McNulty or NFL Refs: Who Sabotaged Tom Brady in October?

[PatSunday]

The ball carrier, Jim McNally, called himself “the deflater” at the start of the season in a joke text message. His entire part-time job with the Patriots since 2007 is being the only employee in the officials locker room pre-game as they measure balls. His job is to convince them to let air out down to 12.5 and not be satisfied at 13 or 13.5, even though he doesn’t have any control over the ball pressure himself.

In October, Tom Brady noticed that the balls felt wrong, like bricks, and they were measured to be 16 psi after the game. 16 psi is how Aaron Rodgers likes it and over 2.5 PSI above the limit. Tom Brady was angry during the game. He asked the ball preparer to get Jim McNally to show the rulebook to the refs every week, and to specifically ask for 12.5 PSI.

The "needle” Jim McNally was supposed to receive and bring the officials locker room is probably a copy of the page in the rulebook that Tom Brady mentioned earlier. Leaving the balls anywhere 12.5 to 13.5 is 100% the official’s decision but there’s no harm in being friendly and asking them to leave it at 12.5.

The autographs Jim McNally received from Brady as a result could be rewards because things improved. Given that earlier in the season the balls were 16 psi, and now were at 12.5 psi, Brady could assume the officials started listening — not foul play by McNally.

So, was there foul play?

Point #1) Yes, it is possible that Jim McNally got arrogant in the AFFCG game and decided to take things into his own hands, and try to release some air in the AFCCG in a bathroom, anticipating even more autographs (without Brady realizing why the balls felt that way that day.) Ted Wells alludes to this, but says Brady must have requested specific ball tampering.

Point #2) However, if anyone believes there was tampering, it would be in October. It's an important but low-key regular season game against a division rival, and the balls were inflated way above legal standard to piss off Brady. A third-party confirmed the balls were 16 psi after the game.

Either McNully did it to earn more autographs later in the year once the balls were at normal levels, or the referees did it. As we learned from the Ted Wells report, the referees are fault-less. By that logic, it had to McNally’s doing. Regardless of why the psi was so out of range, Brady assumed it was because of the referees. Who wouldn't? He would never suspect McNally was sabotaging him.

But McNally was asking for free stuff all season long. He had possession of the footballs and the ability to influence officials as well as Brady's ball-preparer into thinking one thing or another.

16 PSI instead of 12.5? If there was one time McNally was guilty of using an actual needle, it would have been in October.

In conclusion, there are many other things more likely than “Tom Brady asked a guy to stick a physical needle into the footballs that were already at 12.5, to remove even more air in the 2nd most important game of the year."

After all, McNally would be in the locker room that entire time and know that the referees left it at 12.5 (what was Brady's preference, and the referees left it at that because of the "sting"). If we are to believe McNally brought an actual needle to follow Brady's orders, he'd have no reason take Pats and Colts balls out of the room without permission and remove air at all.

On the other hand, if McNally caused the 16 psi issue earlier in the season to piss off Brady, and expected even more awesome rewards for providing footballs that felt good now that they reached the AFCCG, it makes it more logical he would also deflate the balls lower than 12.5 without telling anyone, since he got away with it back in October already.

 

[Uncle Rico]

This is part of what I'm not understanding in all this. The texts are about Brady's complaints that the balls vs the Jets were 16 PSI or so. So he wanted them not to be so inflated. And that proves he was "generally aware" that the balls would be deflated after the officials approved them for the AFCCG?

 

[borg]

The "needle” Jim McNally was supposed to receive and bring the officials locker room is probably a copy of the page in the rulebook that Tom Brady mentioned earlier.

Really?????
You are embarrassing yourself with such absurdity?
Please continue

 

[PatSunday]

This is part of what I'm not understanding in all this. The texts are about Brady's complaints that the balls vs the Jets were 16 PSI or so. So he wanted them not to be so inflated. And that proves he was "generally aware" that the balls would be deflated after the officials approved them for the AFCCG?

Exactly. Brady got sucked into this for the first time after the home game against the Jets. Brady's trusted assistant confirmed the balls were 16 PSI after the game. Brady asked the assistant to get McNally a rulebook and have him ask for it to be 12.5. Brady thought the referees screwed it up. But if we believe that referees are faultless like the Ted Wells report does, it makes it way more logical that McNally purposely tampered with the balls in October, if ever.

