Quote Originally Posted by pbmax View Post
For Sharpe, did any of their discussions indicate tampering after approval? Wasn't most of it Brady being mad if things weren't right? Couldn't a reasonable person infer that they were trying to get inflation levels correct for his approval prior to handover?
You could infer that, but that's not what I saw. I think the inference is pretty strong the other way, but again, we can disagree.

If all they were doing is prior to handover, it was as simple as setting them all to 12.5 prior to hand over. Moreover, they expressly told the refs they wanted them at 12.5 and the refs agreed. It was probably as simple as that in each case.

Why would McNally expect anything from Brady for setting the balls at the proscribed 12.5 minimum? How is that any different than setting them at 13, or 13.5?

Why would Brady think McNally was under a lot of pressure for simply setting the balls at 12.5?

Why would they refer to their jobs as "deflation" and providing a "needle" (also joking about a pump not being attached) when all they had to do was inflate to the correct amount in the first instance?

Why would a guy who isn't even in charge of equipment go into the equipment room and take the balls while the referees were absent?

Why would an equipment manager in charge of ball care defer the duties to a part-time guy?

Why would Brady turn over two phones to a forensic examiner, but hold back a third?

Why would Brady destroy the third phone on the same day he is interviewed, knowing they wanted the texts from that phone and he did not turn it over previously?