The New England Patriots have reportedly requested that the NFL reinstate the two team employees who were the focal point of the Deflategate investigation.
Both equipment manager John Jastremski and locker room attendant Jim McNally have been suspended since damning text messages exchanged between the two were published in the Ted Wells report. The Patriots and the NFL have gone back and forth for months — at least publicly — over who suspended the two employees, with Roger Goodell insisting once again on Tuesday that the Patriots made their own decision regarding the disciplinary action.
“Absolutely not,” Goodell told ESPN Radio when asked if there was a request from the NFL to suspend McNally and Jastremski. “That was a decision by the Patriots.”
Despite the NFL claiming on Tuesday that the Patriots did not request that the staffers be reinstated, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported early Wednesday morning that the request has been made. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport later confirmed that with an NFL spokesman.
Adam Schefter reported in May that the Patriots suspended McNally and Jastremski per the request of the league, and he has stuck with his source on that multiple times over the past several months. There was some talk initially that the Patriots were admitting guilt by suspending the two team employees.
What does all of this mean? Not a whole lot. It’s simply another example of the terrible state of the relationship between the Patriots and the NFL. Both sides have spent countless hours trying to make the other look bad, and this is no different.
