New England Patriots Rumors: Tom Brady To Make Ted Wells Answer Attacks On Deflategate Report Today
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady arrived at NFL headquarters in New York Tuesday morning, where according to new rumors, he will get a chance to confront his accuser, Ted Wells, the attorney contracted by the National Football League to put together its “Deflategate” report, face-to face.
Tom Brady arrives at @nfl HQ for #Deflategate appeal hearing #wcvb https://t.co/kfPIHGk3Lp
— Jim Lokay #WCVB (@LokayWCVB) June 23, 2015
In exchange for an undisclosed fee rumored to be well into the millions, Wells — a prominent New York attorney — conducted a 100-day investigation concluding that footballs used by the Patriots in the AFC Championship game were “probably” deliberately underinflated and that Brady “probably” was “generally aware” of the alleged infringement of NFL rules.
Among those that will be at the Brady hearing tomorrow: Ted Wells. Per source, Wells will be prepared to take everyone through the report. — Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) June 22, 2015
Wells’ 243-page opus relied heavily on scientific data, which the attorney said supported the claims of deliberate tampering with the game balls.
But in the days leading up to the June 23 hearing — which may continue on Thursday, June 25 — the data used by Wells and his interpretation of that data has come under critical scrutiny by both independent researchers and other scientists who say that Wells’ methods were invalid and the report’s conclusion is “unreliable.”
The New York Times published an analysis by researchers at the respected Washington think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute, which blasted the Wells report as “unreliable” based on faulty science.
Then, last Friday, the magazine Science News — published by another Washington nonprofit research group, the Society for Science & the Public — ran an article entitled “Deflategate Favored Foul Play Over Science,” in which several respected scientists also cast doubt on the Wells report’s conclusions and criticized the methods used in his report.
“The scientific analysis in the Wells Report was a good attempt to seek the truth, however, it was based on data that are simply insufficient,” said Rockefeller Institute scientist and Nobel laureate Roderick MacKinnon, quoted in the Science News article. “In experimental science to reach a meaningful conclusion we make measurements multiple times under well-defined physical conditions.”
Amazingly, the Wells Report itself admits that its own data on the footballs used in January’s AFC title game “did not provide a scientifically reasonable basis on which to conduct a comparative analysis.”
But Wells chose to conduct that analysis anyway, and used it to reach his conclusions about Brady.
Wells is reported to be present at Tuesday’s Deflategate hearing — which is, of course, closed to media and the public — where Brady’s lawyers are expected to pepper him with questions about the scientific procedures and data he used to arrive at his conclusions that footballs were illegally deflated.
Those conclusions led the NFL to suspend Brady for an extraordinary four games, or 25 percent of the upcoming NFL season. Brady is believed to be hopping mad about both the accusations, which he believes are false, and the suspension, and according to rumors, will not quit until NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell throws out the suspension completely.
[Image: Al Bello / Getty Images]
