For the first time since his report on deflategate was released last week, sending a shockwave through the league that resulted in the suspension of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, independent investigator Ted Wells spoke addressed the media on a Tuesday afternoon conference call and defended the findings in his 243-page report.

The report, which was released last Wednesday, details the findings of a months long investigation into the New England Patriots operations following the AFC Championship Game. During that game last January, it was found that several of the footballs used by New England on offense were below the inflation level mandated by the league.

Wells concluded in his report that it was “more probable than not” that Patriots staff members Jim McNally and John Jastremski were involved in tampering with game balls on numerous occasions. It also concluded that it was “more probable than not” that Brady knew about the tampering.

On Monday, the league came down hard on Brady and the Patriots. Brady, the Super Bowl XLIX MVP, was suspended for the first four games of the 2015 NFL season. The franchise was also fined $1 million and forced to forfeit their first round pick in next year’s draft and a fourth round pick in the 2017 draft. New England has also suspended both McNally and Jastremski indefinitely for their roles in the incident.

Brady is appealing his suspension and on Tuesday it was revealed that the NFLPA’s lead attorney Jeffrey Kessler will be handling his appeal.

Since the punishments were levied, Wells has become the target of ridicule in defense of the Patriots, particularly by Brady’s agent Don Yee. That’s why Wells took the unusual step of speaking out about the report, which he noted — citing his past work with the NFL, NBA and NCAA — is not an avenue he usually uses. But with his integrity being called into question, he was compelled to address the issue.

“This is the first time that after I’ve issued my report that I find somebody is questioning my independence and in some way suggesting that I was influenced by the league’s office and I think that is wrong and that is what emoted me to speak today,” he said. “I think those attacks are out of bounds and unfair and just plain wrong.”

Among the topics addressed by Wells was the wording of his conclusions from the report, particularly the terminology, “more probable than not” which cast doubt on his convictions and to which many have pointed in the wake of the suspension, stating it was too harsh given the lack of evidence. However, on Tuesday Wells made clear his belief that Brady and the Patriots at large engaged in wrongdoing, and explained the reasoning for the terminology he used.

“If I were sitting on a jury, and the judge had charged the jury that it should apply the preponderance of the evidence standard, I would have checked the box that said proven. I believe the conclusions have been proven by the preponderance of the evidence standard. I used the words “more probable than not” because that is what is in the rules because I thought it was appropriate when people read my report to always make sure that they understood the burden of proof that I was following. I did not want someone to read the report if I just said proven and think perhaps I used a beyond a reasonable doubt standard. I think that would have been misleading.”

Wells also addressed the cooperation, or sometimes lack thereof, of Brady and the Patriots. He noted  that the one area he felt the Patriots failed to cooperate with the investigation was when they refused to allow him a follow-up interview with McNally.

Additionally, Wells said that Brady was fully cooperative in his interview, and that he tried to accommodate their concerns about Brady’s personal and private information in his cell phone by having Yee be a middle man to send Wells only relevant communications from the phone, but that request was denied. However, Wells said that lack of cooperation didn’t impact his report.

“I don’t think it undermines in any way the conclusions of the report. I do believe that if I had had access to Brady’s electronic messages and if I had received all of the messages that it might have yielded additional insights into what happened and I think that would have been good for everybody regardless of what it showed. and I think it’s disappointing that they would say on one hand they are cooperating and yet refuse to give me access to the electronic data.”

Wells concluded the 30-minute call by responding to the allegations that his investigation was a witch-hunt staged by the NFL to take down Brady and the Patriots. He noted that he did not believe the league hoped or expected his investigation would yield the results it did.

