The DeflateGate scandal and the saga of the New England Patriots attempt to push back against the findings of the Wells Report continue to take a series of strange, seemingly never-ending, twists and turns.
The latest oddity to make it's way to the forefront of the situation is the release of an almost 20,000 word document by the Patriots laying out their argument against lead investigator Ted Wells and his recently published report.
In the document, the Patriots essentially make the claim that Jim McNally and John Jastremski, the two team employees at the center of the Wells Report, are actually hapless know-nothings who were simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and in no way shape or form had any hand in a conspiracy to deflate footballs to a level deemed illegal.
Jim McNally, per the Pats, called himself "The Deflator" because he's a "big fellow" who is focused on losing weight - not because he was doctoring footballs at the direct behest of a one, Mr. Tom Brady.
And those texts from McNally threatening to go to ESPN? That was just about free shoes Jastremski was trying to get him, per the Patriots rebuttal.
See? McNally and Jastremski were just joking about normal every day things. Just a couple of completely innocent team employees joking about shoes and losing weight.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Curiously though, the Patriots, as laid out in the NFL's statement on the punishment handed to New England earlier this week, fired both McNally and Jastremski after the release of the Wells Report.
"Patriots owner Robert Kraft advised commissioner Roger Goodell last week that Patriots employees John Jastremski and James McNally have been indefinitely suspended without pay by the club, effective on May 6th."
Why would the Patriots do such a thing if the two men were as innocent as they claim?
It seems to defy logic that the Patriots would punish McNally and Jastremski for something which they had no control over whatsoever and which, according to the Pats, never actually occurred in the first place.
Either an egregious misdeed was done to these men or the Patriots are full of it.
Anybody have any inkling as to which option is the correct one?
