The NFL suspended Tom Brady for four games for his role in the New England Patriots' deflated footballs scandal on Monday.

In a letter informing the team of the punishment, NFL executive VP Troy Vincent cites Brady's lack of full cooperation with the investigation as one of the reasons for his suspension. The basis for this is Brady's refusal to grant investigators access to relevant emails and text messages on his cellphone.

Vincent told the team "the failure of Tom Brady to produce any electronic evidence (emails, texts, etc.), despite being offered extraordinary safeguards by the investigators to protect unrelated personal information" contributed to his punishment.

"Although we do not hold the club directly responsible for Mr. Brady’s refusal to cooperate, it remains significant that the quarterback of the team failed to cooperate fully with the investigation," Vincent wrote.

The Wells report also criticized Brady for this, saying he wouldn't turn over the cellphone even though his lawyers could "screen and control" which texts they saw:

"Similarly, although Tom Brady appeared for a requested interview and answered questions voluntarily, he declined to make available any documents or electronic information (including text messages and emails) that we requested, even though those requests were limited to the subject matter of our investigation (such as messages concerning the preparation of game balls, air pressure of balls, inflation of balls or deflation of balls) and we offered to allow Brady's counsel to screen and control the production so that it would be limited strictly to responsive materials and would not involve our taking possession of Brady's telephone or other electronic devices. Our inability to review contemporaneous communications and other documents in Brady‟s possession and control related to the matters under review potentially limited the discovery of relevant evidence and was not helpful to the investigation."

On Tuesday, lead investigator Tedd Wells gave some more details about this on a conference call. He said that they didn't even request Brady's phone, they just needed printouts of certain communications:

Though the NFL couldn't force Brady to give up his phone, his refusal to hurt him in the end.

Wells didn't get his hands on Brady's texts and emails, but electronic communications from the phones of employees Jim McNally and John Jastremski were what led investigators to believe Brady was "generally aware" of a plot to deflate footballs. Text messages between employees Jim McNally and John Jastremski referenced Brady's inflation preferences, and communication between Brady and Jastremski increased dramatically after the AFC championship game.

Brady was within his rights to not hand over phone records, but it ultimately contributed to a harsh punishment, costing him the beginning of the 2015 season and a few million dollars. 

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David and Victoria Beckham met Stephen Hawking for the first time Monday night at a Google event.

The A-list couple were so taken with their fellow Brit, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, that they both shared the meeting on social media.

David Beckham captioned his photo: "It was an absolute honour to meet Professor Hawking. What he said to me was truly amazing."

Hawking playfully typed to Beckham: "I’m always being compared to you as a British icon and sometimes you rate higher and sometimes I do."

Victoria Beckham also posted about the encounter:

"Thank you @Google for an inspiring evening, was an honour to meet Stephen Hawking x vb"

On Tuesday, it was also confirmed that Professor Hawking will make "a special guest appearance" at the Glastonbury Festival next month.

SEE ALSO: David Beckham threw himself a lavish, star-studded 40th-birthday party in Morocco

MORE: Stephen Hawking gave a priceless gift to filmmakers of the Oscar-winning movie about his life

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Asher Conniff, a 26-year-old Brooklyn native, recently won a massive sum of money playing in a poker tournament that he actually entered by accident. Conniff meant to sign up for a different tournament, but, by mistake, he registered for one that conflicted with a planned family vacation to Europe.

When he found out he couldn't get a refund on his buy-in, Conniff backed out of the family trip and went ahead with the tournament he hadn't intended on entering. It turned out to be a very wise financial decision. After he won that tournament, he became eligible for the World Poker Tour World Championship, which he also won. Conniff walked away with a pot worth more than $973,000.

Produced by Graham Flanagan

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Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins hit a home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers that has the baseball world buzzing.

Stanton, who signed a $325 million contract this past off-season, hit a first-inning cut fastball from Mike Bolsinger completely out of Dodger Stadium over the left field bleachers.

According to Molly Knight, Stanton is just the fifth player ever to hit a home run out of Dodger Stadium and the first since Mark McGwire in 1999.

The pitch was clocked at 85 mph. However, when the ball left the bat it was travelling at 114 mph according to ESPN's home run tracker. Amazingly, the ball is said to have only travelled 467 feet, which makes it just the third-longest home run hit this season.

Here is the full video.

