The New England Patriots ball boy voiced his displeasure with Tom Brady and tried to extort him to deflate the balls as he preferred them.
The long awaited Wells Report in regards to the New England Patriots and the famous deflated football scandal has finally been released, and it is quite damning. The report not only determined that Patriots personnel were aware of the deflated footballs, but that quarterback Tom Brady was at least generally aware of the intent to intentionally deflate footballs.
The Wells Report singled out two individuals, locker room attendant Jim McNally and his assistant John Jastremski. They include a text message from McNally where he refers to himself specifically as “the deflator.”
From a text message in May of 2014, McNally texted Jastremski: “Nice dude….jimmy needs some kicks….lets make a deal…..come on help the deflator.”
After a period of non-response, McNally followed it up with: “Chill buddy im just f**kin with you ….im not going to espn……..yet.”
Those text messages show McNally threatening to blow the whistle on the deflated football situation before it was ever a thing, a year ago before the 2014 season ever started. He also appears to be trying to extort Tom Brady in order to comply with how he likes footballs and to remain silent.
It gets even more damning when they begin to discuss the balls from the game between the Patriots and the Jets on October 16, 2014. During the game Brady apparently complained to Jastremski about the balls being over inflated during the game and said something to him along the lines of “isn‟t he in there to make sure the balls are staying where they should be?”
That seems to peg Brady for being fully aware of what was going on with the balls and that they weren’t able to get the balls deflated after the referees examined them to where Brady liked them.
During the game, Jastremski texted someone about the balls being under inflated. Then the next morning McNally and Jastremski exchanged text messages and McNally went on a rant about Brady, and even threatened to intentionally over inflate the balls after taking offense to Brady’s comments and feelings about the ball.
Before the game next week, McNally continued to rant about Brady and reference an intent to inflate the balls beyond Brady’s likening.
The day after that, McNally again makes a comment about wanting some sort of compensation to comply with Brady’s desires.
Wells explains in his report that the needle reference in those comments is what McNally would be given to use to deflate the footballs before the game. If the needle isn’t coming to him with cash or new shoes, he is going to inflate the balls so they feel like rugby balls, which are bigger than footballs and harder to palm. Rugby players typically use two hands to pass the ball to one another because of their size.
This wasn’t the only instance either, McNally held the grudge and continued to make comments like this. The Wells report does not that McNally described these texts as jokes, and that the report thinks that “is likely the case.”
“McNally described these texts as jokes, which we think is likely the case,” the Wells Report reads. “Specifically, on December 5, 2014, the Boston Celtics were playing the Los Angeles Lakers in Boston and McNally had been asking Jastremski to get them tickets to a Celtics-Lakers game for years. McNally said the joke was that Brady should get them courtside seats for the game. With regard to the Uggs, McNally said that around the holidays each year Brady gives Uggs footwear to certain Patriots staff members, but that McNally has never received them. He explained that his message was a humorous response to a news report on Brady‟s distribution of Uggs in 2014.”
The following paragraph details an incident in January when Brady signed footballs and a game-worn jersey for McNally, while selecting the footballs he’d use during the divisional playoff game between the Patriots and the Ravens.
More from New England Patriots
- Patriots backup plan for DeAndre Hopkins is a shot in the dark
- NFL rumors: Patriots screwed themselves with DeAndre Hopkins pursuit
- Bill O’Brien arrival did not end the road for one disliked Patriots coach
- 3 biggest mistakes from the NFL offseason
- NFL Rumors: Dalvin Cook free agency complicated by court filing