He obviously kids about this sort of thing. http://www.csnne.com/new-england-patriots/wells-report-lost-text-messages

Regarding the nickname: Brady likes balls at 12.5. When Jastremski sets them at or close to that, sometimes they fall below that when the refs measure them. The refs then add air, often too much, and Brady is not happy. Since McNally is the only Pats employee with the refs at that time, Jastremski has instructed him to tell the refs to deflate them back down to 12.5. McNally doesn't like having this responsibility, so each gripes or jokes about it to Jastremski calling himself the Deflator.

Obviously, I don't know, but I think this is a reasonable guess.

NashuaPats said:

I'm not worried about the ESPN comment. He made jokes in October about secretly recording teams' practices and being out of film while calling Belichick a goon. He obviously kids about this sort of thing. http://www.csnne.com/new-england-patriots/wells-report-lost-text-messages

Regarding the nickname: Brady likes balls at 12.5. When Jastremski sets them at or close to that, sometimes they fall below that when the refs measure them. The refs then add air, often too much, and Brady is not happy. Since McNally is the only Pats employee with the refs at that time, Jastremski has instructed him to tell the refs to deflate them back down to 12.5. McNally doesn't like having this responsibility, so each gripes or jokes about it to Jastremski calling himself the Deflator.

Obviously, I don't know, but I think this is a reasonable guess.

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The Belichick stuff is a joke that the article's writer inserted, in an attempt to show the problem with Wells' text arguments. Levine did a lousy job of explaining what he was doing.

... ohhh for fck sake people, take the phone of any man between the ages of 20 to 45; look for the texts, and i'm ready to bet you'll find some mentioning balls, deflated, inflated or otherwise... .
That mof would've found a "preponderance of evidence" regardless of how the guy called himself...

The word Deflator was referenced 16 times in the Wells report. There was no reference to Wells ever asking McNally why he was called the Deflator when his regular nickname was Bird. I was wondering why Wells never asked that important question. Wells in his recent interview said that he wanted to ask about the Deflator nickname and had requested another interview with McNally that he says was denied.

I find it ironic that Wells takes the nickname Deflator at it's literal meaning while completly ignoring that the same logic to the nickname Bird should mean that McNally could fly and had feathers.

McNally calls himself the "deflator" on May 9, 2014 at 4:30 PM. This is 2.5 hours before the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He texts JJ to see if he is working and seems pleased to find out he is. His text makes reference to "jimmy needs some new kicks", which is very similar to the popular betting phrase "daddy/baby needs a new pair of shoes". He's asking JJ to "make a deal" to "help the deflator". He follows this with "chill buddy, not going to espn.....yet". This reads like he might want to get some inside information that ESPN might find interesting and that would be profitable to him. Inside track on upcoming draft movements to make some side bets? It doesn't explain the nickname "deflator" but it does give some alternate context.

The last place I worked at we had a manager who's job was to
fire people.He was a fit guy who we called the Terminator
along with the bumbumbumbum ....song.He was nice Guy who hated that part of his job and never did he do anything illegal.

its just a nickname,

Also, Well's assumes that the texts also show that Brady is bribing these guys to tamper with the balls by giving them gifts. Hinting that it had been going on previously yet offers no evidence that a ball was actually ever deflated. In fact Anderson says it's the first time in his 19 years that the balls were taken out early (and no other ref has stepped forward to say it happened to them) so it would be impossible for McNally to deflate the balls - unless of course he did it on the sideline.

So, according to Wells, the Pats were cooking this scheme since at least May '14 to wait for the right chance for McNally to sneak in, get the balls early, run into the bathroom for 90 seconds, remove about .1 - .5 psi from each of 12 - 24 balls and them get them on the field. What criminal masterminds.

It really isn't a question that needs to be asked.

According to the report, from memory, these guys have had a bromance going for 20 years, and apparently the single reference they found to the insidious 'deflator' is a single out of context text in may, out of probably thousands of texts.

These things are cherry picked out of longer convos with big suspicious unexplained gaps.

They submit about 24 balls week 1, and once the ref marks them wouldn't they have to be retired?
If you really need a story beyond wtf knows, maybe he's the Korean slave girl making sneakers in the sweatshop that has to prep hundreds of balls.

Why may, of all times?

Where are all the incriminating texts immediately following the colts game?

How would Brady be playing with a 16 pound ball.

I'm content to say I have no idea wtf anybody's doing and this report sheds no more light than exponent's findings on second hand smoke.

Usually when you investigate a murder you start with a body?
Where's the body?

He called himself the DEAF LA THOR
DEAF because he cant hear the haters
LA because the chargers will be moved to that city
THOR because he used a hammer to put the footballs in the 12.5 psi limit

Wells is biased and reads deflator.