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In a crucial Game 5 on Tuesday night, LeBron James put up 38 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, three steals, and three blocks in a Cavaliers win over the Chicago Bulls. He arguably had the biggest play of the game when he swatted Derrick Rose's game-tying layup attempt out of bounds with 48 seconds to play and the score 101-99 Cavs.

David Richard of USA Today Sports got a fantastic picture of the block that highlights LeBron's incredible athleticism:

At that point, the Bulls were on a 17-4 run, closing a double-digit deficit to just two points. Rose's layup looked like it was going to tie the game until LeBron came flying in:

James was lurking the entire time:

This season has been the first where the 30-year-old LeBron has played more under the rim than above it. Though he's still undoubtedly one of the best players and finishers in the NBA, he's shown a noticeable lack of explosion compared to his earlier, high-flying days.

Nonetheless, when he needs to, LeBron can still get up. 

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The NFL has levied its punishment against the New England Patriots for deflating footballs used in games, including a four-game suspension for Tom Brady, a $1 million fine for the team, and the loss of a 2016 first-round pick and a 2017 fourth-round pick.

After the Wells Report was first released, Patriots owner Robert Kraft issued a defiant statement, but also indicated that the team would not fight the charges. After the penalties were handed down, Kraft's tone changed, saying the punishment "far exceeded any reasonable expectation."

That suggests he's gearing up for a fight.

The focus of the Patriots' defense will undoubtedly be the circumstantial nature of the evidence. However, the team may also argue that the league showed bias against them during the investigation and that evidence of that bias was left out of the Wells Report.

According to the Wells Report, after the footballs were tested at halftime during the AFC championship game, Mike Kensil, the NFL’s vice president of game operations, spoke with Dave Schoenfeld, the Patriots' equipment manager. Here is how the report describes the conversation:

"Although they have different recollections of the precise sequence and content of the conversation, it is clear that Kensil told Schoenfeld that the NFL had tested the Patriot game balls at halftime, found that they were all under-inflated, and had re-inflated them back to a pressure level within the permissible range. Kensil cautioned Schoenfeld that the footballs should remain properly inflated and subsequently left the field."

However, Patriots sources relayed their version of the conversation to Greg A. Bedard of Sports Illustrated and Kensil is portrayed as much more antagonistic:

"Patriots sources are steadfast—and their belief was conveyed to the league, according to a source—that Mike Kensil, the NFL’s VP of game operations, walked up to Patriots equipment manager Dave Schoenfeld on the sideline after halftime and said, “We weighed the balls. You are in big f------ trouble.”

Kensil is a key player in the entire investigation. Kensil is one of two senior NFL officials who Indianapolis Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson emailed prior to the AFC title game with concerns about Patriots deflating footballs.

According to Bedard, Kraft views this incident (and others) as evidence that the NFL showed bias against the Patriots, presumably because it shows some in the league had already deemed the Patriots guilty before the investigation had even started.

One source "close to Kraft" told Bedard that the Patriots owner was already "furious" with the investigation, but he became "out of his mind with anger" when the report did not exonerate the team.

It is clear that the penalties handed down by the NFL are far from the end of this incident and the entire thing could get even messier.

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Recently I tried out Moov's personal-fitness device, a wearable that offers workout data and virtual coaching in real time via updates using a smartphone screen and audio feedback.

Moov raised a ton of cash last year through crowd-funding, and this week it is rolling out its first cycling app, which is what I used the Moov for. (There are Moov apps for other activities, but I used only the cycling app.)

The Moov is a sleek circular gadget about the size of an Oreo cookie. The company calls it "the world's most advanced fitness device." For cycling, you wear it on your left or right leg using the provided ankle band, and it connects to your phone via Bluetooth. It charges via USB cable. The Moov device costs $79, and the cycling app is free.

I tested the beta version of the app for iPhone 6, the final version of which will be available Wednesday at midnight PST, according to the company. The Android version of the app is still in beta testing and will be released in two to three weeks, the company said.

In case you're wondering, the Moov never popped out of the ankle band while I was using it; it stayed firmly locked in until I took it out, and it never felt as if it might come loose.

And this is basically how the Moov device and Moov Cycling app work:

As you pedal your bike, the app tracks your ride data (speed, distance, climbing, power, cadence, and more) and gives you updates and tips. As you complete each mile of your route (there's a built-in GPS map), the app updates your current ride details, and a Siri-sounding voice gives you a quick update about how your ride is going.

