The single most damaging text I see is the one about JJ giving JM a "big needle" and JM responding " the only thing deflating on Sun is Brady's passer rating". That one is a tough one to swallow if as the Pats email chain confirms McNally is only responsible for "schleping" the balls to and from the field. I understand this had nothing to do with the AFC champ game but that is close to a smoking gun.
One question I have is where did the two gauges come from? I believe NE supplies at least one gauge but do they supply both? It would be far, far easier to manipulate the gauge to make the balls appear 12.5 when in actuality they were 12.2 or so, rather than trying to deflate each ball one by one after the ref check. If NE only supplied one gauge that might explain why the two gauges were so far off.
Obviously there is zero evidence about this being the case outside of two gauges being quite different so clearly I'm just throwing this out there but I'd be curious to see it disproved.
One question I have is where did the two gauges come from? I believe NE supplies at least one gauge but do they supply both? It would be far, far easier to manipulate the gauge to make the balls appear 12.5 when in actuality they were 12.2 or so, rather than trying to deflate each ball one by one after the ref check. If NE only supplied one gauge that might explain why the two gauges were so far off.
Obviously there is zero evidence about this being the case outside of two gauges being quite different so clearly I'm just throwing this out there but I'd be curious to see it disproved.