Did you notice the logic errors in the Ted Wells Report on Deflategate?

Did you notice the logic errors in the Ted Wells Report on Deflategate?

The report reads (correctly): "The Patriots' balls should have measured between 11.52 and 11.32 psig at the end of the first half," based on the laws of thermodynamics.

The actual averages: 11.11 as measured by one gauge, 11.49 as measured by the other. As measured by the so-called Logo gauge, only three of the eleven balls tested below 11.32. (The other gauge produced different results. Eight of the eleven dropped below 11.32.)

First logic error: the average pressure of 11.49, as measured by the logo gauge, is right within the range of where it should be.

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Second logic error: the Patriots are assumed to have done something untoward basically because of the difference between their balls and the Colts' balls. There are several problems with that approach:

1. The analysts made no effort to see how the balls were stored when not in use. Did the Colts keep them warm while the Pats left them exposed to the elements? We don't know. Failure to gather and analyze that information makes the comparison between the teams completely irrelevant.

2. The Colts' balls should have had an average pressure of 11.85 psig after the first half according to the Ideal Gas Law. The actual average was between 12.27 and 12.67, according to the report. Therefore, the Patriots were being compared to a set of balls that seemed to vary from the laws of nature. Nobody seemed to wonder why the Colts balls behaved so abnormally. In fact, while the Patriots balls fell within the average expected by the Ideal Gas Law on one of the gauges, the Colts' balls did not on either gauge! Yet the report concluded from those facts that the Patriots were the ones who tampered with the balls. That happened because that is what they were trying to study in the first place, but a completely objective study might not have drawn that conclusion at all. It might have concluded that the Colts may have kept the balls warm when not in use, in which case comparing the two teams would not be a sound method of analysis.

3. "According to information provided by Paul, Weiss, it appears that the officials changed gauges in between taking the Patriots and Colts measurements"! As noted above, the gauges can produce significantly different results.

Now that I've made those points, I have to say that they probably don't matter. The behavior of Brady and the ballboys is suspicious in the extreme. Brady appears to be guilty in the same sense that we assume the guilt of a fox covered with chicken feathers. Maybe nobody actually saw him kill those birds, but it's almost impossible to draw any other conclusion.