Tom Brady's Agent Statement: Wells Report On Deflategate 'A Significant And Terrible Disappointment'

Investigator Ted Wells' report on the New England Patriots' Deflategate scandal was a "significant and terrible disappointment," Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's agent Don Yee said in a statement Thursday. Yee harshly criticized Wells' decision to exclude the majority of Brady's testimony from his final report and suggested Wells' relationship with the NFL compromised his ability to deliver impartial findings.

The Wells report, released Wednesday after a four-month investigation, concluded it was "more probable than not" that Patriots employees doctored the air pressure in the team's footballs prior to their use in the AFC championship game last January against the Indianapolis Colts. The findings excluded Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and team owner Robert Kraft from blame, but said Brady likely "was at least generally aware" that Patriots assistants Jim McNally and John Jastremski altered the footballs.

"The Wells report, with all due respect, is a significant and terrible disappointment," Yee said. "Its omission of key facts and lines of inquiry suggest the investigators reached a conclusion first, and then determined so-called facts later."

The NFL announced in February that Wells -- whose firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP had previously led the league's investigation into the Miami Dolphins' locker room bullying scandal in 2014 -- would spearhead an independent investigation into Deflategate. Yee questioned the impartiality of Wells' investigation and said investigators hid weaknesses in its Deflategate findings in footnotes so that they would avoid scrutiny. Brady's agent further asserted that investigators lacked sufficient knowledge of football culture to accurately report on the case.

"For reasons unknown, the Wells report omitted nearly all of Tom's testimony, most of which was critical because it would have provided this report with the context that it lacks. Mr. Wells promised back in January to share the results of this investigation publicly, so why not follow through and make public all of the information gathered and let the public draw its own conclusions?" Yee said.

He added: "This report contains significant and tragic flaws, and is common knowledge in the legal industry that reports like this generally are written for the benefit of the purchaser."

Brady, McNally and Jastremski could all face discipline as a result of the Wells report's findings, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.