Remember the New England Patriots’ explanation for the use of the term ‘deflator’ in texts between locker room attendants John Jastremski and Jim McNally? Well, it looks like the Patriots hope you don’t.
The Patriots released a report called the “Wells Report in Context” as a rebuttal to Ted Wells’ independent investigation into whether the game balls were deliberately tampered with in the AFC Championship, otherwise known as DeflateGate. Ultimately, Wells came to the conclusion it was “more probable than not” that the attendants broke the rules, and that quarterback Tom Brady “was at least generally aware” of the situation. That report led to a four-game suspension for Brady, as well as the loss of two draft picks and a $1 million fine for the team.
One section in the report was highly controversial at the time. In trying to explain why McNally used the term “deflator” in a text to Jastremski, it gave this as the reason: “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.”
That explanation no longer exists in the rebuttal. Instead, the weight loss explanation was replaced with this note:
“[UPDATED ON 6/18/15 9:45AM: The focus of public discussion about the one and only text that used the term “deflator” — and what the term as used in that single text refers to — has detracted attention from the numerous flaws in the Wells Report described in these annotations. The original paragraph discussing that text can be found here. The following paragraph has been added to clarify the basic point being made…that one cannot reasonably rely on that one uncorroborated and unexamined text to conclude that there was improper ball deflation.]”
The change was made back on June 18, according to BuzzFeed, but went unnoticed at the time. Now, the cat is out of the bag.
Thumbnail photo via Stew Milne/USA TODAY Sports Images
