Patriots: Team employee called himself ‘the deflator’ because he wanted to lose weight
Sixteen times in the 243-page Ted Wells report, which concluded it was “more probable than not’’ that the Patriots improperly deflated footballs before games, Patriots locker room attendant James McNally is referenced as calling himself, “the deflator.’’
A text from McNally to fellow team employee John Jastremski, obtained by Wells and included in the report, reads, “jimmy needs some kicks….let’s make a deal … come on help the deflator.’’ Later in the exchange, McNally texts Jastremski, “im not going to espn …yet.’’
The Wells report concludes McNally’s nickname stems from his role in deflating balls. A section of wellsreportcontext.com, released by the Patriots Thursday to counter the Wells report, refutes that that the nickname was about letting air out of footballs.
From wellsreportcontext.com:
There was a second way that Mr. Jastremski and Mr. McNally used the term “deflation’’ or “deflator’’ which the report disregards. The Wells investigators had the May 9, 2014 “deflator’’/espn text string in their possession several weeks before their full day, four lawyer-staffed interviews with each of Mr. McNally and Mr. Jastremski. They came to the interviews with laptops, documentation and had obviously prepared extensively for each interview. They never asked either of them about that May 9 “deflator’’/espn text. Perhaps that is not surprising since the word “deflator’’ appears in only ONE text from among many hundreds of texts that were made available to the investigators. The Report then takes this one word, in this one text, and uses it throughout the Report as a moniker for Mr. McNally. Is this true objectivity? Further, when they sought their additional interview with Mr. McNally, they never candidly said they had overlooked this text and therefore wanted Mr. McNally back for another interview to ask him about it. They never asked Mr. Jastremski about it in his interview. Had they done so, they would have learned from either gentleman one of the ways they used the deflation/deflator term. 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.
The site, in which laywer Daniel L. Goldberg counters portions of the Wells report, adds, “There was nothing complicated or sinister about it.’’
Timeline of Deflategate
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