After giving you details about how far you've ridden, your average cadence, how much you've climbed, and so forth, the app's audio prompt might offer a tip such as "Increase your cadence to lessen the strain on your knees" and "Increase your cadence to get a better cardio workout for the same speed."

To end your workout, you swipe right on your screen and a summary of your ride appears; each workout gets stored in your history. You can tweet, Facebook, and email your workout summary right from the app.

As for the audio feedback, the company puts it like this: Moov coaching "occurs over audio to help you remember when to shift gears. Real-time coaching aims to teach you to save energy so you can ride farther and faster."

To get the audio updates and coaching, you obviously need to be wearing earbuds or be able to hear your phone's speaker. If you don't want the audio prompts, you can just view the updates on your phone's screen. That requires you to have your phone attached to your handlebar using a separate mounting bracket.

I don't normally ride my bike while wearing earbuds. I just don't think it's safe (this is my preference, and others will have theirs). I bike in and around a major city, and being able to hear what's around me — cars, other cyclists, pedestrians — in traffic or in my local park is, for me, an added layer of awareness and safety. This goes for commuting and when I'm out for a long ride on my road bike.

For this reason, I would probably never use this app's — or any other app's — audio feature via earbuds while pedaling outdoors. I would use it while riding my indoor trainer, which I do mostly in the winter and on bad-weather days for a power hour of high-intensity intervals and sprints, or on a stationary bike at the gym.

Second, I find that having my iPhone 6 on my handlebar is cumbersome and distracting. Plus, like a lot of cyclists, I have to ride on crappy streets and over gnarly potholes, so I'd be worried that my phone might pop out, hit the ground, and break, no matter how secure the bracket.

I could just pedal with the app turned on and keep my phone in my pocket and then check everything after my ride. But a significant appeal of the app is that it gives you updates and motivational prompts as you pedal in real time. So there's something of a dilemma for me here.

For these reasons, I'd use the app on my home trainer or at the gym (with my phone mounted on the handlebar or in my hand). Out on the road, I'd keep my phone in my pocket and let the app run in the background, then check my ride info after. I'd still get the data.

Now, if you like riding with your phone on your handlebar or you wear earbuds while you ride, you'll be able to get the coaching feedback from the app.

Pedaling with the app

While out on a long road ride, I got several audio prompts telling me to increase my cadence (pedaling speed). This was good advice. The idea is, pedal an easier gear with a higher rpm, which should get you using your legs and lungs most efficiently.

Other prompts I got included:

Your cadence is very low. Try an easier gear. An easier gear will help you increase cadence and reduce knee strain.

Climb update! You've gained 100 feet over the last kilometer.

That's where the Moov Cycling app did a good job generally, with one or two exceptions. As I was riding on a flat road and approaching a climb, my pedaling cadence was pretty high and I was doing over 20 mph. Good work on this effort, the app encouraged me.

As I was riding up the climb, I was already in a good/low gear, but the situation was that I could not ride that much faster as the climb was over 6% in gradient, there was a pretty good headwind, and I was trying to pace myself so that I could make it to the top without imploding. Then I heard:

An easier gear will give you a more aerobic workout for this same speed.

As I was already riding at a challenging but doable pace, it didn't make a lot of sense that the app was telling me to use a lower gear, mainly because I didn't really have one (!!). Of course it didn't know that, and it appeared the app wasn't able to read this part of the effort accurately. It just kept saying things like "using an easier gear will help you increase cadence," which, having heard it a few times, made me a tad frustrated but mostly just made me laugh. I maintained the pace and kept on top of the second-lowest gear I had up to the summit.

Another prompt I got as I climbed a hill was, If you stand during a climb, try using a slightly tougher gear. Shift back to an easy gear when you sit back— again, solid advice in most cases. These two tips are cycling basics that a lot of beginner and even intermediate cyclists probably don't know about or forget to follow. Those people would benefit from using Moov in this situation.

And here's a related thing I see a lot: cyclists laboring heavily, and unnecessarily, up a climb because they are way overgeared. They can barely keep going, and they fight their bike, straining and grimacing and grunting, all because they're trying to churn a massive gear when they should really be spinning a much lower one.

