The New England Patriots are no longer laying down for the greater good of the League, as Robert Kraft initially said when he announced he would accept the loss of first-and fourth-round draft picks, and the NFL's $1 million fine as punishment for DeflateGate. When Tom Brady's four-game suspension was upheld earlier this week, Kraft excoriated the League for essentially reneging on what he considered to be the regular course of business amongst gentlemen. Now, on the makeshift blog New England created to dispute the findings in the Wells Report—Wellsreportcontext.com—the Patriots have released some emails between Jeff Pash, counsel for the NFL, and Robyn Glaser, counsel for the Patriots.
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The purpose for the release is to demonstrate the League's unwillingness to work in good faith:
Shortly after the AFC Championship game, the league had all the data regarding halftime psi readings in hand, yet would not share that information with the Patriots, issue a statement with the facts or at least let the public know that reports circulating were inaccurate.
The emails are terse. Glaser accuses the NFL of being behind the leaks that they believe turned public reaction against them—Chris Mortensen's incorrect report of footballs weighing two pounds below the permissible limit—and deliberately allowing that misinformation to persist and negatively impact the Patriots. On February 17th, the Patriots requested that the League publicly correct Mort's erroneous report with the correct and as-yet unreleased PSI levels. They also requested that the League include it's own handling of the matter, including the leaks which very obviously came from the NFL and not the Patriots, in Ted Wells' investigation.The league response to these requests were a string of gussied up thanks, but no thanks emails—"once the investigation is completed and the facts are known, any incorrect reporting will be shown for what it is."—which surely only pissed off the Patriots even more. Glazer pulls no punches, calling Pash's responses disingenuous, telling him he needs "to step up," and that his "words are just a front. They have no substance at all."You can read the emails here, and down below.
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