McNally's entire role is that he wanted autographs all the time. Brady's assistant started trying to make sure McNally got the officials to understand that 12.5 was legal and let air out. If anything, McNally got arrogant and started trying to take things into his own hands in October shortly after the media claimed the Patriots were no longer a dynasty and Brady should retire, to get more autographs as possible.

The investigation was limited to the AFCCG. What happened in the Jets @ Pats game seems way more interesting. That's the time period when Brady was actually complaining about over-inflation. The balls were at 16 psi, so I don't blame him.

The Ted Wells report admits in its conclusion, as did the Pats lawyers, that the text messages were likely jokes. However, the report says it still points to suspicious activity -- and I don't disagree. But it doesn't mean Brady specifically asked to have air taken out of balls that were already at 12.5 psi. That's a stupid conclusion for a report to make.

Now, did Brady ever ask to let air out the next time the balls are at 16 psi? I think at that point it would be easier to plead to the referees to get it right before the game, as they're never measured or inflated again after no matter what the quarterback asks for. And that's what Brady did - he asked his assistant to get McNally to show the rulebook and ask for 12.5.

Hopefully, the NFL passes a rule that ball pressure must be recorded at the start of the game. Secondly, they should allow quarterbacks to ask for some balls to be measured and adjusted to a particular number the quarterback wants (12.5 - 13.5) during a team timeout. Otherwise, players and coaches can look at the report and say, 16 psi is a bit much, but cannot do anything about it during the game. Right now, the psi is not recorded and never measured again after it leaves the locker room, even if the quarterback finds issues with it.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Exactly. Brady got sucked into this for the first time after the home game against the Jets. Brady's trusted assistant confirmed the balls were 16 PSI after the game. Brady asked the assistant to get McNally a rulebook and have him ask for it to be 12.5. Brady thought the referees screwed it up. But if we believe that referees are faultless like the Ted Wells report does, it makes it way more logical that McNally purposely tampered with the balls in October, if ever.

McNally's entire role is that he wanted autographs all the time. Brady's assistant started trying to make sure McNally got the officials to understand that 12.5 was legal and let air out. If anything, McNally got arrogant and started trying to take things into his own hands in October shortly after the media claimed the Patriots were no longer a dynasty and Brady should retire, to get more autographs as possible.

The investigation was limited to the AFCCG. What happened in the Jets @ Pats game seems way more interesting. That's the time period when Brady was actually complaining about over-inflation. The balls were at 16 psi, so I don't blame him.

The Ted Wells report admits in its conclusion, as did the Pats lawyers, that the text messages were likely jokes. However, the report says it still points to suspicious activity -- and I don't disagree. But it doesn't mean Brady specifically asked to have air taken out of balls that were already at 12.5 psi. That's a stupid conclusion for a report to make.

Now, did Brady ever ask to let air out the next time the balls are at 16 psi? I think at that point it would be easier to plead to the referees to get it right before the game, as they're never measured or inflated again after no matter what the quarterback asks for. And that's what Brady did - he asked his assistant to get McNally to show the rulebook and ask for 12.5.

Hopefully, the NFL passes a rule that ball pressure must be recorded at the start of the game. Secondly, they should allow quarterbacks to ask for some balls to be measured and adjusted to a particular number the quarterback wants (12.5 - 13.5) during a team timeout. Otherwise, players and coaches can look at the report and say, 16 psi is a bit much, but cannot do anything about it during the game. Right now, the psi is not recorded and never measured again after it leaves the locker room, even if the quarterback finds issues with it.

If the NFL has an ounce of intelligence (it doesn't), it will just take gameday balls out of the teams' hands entirely, and provide standard issue broken-in balls that never leave the refs' custody. Which will make it hilarious when Brady is among the QBs least affected by this change.

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

So I assume s new investigation has been opened into the referees since 16.0 is a much greater error than the .3 psi of this investigation? This has to be the greatest scandal of all time, a 2.5 psi or greater increase is impossible.

 

[DaBronxPats14]

MAN! Now I have to deflate my footballs to Regulation PSIs! Am I still Elite?
-Aaron Rodgers

 

[Ross12]

McNally does threaten to make them "watermelons" etc multiple times... It's seen as a joke but could be a real threat too. He could have made them 16 PSI in October and the refs just totally didn't notice when he submitted them, then Brady was pissed off. So McNally makes comments about wanting rewards to keep the balls at the right level.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

If the NFL has an ounce of intelligence (it doesn't), it will just take gameday balls out of the teams' hands entirely, and provide standard issue broken-in balls that never leave the refs' custody. Which will make it hilarious when Brady is among the QBs least affected by this change.