Why wasn't more emphasis placed on whether or not McNally ever brought the balls into the bathroom before? Either way it should have been documented in the report why this was or was not confirmed. It's the logical next step, not going after text messages. Honestly I don't think they even had legal basis to subpoena (if this were a trial) text messages unless they can prove he brings the balls into the bathroom every home game. You still just have a guy going to pee.

Canuck said:

The word Deflator was referenced 16 times in the Wells report. There was no reference to Wells ever asking McNally why he was called the Deflator when his regular nickname was Bird. I was wondering why Wells never asked that important question. Wells in his recent interview said that he wanted to ask about the Deflator nickname and had requested another interview with McNally that he says was denied.

I find it ironic that Wells takes the nickname Deflator at it's literal meaning while completly ignoring that the same logic to the nickname Bird should mean that McNally could fly and had feathers.

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The reason there is no reference is because that's what Wells wanted ask McNally in the 5th/2nd interview. They didn't have the texts until after Wells interviewed him.

zgotts said:

So the logical next step is to ask McNally the question - what do those texts mean? Why do you call yourself the "deflator"?

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The answer has seemed obvious to me from the get go.

If I am trying to get an object filled to a precise pressure level, here's how I do it:

1. Overfill the object with air
2. Use a pressure gauge with a release valve to slowly and steadily release air
3. Stop when I see the gauge drop to the desired level.
4. Done.

When you get your good pressure taken, what do they do? Overinflated the cuff to cut off the circulation and then release the pressure via release valve so that it falls steadily. Note when your blood begins to flow again.

The focus of that whole process is on deflation after the initial overinflation.

Common-f*@king-sense!

NashuaPats said:

I'm not worried about the ESPN comment. He made jokes in October about secretly recording teams' practices and being out of film while calling Belichick a goon. He obviously kids about this sort of thing. http://www.csnne.com/new-england-patriots/wells-report-lost-text-messages

Regarding the nickname: Brady likes balls at 12.5. When Jastremski sets them at or close to that, sometimes they fall below that when the refs measure them. The refs then add air, often too much, and Brady is not happy. Since McNally is the only Pats employee with the refs at that time, Jastremski has instructed him to tell the refs to deflate them back down to 12.5. McNally doesn't like having this responsibility, so each gripes or jokes about it to Jastremski calling himself the Deflator.

Obviously, I don't know, but I think this is a reasonable guess.

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It's really shoddy of Levine to put that stuff in the article you quote. Satire is hard to write, but when you're writing it about something like this sham, it's even harder - because half of what's not satire is seen as satirical!

I'm assuming that the insertion of those extra text lines was meant as satire, since there's no way he got into Jastremski's account without Jastremski...

He did a disservice to Pats fans who are out on antisocial media waging war for their team - I'm sure many will mistake his satire for evidence and will be lambasted for it.

Why did McNally call himself the "deflator"?

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IDK, but I'm not worried about it.

First of all, this sudden revelation was a bit too perfect to fit the NFL's agenda
Second, he seems to be quite the bitter jokester in his texts
And finally, he might want to seem more important than he is

50-yard-line said:

It's really shoddy of Levine to put that stuff in the article you quote. Satire is hard to write, but when you're writing it about something like this sham, it's even harder - because half of what's not satire is seen as satirical!

I'm assuming that the insertion of those extra text lines was meant as satire, since there's no way he got into Jastremski's account without Jastremski...

He did a disservice to Pats fans who are out on antisocial media waging war for their team - I'm sure many will mistake his satire for evidence and will be lambasted for it.

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Yeah, while I was confused how he got those texts, the satire flew right over my head.

Deus Irae said:

Wells clearly slants everything. Check out this footnote (#47, page 75):



First, written interrogatories ARE a traditional investigative method. Second, agreeing on the range of topics in advance is not something particularly unusual. Third, as I've mentioned before regarding telephonic depositions, telephone interviews happen all the time.


So Wells berates the Patriots for 'refusing' to give him McNally, but only acknowledges that he was demanding an all-or-nothing interview in the footnotes.


In situations of this nature, an independent investigator is supposed to be impartial and unbiased, and interested only in getting the truth, as opposed to proving a narrative. Wells clearly failed on that.

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FWIW, the one time I was involved in an investigation--a federal criminal investigation, no less--I was interviewed exclusively by telephone.

Uh Oh.................. I think I might be in trouble.

Just looked at my few of my text from when this all went down (January). A buddy of mine (friggen Bills fan) texted me and said ("Yo dude, your boy Brady likes his balls nice and soft, eh? CHEATRIOTS.), to which I replied (Keep on barking dog........... I'll deflate your balls even more then then Brady likes)......

I think I might be the deflator? Good thing Wells didn't get a hold of my phone.

**** Tom.

upstater1 said:

Because Brady would have him deflate balls after the refs checked them in the past. It all started in May 2014.

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Uhh. I don't think the NFL plays any games in May. Haven't played since the first of Feb. Won't play again until the regular season in September.

Oh, wait, was Brady cheating during OTA and training camp, too. Oh my. That is serious! Burn him....