Patriots' AFC Championship Footballs Were Deflated; Tom Brady Possibly Knew

Earlier today, a 243-page report commissioned by the NFL was released. The outcome? The short of it was that footballs from the first half of the AFC Championship Game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts were, in fact, deflated to benefit the hometown Patriots. NE quarterback stood firm on the stance that he knew nothing of any sort of tampering on those footballs. The report released today says otherwise.

Attorney Ted Wells led the investigation and said, "Based on the evidence, it also is our view that it is more probable than not that Tom Brady ... was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities ... involving the release of air from Patriots game balls."

The report named Jim McNally (the Officials Locker Room Attendant for the Patriots) and John Jastremski (Patriots' equipment assistant)  as taking part in "a deliberate effort to release air from Patriots game balls after the balls were examined by referees." 

Wells did say that there was no reason to believe Patriots ownership, coach Bill Belichick or Head Equipment Manager Dave Schoenfield had any knowledge of any footballs being deflated.

I'll spare you all the mind-numbing details of the report but basically, NFL rules dictate that footballs should be inflated somewhere between 12.5 and 13.5 psi. According to several statements in the report, Tom Brady likes the footballs he throws to be right at the league minimum of 12.5 psi with the thought being that the more deflated the footballs are, the easier it is for a QB to grip them. According to the report, Brady would get angry at the equipment staff whenever he thought the footballs were overly inflated. 

The pre-inspected footballs (with the proper air pressure) were missing prior to the AFC Championship game and security camera evidence showed that the balls were taken by McNally, who locked himself in a bathroom with the bag of footballs for one minute and forty seconds before returning the bag of footballs back to the field.
At halftime, officials checked the pressures of 11 of the Patriots' footballs, every single one of them were below 12.5 psi. 

Suspicions of Brady's knowledge were heightened by the frequency of text messages and phone calls between Brady, Jestremski and McNally immediately after ball tampering allegations were made public. Brady had not contacted either man by phone for 6 months prior.

The only thing linking Brady to having prior knowledge of tampering were a select couple of texts that alluded that he might know about the activities of McNally. But is that enough to punish Brady? The NFL is apparently already looking into disciplinary action against all 3 men. If I had to guess, all three will face fines but I'd have to guess that Jestremski and McNally days with the Patriots organization will be coming to an end sooner than later.

And before everybody jumps to rash conclusions about what should be done. No, vacating the Patriots' Super Bowl win this year would not be justified. All evidence provided that this was only done between two, possibly three people and also, would a deflated football really give the Patriots that much of a competitive advantage? Deflated balls don't account for poor play by the Colts in the AFC Championship and it absolutely don't account for Seahawks coach Pete Carroll making a terrible decision late in the Super Bowl. Let's slap the appropriate wrists and move on because I'm so tired of reading and talking about #Deflategate