Of course, Brady was one of the point men who led the charge to put gameday balls into the QBs' hands.

 

[IllegalContact]

more than anything, the texts show the ball guys trying to mess with brady rather than doing things exactly how brady wanted them

 

[PatSunday]

Ted Wells' claims for the AFCCG only hold true if you assume the referees are faultless. If we believe that, then why was the ball 16 psi in October? By that logic, the only explanation would be McNully, right?

Unfortunately, there are no surveillance videos from back then, and they did not have time to investigate this or interview referees who worked that game during the four month long investigation.

But Tom clearly argued against that day. He was really angry during the game and asked to have the ball boy (McNully) bring a rulebook to the officials to make sure they know that 12.5 is okay.

And McNully joked he has the power to make the balls bigger if he doesn't get more swag. As far as Brady and his assistant know, McNully is doing his best to persuade the referees. He doesn't realize McNully sabotaged him in October by actually using a needle. Or that McNully wanted to lower the air pressure in the AFCCG to get signed game balls.

Unrealistic? The guy has worked in that exact role since 2007 and knows everyone at Gillette as well as the old stadium since the mid 1990's.

Unrealistic? The NFL fired their employee 20 years ago for stealing game balls to sell instead of charity. Just kidding, not 20 years ago -- this happened at the exact same AFCCG!

Brady has no reason to ask to inflate to 16 psi and the referees have no reason to do that, either.

Also, Brady has never complained again after that. Presumably, McNulty became good at convincing the referees, which is why Brady took 30 seconds of his day to sign some things after the wins. In reality, McNulty simply stopped sabotaging.

And in the AFCCG, there is no logical answer why Brady would ask for something like that at any point, especially, then. McNulty wanted to grab some footballs and get them autographed to make thousands of dollars on eBay in the lead-up to the Super Bowl and wanted to help with the win by releasing just a bit of air, in case the referees made it 13.5. Brady had nothing to do with it.

Brady is the last athlete in any sport who needs the money, negative press, or more questionable championships, or more distractions in preparing for the next one. It doesn't even make sense!

On other hand, an arrogant man who asks for swag all season long and worked for the team part-time for majority of his lifetime, and talks about himself in third person, has all the motive in the world. Like I keep saying, 16 psi is a bigger question than the balls in the AFCCG.

 

[Ivan]

The bottom line for me is that there is absolutely no evidence of any kind that Brady ever asked for balls that were below regulation. There is circumstantial evidence he wanted them at 12.5 and pushed the ball guys to get them there but nothing suggesting he wanted them lower than that. Rewarding locker room guys is a time honored tradition in all sports and acting as if it's a sign of wrongdoing is a load of crap. Kraft can do what he wants but Brady should fight this.

 

[farn]

The texts - regardless of how one interprets them - are the real problem. A normal person without a horse in the race, can see them in many different ways. A zealous hater (or supporter) can twist the texts to mean what they want.

Reiss mentions the Colts' role not being addressed. Even Florio suggests that even though the conclusion is that there was no anti-Patriot sentiment, that the info there looks as though there was a sting.

 

[Jercules]

The Patriots concluded that the over-inflated balls in that Jets game were the fault of the refs. I can't see any reason to doubt that.

Shows you how wickedly serious ball psi was taken by officials before Grigson piped up. They presumably had a few Pats balls under-inflated in the pregame inspection, and added enough air to put at least one of them 2.5 psi over the limit. Brady even needed McNally to start reminding them what the pressures were supposed to be.

Some of them use their own gauges, some of them use the ones provided by the team, some refs do it themselves, others delegate, nobody records the pressure amounts on testing...

And the part about McNally taking the balls to the field without an escort? The interviewed officials were, of course, aghast at this incredible breach of protocol, but the security people indicated it was rather commonplace. Wells doesn't resolve the discrepancy, he just basically ignores the testimony of the security people in his summary.

If there's anything screwy with this report, it's making the officials out to be perfectly noble and militant followers of protocol for ball preparation and testing.

 

[patriot1136]

Shouldn't someone get in trouble for the balls in October being at 16 psi? That is a violation since it is over the approved limit of 12.5 to 13.5