One of the reasons the NFL gave for Tom Brady’s four-game suspension was his lack of cooperation in the Wells Report.
The New England Patriots partially explained Thursday why their quarterback chose not to turn over his texts through their own document, titled “The Wells Report in Context.”
“Mr. Brady’s agent explained to the investigators why, from the perspective of precedent for other players and the Players’ Union, there were good reasons not to turn over his private phone or any phone records or texts,” Patriots lawyer Daniel L. Goldberg wrote. “The investigators already had all of Mr. (John) Jastremski’s texts with Mr. Brady, since Mr. Jastremski’s phone had been given to the League within about 48 hours of notice of the investigation. They also had Mr. (Jim) McNally’s phone records for a period prior to and including the AFC Championship Game. Those records show no texts with Mr. Brady, even in connection with asking for or receiving the three autographs.
“The absence of any texting between Mr. Brady and Mr. McNally was further confirmed by the uncontradicted testimony by each of them that they had never spoken to each other on the phone, had never texted each other, and had never even had a substantive in-person conversation with each other. The investigators found no witness who contradicted any of these statements even though they had access to countless people who were in the Patriots locker room area or the player’s bench area where, on game day, Mr. Brady and Mr. McNally were in the same vicinity.
“The absence of a single witness who observed some substantive conversation, and the absence of texts during what the investigators felt was a critical time, corroborated their statements that they never had any such communications. If any information about texts on Mr. Brady’s phone was really an issue, they could have asked Mr. Brady’s agent (who offered at the end of Brady’s interview to respond to further inquiries) to confirm there were no texts with Mr. McNally.
“Given the fact that Mr. Jastremski and Mr. McNally had both turned over their phone records, no adverse inferences should be drawn from the fact that Mr. Brady did not make his phone or its contents available.”
The Wells Report only implicates Brady and the two Patriots staffers, McNally and Jastremski, so any correspondence about deflating footballs likely would be through those three men.
Thumbnail photo via Stew Milne/USA TODAY Sports Images
