Ted Wells, the lead investigator hired by the NFL to determine whether or not the New England Patriots had knowingly deflated footballs used on offense during their AFC Championship Game victory over the Indianapolis Colts, spoke to the media today, in what he deemed an effort to reaffirm the integrity of himself and his findings.
"It is wrong to criticize my independence just because you disagree with my findings," Wells said, via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. "I think that is wrong and that is what motivated me to speak today."
Wells claimed that while the Patriots organization and quarterback Tom Brady were mostly forthcoming and willing to aid his investigation efforts, they would not fully cooperate in a manner which would have allowed him to truly ascertain all the facts of the situation.
"The Patriots provided me, in my opinion, with substantial cooperation except in one critical and crucial area: I wanted to do a second interview with Jim McNally. Jim McNally was the second Patriots person I interviewed. I wanted, after I interviewed others including Tom Brady, to do a second interview of McNally, to put other questions to him," Wells said, via a separate account from PFT.
Wells said the Patriots wouldn't even inform McNally, the former franchise employee, of his request for a second interview.
Still, for Wells, it was the refusal by Brady to provide his cellphone for electronic imaging that was the most glaring omission of factual evidence.
"Mr. Brady, the report sets forth, he came to the interview, he answered every question, he did not refuse to answer any questions in terms of the back and forth between Mr. Brady and my team - he was totally cooperative," Wells said. "At the same time, he refused to permit us to review electronic data from his telephone or other instruments. Most of the key evidence in this case as in most cases comes from people's cell phones and he refused to let us review the phone. And I want to be crystal clear, I told Mr. Brady and his agents I was willing to not take possession of the phone, I don't want to see any private communications, I said, 'You keep the phone, you give me documents that are responsive to this investigation and I will take your word for it' and they still refused."
Wells said that he has a reputation for maintaining independence and wondered aloud why it was that no one, and specifically Brady's agent Don Yee, questioned his ties to the league prior to the publishing of the findings of the DeflateGate investigation.
"The conclusions in the report represent the independent opinions of me personally and my team, and those conclusions were not influenced in any way, shape or form by anyone at the league office," Wells said. "We made a fair and reasonable review of the evidence, and we reached conclusions based on the preponderance of the evidence standard, which I was required to apply based on the league's rules. To the extent Mr. Yee is suggesting that I have some type of conflict because I and my law firm do other work for the NFL, I want to be clear that it is well know that I worked for the NFL in the Miami Dolphins investigation involving Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito, and also that it is known that I represent the NFL in the concussions case. Those facts were well known at the time I was appointed. When I was appointed to be the independent investigator, no one at the Patriots or Mr. Brady's camp raised any issue of my independence."
Wells deemed Yee's response to his report, "out of bounds, unfair and just plain wrong" and accused him of engaging in "personal attacks."
Wells also revealed that the investigation cost the league "millions of dollars," per ESPN's Darren Rovell.
