New England Patriots issue a response to the Wells Report

The Patriots responded to the Wells Report, which led to large penalties for the team, by linking to a site that broke down the inconsistencies in the report.

On Monday, the New England Patriots were hammered with a four game suspension for Tom Brady, a $1 million fine and the loss of their first round draft pick in 2016. This was all the result of the Wells Report, which showed the guilt of Tom Brady and the training staff in deflating footballs in the Patriots 45-7 victory over the Indianapolis Colts.

This massive punishment was obviously not going to be taken so easily by the Patriots, so the lawyers for the Patriots linked to a website of their own creation, WellsReportContext.com, to cut down the legitimacy of the report.

From WellsReportContext.com:

"“The conclusions of the Wells Report are, at best, incomplete, incorrect and lack context. The Report dismisses the scientific explanation for the natural loss of psi of the Patriots footballs by inexplicably rejecting the Referee’s recollection of what gauge he used in his pregame inspection. Texts acknowledged to be attempts at humor and exaggeration are nevertheless interpreted as a plot to improperly deflate footballs, even though none of them refer to any such plot. There is no evidence that Tom Brady preferred footballs that were lower than 12.5 psi and no evidence anyone even thought that he did. All the extensive evidence which contradicts how the texts are interpreted by the investigators is simply dismissed as “not plausible.” Inconsistencies in logic and evidence are ignored.”"

Ignoring some of the more technical details (which can be read in the response), the response is a dubious idea at best.

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On one hand, the report is clearly flawed, and the Patriots lawyers do point out the inconsistencies in the language that the report uses and their misinterpretations of things that are clearly jokes. This can either mean one of two things for the NFL. Either the investigation was incompetent enough to not fully investigate quotes and evidence in the context rather than the content, OR the league was eager enough to punish the Patriots that they would be willing to take things out of context and paint the Patriots as guilty.

In all likelihood it is the former. However, since I’m wearing a tin foil hat, I see the degree of the penalty. If the purpose of the penalty was to deter the Patriots and any other team in the league from manipulating equipment illegally, then simply using any of the three elements by itself (Brady’s four game suspension, $1 million fine, loss of 2016 1st round draft pick) would have been enough to accomplish that.

The competitive advantage for the Patriots was too small for a team or a player to even consider risking a one game suspension. Clearly deterrance was secondary to retribution against Brady and the Patriots. This can’t be a case of a repeat offense from “SpyGate” because SpyGate was the fault of head coach Bill Belichick, while this is Brady.

On the other hand, a lot of the inconsistencies pointed out in the rebuttal come across as stretching for excuses. One in particular that stands out involving John Jastremski (the man in charge of deflating footballs) and a coworker:

"Mr. Jastremski would sometimes work out and bulk up — he is a slender guy and his goal was to get to 200 pounds. Mr. McNally is a big fellow and had the opposite goal: to lose weight. “Deflate” was a term they used to refer to losing weight. One can specifically see this use of the term in a Nov. 30, 2014 text from Mr. McNally to Mr. Jastremski: “deflate and give somebody that jacket.” (p. 87). This banter, and Mr. McNally’s goal of losing weight, meant Mr. McNally was the “deflator.”"

Oh really? How convenient. It’s like that third grader whose mother also writes like a third grader. That’s why all of the notes from home have Spaghetti-O’s stains.

If anything, this response is going to put the Patriots into a deeper hole with the league. Certainly the league was too aggressive with their punishment, but the Patriots lawyers’ hyper-attention to detail and semantics makes them seem even more guilty.

No one looks good after this report or after the response, except for perhaps the NBA.

[H/T: WellsReportContext.com]

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