DeflateGate: Notes from Ted Wells' Press Conference

Ted Wells, the man behind the DeflateGate investigation, held a press conference to address some concerns raised by Tom Brady's agent Don Yee. Wells was extremely agitated during his conference and was clearly upset to have his integrity called into question.

He started by explaining that he was operating as an independent researcher and that there was no bias in his conclusion. He also made it clear that no one from the Patriots camp argued against his appointment at the start of the investigation. Wells also noted that he billed the NFL by the hour and that the investigation was worth "millions."

"I think it is wrong to criticize my independence," Wells stated. "Because you disagree with my findings. [Yee's comments] were out of bounds, unfair, and just plain wrong."

He also doubled down on the findings in his report.

"I believe the conclusions have been proven," he explained. "I used the words 'more probable than not' because that is what's in the rules."

He went on to clarify that Wells' team only met with Jim McNally once, and that the other three times that Robert Kraft mentions were done by NFL investigators prior to Wells' appointment. He wanted a second interview after the "deflator" text was discovered, but the team refused.

Wells was being coached through the call by his teammates, as listeners heard someone in the room tell Wells to discuss the Patriots "lack of cooperation." Wells went on to say that he never asked to take Brady's phone, and would have accepted print outs of the conversation and accepted them as fact. He noted that the text exchanges are "not circumstantial evidence. That is two participants in the scheme discussing what is taking place." Wells challenged Yee to release his notes from the meeting.

Another teammate of Wells, Lorin Reisner, jumped into the call to state that the conclusions of the Wells Report were not dependent on which gauge was used pregame. (editor's note: All of the conclusions from the scientific portion of the report should have been discarded because the gauge used DID change the findings. And the fact that all of the starting points that're accepted as data weren't recorded and wouldn't pass scrutiny.)

Wells noted that the league office did not take the Colts claims seriously when initially reported, and that he never interviewed commissioner Roger Goodell. Per Wells, the Patriots asked why the NFL didn't warn them and alleged that this was a sting.

When asked why more of Brady's interview wasn't used, he took offense and said that he disagreed and thought his report included them fairly enough.

The two smoking guns, from Wells perspective, was the "deflator" moniker in the conversations, and the text between the two Patriots employees saying, "I spoke to him...he knows stress you're under to get them done." (editor's note: This ignores that this happens when the Patriots footballs were allegedly 16 PSI, per the some conversation partners, so clearly they weren't doing their job of deflating the footballs.)

This isn't the end of the back-and-forth between the league and the Patriots. Expect a retort from Don Yee in the coming hours.