Surprise! After nearly eight months and a federal judge's ruling, the NFL may not be done levying out DeflateGate punishment yet. Troy Vincent, the NFL Executive VP of Football Operations, has requested to meet with suspended Patriots employees John Jastremski and Jim McNally before they're reinstated, the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports. Both men could face additional discipline for allegedly deflating footballs at Tom Brady's behest. The case will reportedly not be reinvestigated.
The NFL could hand out more DeflateGate discipline
NFL Executive VP of Football Operations Troy Vincent reportedly wants to meet with alleged Patriots ball deflators John Jastremski and Jim McNally before they’re reinstated.
Jastremski and McNally were suspended indefinitely shortly after investigator Ted Wells’ report was released in early May. The Patriots requested Monday that Jastremski and McNally be allowed back to work.
Jastremski and McNally were the stars of the Wells report. Wells published several of their personal text messages, including one in which McNally refers to himself as “the deflator,” which served as one of the cruxes of the NFL’s claim that the Patriots and Brady were intentionally deflating footballs.
The genesis of Jastremski’s and McNally’s suspensions remains a mystery. The NFL insists the Patriots suspended the two employees, but ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports they were league-mandated banishments. The Boston Herald’s Jeff Howe wrote last week the Patriots fulfilled a request from the NFL to suspend the two men.
Regardless of who initiated the suspensions, it doesn’t seem like a foregone conclusion that Jastremski or McNally will be back with the Patriots any time soon. McNally is a gameday employee, so he technically hasn’t missed much work yet, because he doesn’t report to Gillette Stadium during the offseason.
At this rate, it will likely take until this upcoming offseason for DeflateGate to finally be resolved. The NFL’s appeal of Judge Richard Berman’s decision to overturn Brady’s four-game suspension is expected to last until 2016.
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