If you go to your local park or popular hill climb, you'll see a lot of this, especially among newer riders and some weekend warriors. This is exactly where a device like Moov could come in very handy: It generally does a good job at reading your effort, and if your cadence is really low, it'll tell you to drop a gear and get spinning.

Save for a couple of instances, the coaching and updates made sense. While I did get an accurate update each mile, which was helpful, beyond that it was a lot of prompts about cadence and a couple about climbing technique, in addition to some pats on the back.

The Moov gives pretty good coaching advice generally, and when I asked the company about getting more specificity, it told me it was something it would be looking into. As with a beta version of anything, there's room for improvement.

Beyond that, I really liked the app's clean look and feel. The device and app make for a sleek combo, and the price makes it attractive. The various data points and graphs are useful, and it offers a nicely presented breakdown of ride information. All the data for my rides was accurate.

I think a lot of cyclists would like all this easily digestible data, especially if they're not very experienced or if they've never used a personal-fitness device before. I also think the per-mile ride updates are helpful during a serious workout.

For example, "Moov Power," which monitors your effort based on speed, elevation, cadence, and "Moov technology," could be valuable for those who want a quick, simple indicator of the quality of their workout without too much fuss.

"With your Moov power, you can tell how hard you are working instead of just how fast you're going," the company says.

To put it another way, if you do not want to dish out lots of cash for a power meter or a sophisticated cycling computer, which can easily run several hundred dollars, the Moov device and cycling app together offer a lot of data and are very, very easy to use. I'd go as far to say that for many people the Moov is the best, most affordable, and easiest-to-use fitness tracker for cyclists.

In sum, the Moov device and cycling app are best for beginner and intermediate cyclists who want an easy and relatively inexpensive way to improve their fitness with a real-time virtual coach and desire audio updates and tips as they ride, along with detailed info post-ride.

It's also good for those who use an indoor trainer or ride a stationary bike at the gym. I could also see someone who is training for a triathlon benefiting from the cycling app.

In addition to affordability, a key benefit of the Moov is that you can take it anywhere and use it with any bike. If, say, you go on vacation and want to get in a cycling workout, just find a bike, put on the device, fire up the app, and pedal away.

SEE ALSO: Why cycling — not golf — is the new sport of choice for young professionals

DON'T MISS: Max Levchin: photos reveal the beauty and intensity of the star entrepreneur's passion for cycling

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Nearly a year after the 2014 World Cup, many of the 12 stadiums Brazil built and renovated for the event have fallen into disuse.

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro and the AP's Tales Azzoni have each written stories about what has been going on with the stadiums in recent weeks, and they don't paint a pretty picture.

Brazil spent more than $3 billion on the stadiums, some of which were built in far-flung locations without popular local professional teams to sustain them after the tournament. A year later, some sit empty and others are running at a loss, and even the stadiums that host regular domestic games have been plagued by disputes between the clubs and the stadium operators.

The country's sports minister has even acknowledged the failed investment of the 2014 World Cup stadiums, telling Reuters of the 2016 Rio Olympics, "Differently from the World Cup, we are leaving a legacy."

Here's the rundown of the problems facing the stadiums:

The Arena Amazonia in the jungle city of Manaus cost $300 million to build, even though there's no top-flight team in the town and it's hundreds of miles from the more populated areas of Brazil. NPR reports that the stadium isn't even hosting local league games because it's too expensive. In addition, the promised income from things like concerts isn't coming in as expected. Kiss even skipped the Amazonian city on its tour of Brazil. The stadium hosted just 11 events in the five months after the tournament.

The Estadio Nacional in Brasilia, the most expensive of the stadiums, is being used as a bus parking lot. The stadium cost $550 million to build, NPR reports, but without a top-division team in the capital it has little use after hosting seven World Cup games.

Construction on the Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo just finished, 10 months late. During the tournament, a rickety temporary stand was used in place of the planned seating at one end of the stadium. The stadium now hosts Corinthians games, but it hasn't helped the club. According to the AP: "Attendance has significantly increased at the stadium owned by popular team Corinthians, but the club can't keep any of the revenue because the money is still being used to pay for its construction."

The club team Atlético Mineiro plays its games at the old Independencia stadium in Belo Horizonte — it can't make money playing at the new Estádio Mineirão because of its contract with the stadium's owners, the AP reports.