“In my mind, the NFL, based on my view of the world, certainly wasn’t hoping that I would come back with a report that would that find that something happened wrong with the Patriots or Tom Brady. They wanted me to get to the bottom of the facts and all of this discussion someway that people at the league office wanted to put some type of hit on the most popular, iconic player in the league, the real face of the league, it just doesn’t make any sense. That’s really a ridiculous allegation. What drove the decision in this report was one thing: it was the evidence. and I could not ethically ignore the import and relevancy of those text messages and the other evidence. I mean the notion that McNally is referring to himself as the “deflator” before the season starts and threatening that he has not gone to ESPN yet, no one can ignore the implications of that text message and no one can see it as a joke nor is it circumstantial evidence. It is direct evidence and it is inculpatory.”

BOWDEN CRITICAL OF WINSTON

Legendary Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden never got the chance to coach Jameis Winston, but he’s had no problem criticizing the quarterback publicly.

Bowden first tweaked Winston last October in an interview with ESPN, comparing the then FSU quarterback to a child in grammar or junior high school. He also noted then that he believed Winston’s draft stock would drop because of his behavior. That never materialized as Winston was selected with the first overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But that didn’t stop Bowden from going back to the well with that comparison on Tuesday when he was a guest on The Paul Finebaum Show. Bowden told Finebaum that he believes Winston’s lack of maturity could hold him back in the pros if he doesn’t grow up quickly.

“He just can’t make those junior high school decisions he made when he was in college,” Bowden said.

The coach even took it a step further, agreeing with Finebaum’s assessment that Winston was an embarrassment to Florida State University during his time there, though he did offer the caveat that Winston has the opportunity to overcome his misgivings in the years to come.

“I think it’s a consensus among Florida State fans and boosters that he was an embarrassment, in a lot of ways, to the university,” Bowden said. “He won a lot of ball games and was probably one of the best football players that ever attended Florida State, but he hurt himself off the field. The good news is he’s young enough to get over that.”

BUCS CLAIM SWEARINGER FROM TEXANS

While Winston gets himself acclimated to the pros, the Buccaneers have been busy continuing to build the squad they will put around him next season.

On Tuesday, the team continued the renovations to their secondary by claiming safety D.J. Swearinger off waivers from the Houston Texans.

Swearinger, a second round pick in the 2013 draft by the Texans, was mostly disappointing during his two seasons in Houston. He played in all 32 regular season games during his tenure with the Texans and made 22 starts, including 12 last season. He finished the 2014 campaign with a pair of interceptions, six passes defensed, three forced fumbles, 74 tackles and one sack.

However the free safety struggled in the area Houston needed him to be the strongest: in coverage. As a result, Pro Football Focus ranked him as one of the 10 worst safeties in the league last season.

Still, Swearinger represents an improvement in Tampa Bay where he will replace Dashon Goldson, who PFF ranked as the second worst safety in the league last season.

He’ll join free agent acquisition Chris Conte on the backend of Tampa’s defense. Conte had also been largely disappointing during his four years with the Chicago Bears. But Bucs head coach Lovie Smith, who was head coach of the Bears when they drafted Conte, believes enough in him they he decided to bring Conte in to replace another disappointing safety, Mark Barron.

Smith will now try to get more out of Swearinger and Conte than he could out of Goldson and Barron in an attempt to improve one of the league’s worst pass defenses last season.

FOWLER’S CONTRACT FULLY GUARANTEED

The first day of his NFL career couldn’t have gone much worse for Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Dante Fowler Jr, who suffered a torn ACL in the first practice of rookie mini-camp, which will cost him the 2015 season. But that didn’t stop the Jaguars from committing completely to Fowler at the negotiating table.

On Tuesday, the Jaguars announced they had agreed to terms with Fowler on a fully guaranteed four-year rookie contract. The deal is believed to be worth $23.5 million, including a $15.3 million signing bonus to be split over the first two years of the deal. It’s the maximum contract Fowler could have received even though Jacksonville was not obligated to give him those terms.

“I give a lot of credit to the Jaguars,” Ben Dogra, one of the agents for Fowler, told the Florida Times Union. “It shows how committed they are to Dante.”