Patriots request that NFL reinstate two employees suspended in deflate-gate
I want you to follow me down a road. It’s a strange road that doesn’t lead in anything resembling a straight line.
The NFL says it didn’t suspend New England Patriots employees John Jastremski and Jim McNally, who were implicated in deflate-gate. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell emphatically denied that the NFL had anything to do with suspending them. But now it’s the NFL that solely will decide whether those two employees can be reinstated. Even though it did not suspend them, Goodell said.
Get that? Yeah, I don’t either.
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The NFL’s shell game with semantics aside, the latest news in the deflate-gate controversy is that the NFL has acknowledged that it received the Patriots’ request to reinstate Jastremski and McNally. Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald said the Patriots sent multiple requests this week, without any ruling. But, the NFL didn’t have anything to do with suspending them. Sure.
The NFL has said that the Patriots can’t reinstate the two employees without approval from NFL vice president of football operations Troy Vincent. There will be conditions if they are reinstated (but again, keep in mind the Patriots can’t reinstate them or it would have happened). This is from the NFL’s statement in May:
“If they are reinstated by the Patriots, Jastremski is prohibited from having any role in the preparation, supervision, or handling of footballs to be used in NFL games during the 2015 season. McNally is barred from serving as a locker room attendant for the game officials, or having any involvement with the preparation, supervision, or handling of footballs or any other equipment on game day.”
While it’s clear to folks who have read the reports on deflate-gate that there was no evidence of Tom Brady’s wrongdoing, there’s more evidence of the two employees doing something with the footballs, though that’s not conclusive either. McNally took the footballs out of the officials locker room on the day of the AFC championship game before he was allowed. Jastremski and McNally sent texts to each other that are hard to explain, such as one in which McNally refers to himself as “the deflator.” It’s not definitive evidence, but there’s reason for the NFL to be suspicious.
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But now it’s on the NFL and NFL alone to decide whether to reinstate two Patriots employees whose suspensions the NFL swears it had nothing to do with.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab