Now Tom Brady really has his balls in a vise!
The stud Patriots quarterback all but certainly knew that footballs were illegally deflated to his liking for this year’s AFC Championship game, according to a damning NFL-commissioned report — which also exposed how Brady was reviled over his demand for soft pigskins.
“We believe it is unlikely that an equipment assistant and a locker room attendant would deflate game balls without Brady‟’s knowledge and approval,” said the 243-page report.
The evidence against Brady includes his showering locker-room attendant Jim McNally with pricey gifts like signed footballs and a game-worn jersey just eight days before the Jan. 18 game.
Brady personally delivered the gear to McNally in the locker room and was joined by equipment assistant John Jastremski.
McNally and Jastremski had exchanged text messages going back to at least May 2014 that ripped Brady’s lust for flaccid footballs and expressed their mounting frustrations with the pampered star.
“F–k tom,” McNally wrote in several of the messages, according to the report prepared by criminal defense lawyer Ted Wells of the high-powered New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
The ball handlers got really angry when Brady whined about inflation levels following an October game against the Jets.
McNally — who dubbed himself the “deflator” — threatened to blow up his precious pigskins like a “balloon,” a “rugby ball” — and a “watermelon.”
“The only thing deflating sun..is his passing rating,” he wrote.
The deflated balls in the AFC Championship were discovered late in the first half when a Brady pass was intercepted and someone on the Colts’ sideline realized it was underinflated.
Because soft footballs are easier to throw and catch, the Colts complained. Two referees tested the 11 Patriot-suppled game balls at halftime and found them all to be below the regulation 12.5 psi.
Those same balls were tested before the game and declared to be at the proper pressure.
Patriots brass denied any wrongdoing after the game — a 45-7 victory that preceded New England’s 28-24 triumph over Seattle in the Super Bowl — with Brady declaring, “I don’t want anyone touching the balls.”
But he was far less confident the next day, with the NFL on the scent.
“Brady . . . took the unprecedented step of inviting Jastremski to the QB room (essentially Brady‟’s office) in Gillette Stadium on January 19 for the first and only time that Jastremski can recall during his twenty-year career with the Patriots,” the report found.
Brady later sent Jastremski several text messages asking, “You good Jonny boy?”
“Still nervous,” Jastremski replied.
“It is more probable than not that New England Patriots personnel participated in violations of the Playing Rules,” Wells’ report found. “[Brady] was at least generally aware of . . . the release of air from Patriots game balls.”
The report said McNally put his needle to the Patriot pigskins just before kickoff — sneaking them away from the referees locker room and into a nearby bathroom.
He spent 1 minute and 40 seconds behind the closed door, the report stated.
The four-month probe included interviews with Brady, McNally and Jastremski, who were instructed to cooperate by team officials. They were not under oath when questioned.
But Brady, unlike the other two, refused to hand over text messages or any other electronic communications.
McNally eventually declined to speak to investigators after meeting with them four times.
It was not clear what penalty, if any, the NFL would level against Brady and the Patriots. The report found that head coach Bill Belichick had no knowledge of the ball deflation.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he disagreed with the findings, but would accept any punishment.
The Pats are already known cheaters. They were busted in 2007 for videotaping Jets coaches during a game against NFL rules.
“We understand and greatly respect the responsibility of being one of 32 in this league and, on that basis, we will accept the findings of the report and take the appropriate actions based on those findings as well as any discipline levied by the league,” Kraft said in a prepared statement.
Brady’s need for squishy balls was a repeated topic for McNally and Jastremski in their text message exchanges.
On May 9, 2014, McNally said he should be rewarded with new shoes for his efforts to deflate footballs and joked about going on ESPN with his incriminating information.
“Nice dude….jimmy needs some kicks….lets make adeal…..come on help the deflator,” he wrote. “Chill buddy im just f–kin with you ….im not going to espn……..yet.”