New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's agent Don Yee did not mince words in the statement he released on behalf of the future Hall of Fame signal-caller in the wake of the release of the Wells Report and the findings of the league's investigation into the DeflateGate scandal.
"The Wells report, with all due respect, is a significant and terrible disappointment," Yee said, via Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports. "It's omission of key facts and lines of inquiry suggest the investigators reached a conclusion first, and then determined so-called facts later."
Yee suggests that the NFL set up the Patriots via a sting-like operation - something which has been discussed in relation to DeflateGate for months. Indianapolis Colts GM Ryan Grigson, per the report, notified the league ahead of the AFC Championship Game that the Patriots were known to use under-inflated balls. The league replied that they would keep an eye out for it, but did not notify New England.
Yee believes that the league's decision to approach the issue in this manner - along with their decision to use Ted Wells as lead investigator, a man with a prior business relationship with the NFL - calls the validity of the entire investigation into question.
"One item alone taints this entire report. What does it say about the league office's protocols and ethics when it allows one team to tip it off to an issue prior to a championship game, and no league officials or game officials notified the Patriots of the same issue prior to the game? This suggests it may be more probable than not that the league cooperated with the Colts in perpetrating a sting operation," Yee writes. "The Wells report buries this issue in a footnote on page 46 without any further elaboration. The league is a significant client of the investigators' law firm; it appears to be a rich source of billings and media exposure based on content in the law firm's website. This was not an independent investigation and the contents of the report bear that out - all one has to do is read closely and critically, as opposed to simply reading headlines."
Yee also believes that Wells and his team's lack of an intimate understanding of the game of professional football means they're not qualified to conduct such an investigation or, more importantly, offer any type of conclusion based off their findings.
"The investigators' assumptions and inferences are easily debunked or subject to multiple interpretations. Much of the report's vulnerabilities are buried in the footnotes, which is a common legal writing tactic. It is a sad day for the league as it has abdicated the resolution of football-specific issues to people who don't understand the context or culture of the sport."
Yee then takes the report to task for not publishing Brady's interview with Wells in its entirety, suggesting it would have painted a very different picture of Brady and the findings.
"I was physically present for my client's interview. I have verbatim notes of the interview. Tom made himself available for nearly an entire day and patiently answered every question. It was clear to me the investigators had limited understanding of professional football. For reasons unknown, the Wells report omitted nearly all of Tom's testimony, most of which was critical because it would have provided this report with the context that it lacks."
Of course, in the report, Wells makes it clear that Brady declined to make himself available beyond the initial interview and would not surrender his cellphone or other possibly pertinent material, so Yee may be a bit off in that sentiment.
In the end though, it is clear Yee meant to go on the offensive here and protect and defend his client's legacy by attempting to poke holes in nearly every aspect of the report.
"Mr. Wells promised back in January to share the results of this investigation publicly, so why not follow through and make public all of the information gathered and let the public draw its own conclusions? This report contains significant and tragic flaws, and it is common knowledge in the legal industry that reports like this generally are written for the benefit of the purchaser."
