Text messages between Patriots equipment assistant John Jastremski and locker room attendant Jim McNally continue to be examined and over-analyzed as part of the DeflateGate discussion. Exposed by the NFL's Wells Report, Jastremski and McNally's texts have been the most telling pieces of evidence against Tom Brady and the Patriots. In one message, McNally refers to himself as "the Deflator," which is about as close to a confession as investigator Ted Wells was ever going to get. In the absence of a smoking gun, McNally's own nickname filled the void, and painted the Patriots' hands a warm red.
Today, the Patriots put up WellsReportContext.com, a website with more than 19,000 of a lawyer's words attempting to pick and poke at whatever holes in the report. It's all written in a desperate, "truther" tone, and won't serve anyone any good—public perception isn't about to change because of some lawyer's Dreamweaver website project—except for us fans and media, who'll gleefully call bullshit on the Patriots' own bullshit explanations for their cheating.
The Patriots' reasoning behind the Deflator nickname is so bad that it actually makes the team look more guilty for coming up with it. From WellsReportContext:
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. One can specifically see this use of the term in a Nov. 30, 2014 text from Mr. McNally to Mr. Jastremski: “deflate and give somebody that jacket.” (p. 87). This banter, and Mr. McNally’s goal of losing weight, meant Mr. McNally was the “deflator.” There was nothing complicated or sinister about it. If there was any doubt about the jocular nature of the May 9, 2014 texts, a review of all the texts between these two men that day would dispel it:
12:21:46: JM “Whats up dorito dink”
12:22:53: JJ “Nada”
12:22:53: JM “Whens the pong party….im on fire”
12:23:10: JJ “Omg”
12:23:34: JM “Bring it”
16:29:48: JM “You still with your women”
16:29:59: JJ “Yup”
16:33:21: JM “You must have her [omitted out of respect to Mrs. Jastremski]”
16:34:39: JM “You must have a picture of her [omitted out of respect to Mrs. Jastremski]”
16:36:31: JJ “Omg”
16:37:16: JM “You working”
16:37:53 JJ “Yup”
16:39:40 JM “Nice dude…jimmy needs some kicks….lets
make a deal…come on help the deflator”
Let us know if you've ever heard of a person trying to lose weight call themselves "the deflator." Otherwise: Nope, no way, "dorito drink."
If merely joking and trying to lose weight, interesting that McNally (and Jastremski) were indefinitely suspended by the Patriots last week.
— Andrew Brandt (@adbrandt) May 14, 2015Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com.
[via WellsReportContext.com]
