The entire Deflategate mess is a mess. As soon as the NFL lost control of the information flow the process that they engaged in looks at best shoddy, haphazard, idiotic and extemperaneous, and at worst like a stooge’s marathon conspiracy to get the Patriots somehow.

There is one piece of evidence in the entire Wells report that has always been bugging me as a referee.

During the 2014 Patriots versus Jets game, the referees fucked up. They allowed balls that were 16 PSI to be used for the entire game. Brady did not like how they felt and bitched about it to the Patriots equipment guys. One of the Patriots equipment guys texted to his fiancee that he had been chewed out for setting the balls to 16 instead of 13 PSI. The following week, the Patriots presented all of the game balls to the referees set at 12.5 PSI (the lowest legal limit) and gave the refs a print-out of the relevant NFL rules with the range either circled or highlighted.

If there was not a quasi-scandal that has resulted from this, this would be notable to the referees as it is a dick move on a minor piece of trifling bullshit that no one really cares about. If the NFL cared about ball air pressure they would know about the Ideal Gas Law, they would know about shrinkage, they would not let teams control the balls between measurement and play. This was a no one gives a shit rule, and the Patriots decided to show the refs up.

Speaking as a referee, if a team shows me the league rules about a minor trifling equipment specification, I’m going to first look very intently at that team’s own equipment for the same trifling rule violation before I look at the other team. It invites additional attention on a nothingburger. As a referee, the fact that the Patriots gave the refs a highlighted page out of the rule book, knowing that this invites heightened scrutiny on their own balls, is some of the strongest evidence that nothing was happening.