The New England Patriots published a lengthy rebuttal to the Ted Wells report on Thursday, and it is obvious the most difficult aspect of the report for the team to defend is Jim McNally referring to himself as “the deflator” in a text message.
The Patriots, through one of their attorneys, point out that McNally was never once asked about the “deflator” reference in an interview. If McNally had been asked, he supposedly would have explained that he and equipment manager John Jastremski use that term to describe weight loss.
Had they done so, they would have learned from either gentleman one of the ways they used the deflation/deflator term.