Patriots owner Robert Kraft promised his full cooperation with the Ted Wells investigation.
What Wells found from the Patriots was something that falls well below the threshold of full.
The Wells report said that the Patriots refused to make officials locker room attendant Jim McNally available for a follow-up interview which was requested, “despite our offer to meet at any time and location that would be convenient for McNally.”
The report said Patriots counsel apparently didn’t inform McNally of the request, and that the refusal “violated the club‟s obligations to cooperate with the investigation under the Policy on Integrity of the Game & Enforcement of League Rules and was inconsistent with public statements made by the Patriots pledging full cooperation with the investigation.”
That sets the stage for some significant punishment for the team, which began this process with bluster, demanding an apology from the league if no evidence was found.
The team wasn’t alone playing keep-away, as quarterback Tom Brady refused to provide text messages and e-mails “even though those requests were limited to the subject matter of our investigation” which means they weren’t just looking for cell phone pics of Gisele Bundchen.
The report also concluded that the Patriots “questioned the integrity and objectivity of game officials, various NFL executives and certain NFL Security representatives present at the AFC Championship Game or otherwise involved in the investigative process.”
That’s not surprising. People put on the defensive act defensively. But the team that boasted about full cooperation then refused to cooperate fully, and that’s something the organization will likely answer for soon.