The following is the second in a serialization of my article 56 lies the NFL told during Deflategate. (Published on Medium.) 

Thanks to Tom E Curran and CSSNE for the bump:

Numbers six and seven were still within the two week period after the AFCCG and the Super Bowl:

(6) When the independence of Wells was questioned by Rachel Nichols at a Super Bowl Press Conference, Goodell instead insisted on the “uncompromising integrity” of his hires and then belittled Nichols. As we saw later, the integrity of Wells’ investigation was compromised right from the start and on numerous occasions thereafter.

(7) At the same press conference, Goodell was asked if Belichick would be held to the same standards as Sean Payton, and whether Goodell is held to the same standard as players and coaches who have to meet with the media everyday. Goodell lied “I’m available to the media almost every day of my job, professionally.”

These two, while perhaps not strictly lies about deflategate show the dishonesty of the Commissioner while meeting with the press about this issue. 

Post Super Bowl Time Period Leading Up To Release of Wells Report

(8) Jeff Pash’s letter to the Patriots declining to correct the erroneous PSI info from Mortensen, saying it would only serve to confuse the issue.

The league allowed the combustible lie about to stand and be considered by the public to the true. Other times in which the media has reported negative things about the league, the NFL has responded quickly, the recent New York Times concussion story being a glaring example.

(9) The anonymous leak to Kelly Naqi of the bogus Kicking-Ball story, in which the Patriots were being accused of also trying to switch out a kicking ball in the middle of the game, was blown up when Adam Schefter called into the live Outside The Lines show on ESPN to shoot the story down, and add in the nugget that it was an NFL employee who had been stealing game footballs who was actually responsible. The Patriots were actually the ones who reported the incident to the NFL.

The above story, while claiming to be a corrected version, is still highly prejudicial against the Patriots and does not actually give the full details which Schefter provided. While not directly related to deflategate, it nonetheless continued the push for the public towards the guilt of the Patriots.

(10) Related, the story of (now fired) NFL employee Scott Miller stealing footballs that were supposed to auctioned off for charity was quickly buried.This is one of the few verified instances of wrongdoing in this entire case and very few details are available. This should actually be a much bigger story than deflategate, but you didn’t hear anything about this after February of 2015.

Burying this story, allows the allegations in #9 above to stand and for the perception that there were more Patriots shenanigans going on.

More coming next week…

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Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

One thought on “Deflategate Lies: 6-10 – Jeff Pash’s Letter, Kelly Naqi’s Report”

  1. Bruce,

    An excellent compilation of the lies that the NFL has committed in its effort to punish Tom Brady. Having written about this in my Sportzine, I will add two things. The Wells Report (pg. 112) states: “Our scientific consultants ultimately informed us that the data alone did not provide a basis for them to determine with absolute certainty whether there was or was not tampering.” The report should have ended there (it went to 139 pages).

    It is obvious that NFL lawyer Paul Clement, in his attempt to rebut Robert Blecker’s accusations of misstatements made to the Circuit Court, did misstate what Roger Goodell said about Tom Brady’s deposition testimony. Goodell said that after the AFC championship, Brady testified to only talking to John Jastremski about preparing for the Super Bowl, not about how the footballs might have gotten deflated. Brady testified that the two did talk about how the balls could have gotten deflated. In Clement’s letter to the Appeals Court (to rebut Blecker’s accusations), he tries to make the case that Brady primarily talked about the Super Bowl. If the Judges actually read Brady’s deposition they will find the truth. Since this is a key issue in which Goodell tried to show ‘obstruction’ by Brady, the decision may rest on this misstatement.

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