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Patriots release damning emails from NFL on leaks of false deflate-gate data

Patriots release damning emails from NFL on leaks of false deflate-gate data

The New England Patriots played a trump card on Friday, releasing a string of emails (on their wellsreportcontext.com site) between club counsel Robyn Glaser and NFL general counsel Jeff Pash that appears to implicate the league of failing to correct blatant misinformation that helped shape the public narrative in the deflate-gate case.

Pash oversaw the investigation by Ted Wells, whose report clearly indicated that the PSI figures for the Patriots' footballs in the AFC championship were nowhere close to the bunk ESPN report that 11 of 12 balls tested by officials that night were 2 PSI or more under the legal limit.

The NFL never set that record straight thereafter, and it was too late. The public already had decided that Tom Brady was a cheater — and a blatant one. By the time Wells' report came out, perception already had become reality, and minds were made.

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The Patriots — as owner Robert Kraft pointed out in a blistering takedown of the league and Roger Goodell — asked for the data, as the email chain showed, but were not assisted. Team spokesman Stacey James emailed league spokesman Greg Aiello on the matter, and it was later forwarded by Glaser to Pash.

James wrote:

“I cannot comprehend how withholding the range of PSIs measured in the game is beneficial to the NFL or the Patriots. I can only assume, based on the scientific evidence that has been provided to us by multiple independent scientists that the PSI numbers will be within the scientific range. If we had been provided this data within days of the original report, we could have changed the narrative of this story before it led all national news and the damage was done. It has been over 4 weeks and we still can’t get a simple detail that I assume was available the night of the AFC Championship Game!”

Glaser concluded that the league was the only possible source to ESPN's Chris Mortensen on the phony PSI numbers. Pash disagreed, saying:

“I have no reason to think [the leak to ESPN] came from our office but I certainly do not condone leaks which I do not serve [sic] anyone’s interest.”

Glaser said the team had cooperated with Wells' investigation fully but that they were doubting the wisdom of that following the leaks.

“We have cooperated fully and expediently with Attorney Wells and are now seriously starting to question whether we should do that while our public image and brand continues to be unnecessarily and irreparably tarnished by the League,” Glaser wrote.

She then asked Pash to “to bring your staff and office under control,” later calling Pash's response “pretty disingenuous." Yes, folks, this is how the sausage is made.

This is when it starts to get nasty.

“Jeff, you need to step up,” Glaser wrote. “I can’t tell you the number of times you’ve told me that you and your office work for us member clubs. It has been made resoundingly clear to us that your words are just a front. They have no substance at all. If you worked for us, you would already have released today a statement to the effect of, ESPN, you’ve got it wrong. You do not have full information, you are irresponsibly reporting information that is untrue and you need to stop. Furthermore, as you now know and report reporting yourselves, your original story that 11 of 12 balls were 2 pounds below the minimum allowable psi was just blatantly wrong, we know that because we have the information and here it is…"

Pash seems nonplussed, writing back in a short note that he doesn't know "how to respond to so personal and accusatory a note" and ends it shortly afterward.

It's a bad look for the league, as Goodell has said that Wells had the chance to evaluate the leaked information as part of his investigation, but these emails seem to suggest otherwise. But will these emails be the bombshell that, say, Mortensen's report or the NFL's suggestion that Brady destroyed his cell phone as a method of concealment?

Quite frankly, no. Most likely, this could convince the handful of people still straddling the fence on the story and harden the beliefs of Brady and Patriots supporters or the anti-Goodell faction. But it's not the kind of "smoking gun" type of goodies — true or not — that the league expertly has dropped on the public in staying one or two steps ahead in shaping public perception.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!