The 42,000-seat Arena Pantanal in Cuiabá was closed earlier this year because the roof was leaking. In April, Globo reported that homeless people were living in the empty locker rooms. The two professional teams in the city typically draw between 500 and 1,000 fans a game. The stadium cost $215 million to build and is now, according to NPR, "draining city coffers" with maintenance costs.

The Arena das Dunas in Natal is "trying to make money by hosting weddings and kids' parties — with little luck," NPR reports.

Then there's the Arena Pernambuco in Recife. Here's how the AP described it in December:

The Arena Pernambuco in the northeastern city of Recife, where 236 people bought a ticket to watch a Brazilian Cup match just before the World Cup, is resorting to corporate events, conferences, fairs and wedding ceremonies. In September, a 15-year-old boy celebrated his birthday at the stadium — he and his friends were allowed to play on the field and use the changing rooms and other facilities.

FIFA requires host nations to build just eight stadiums, but Brazil went beyond that. Academics have long argued that building stadiums for one-off sporting events like the World Cup and Olympics isn't a wise investment. Across Brazil, taxpayers and local officials are finding that out the hard way.

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The Canadian electric company Hydro One is firing an employee for his part in interrupting a reporter's live TV segment outside of a Toronto FC game.

On Tuesday a video surfaced of CityNews reporter Shauna Hunt being interrupted by a group of fans, one of whom yelled, "F--- her right in the p----," a phrase from a viral internet meme.

Hunt then turned and confronted the group — which included a Hydro One employee later identified by the Toronto Sun, Globe & Mail, and other major Canadian news outlets as Shawn Simoes— about the vulgar and disrespectful nature of the comment. When Hunt asked him about why his group was interrupting her, he called the stunt, "f------ hilarious."

A Hydro One spokesperson confirmed the firing to Business Insider.

"Hydro One is taking steps to terminate the employee for violating our Code of Conduct," the spokesperson said. "Respect for all people is engrained in the code and our values. We are committed to a work environment where discrimination or harassment of any type is not tolerated."

According to the Public Sector Salary Disclosure for 2014, Simoes made over $106,500 as an engineer last year.

Although the man identified as Simoes did not yell the actual phrase in the video, when confronted he said, "I don't care, it's f------ hilarious. It is f------ hilarious, we're not the only people, it happened in England ... You're lucky there's not a f------ vibrator near here, because in England, it happened all the time; it's f------ amazing and I respect it all the time."

When Hunt asks what his mother's reaction would be to seeing him yell that on TV, he said, "My mom would die laughing eventually."

According to the Toronto Star's Lauren Pelley, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns Toronto FC, is trying to identify the rest of the group so they can be banned. 

Watch the video of the incident below:

The video went viral in Canada, landing on the front page of Wednesday's Toronto Sun:

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The NFL owners will vote on changing the point after touchdown rule at a meeting next week.

There are three proposals on the table. Passing one would require of a three-fourths majority of votes.

The three proposals are all designed to make the extra point harder and incentivize teams to go for two. The three proposals:

1. Move the extra point to the 15-yard line (submitted by the New England Patriots)

2. Move the extra point to the 15-yard line, and the defense can return a turnover for two points (submitted by the NFL competition committee)

3. Move the extra point to the 15-yard line, move the two-point conversion to the 1-yard line, and the defense can return a turnover for two points (submitted by the Philadelphia Eagles)

Plan No. 3, Chip Kelly's plan, is the most intriguing because it would make teams go for two way, way more often.

Moving the two-point attempt from the 2-yard line to the 1-yard line is a big deal.

NFL teams converted 57.5% of their attempts from the 1-yard line in 2014, according to Business Insider's Cork Gaines, compared to 47.5% of their 2-point conversions from the two-yard line. Even when you consider the fact that teams make around 95% of their field goal attempts from between the 14- and 16-yard line, the math says you should go for two in most situations under this new proposal.

If the two-point conversion is moved to the 1-yard line, teams are expected to score 1.15 points per attempt.

If the extra-point is moved to the 15-yard line, teams are expected to score 0.955 points per attempt.

Even in the notorious conservative NFL, that's a significant difference. 

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Earlier this week, Peter King of theMMQB.com produced some interesting stats that showed Tom Brady has been just as good on the road as he has been at home since 2006 (the first season the NFL allowed teams to use their own pre-conditioned footballs at both home and away games).

Since NFL teams don't use their own equipment personnel during road games, presumably the Patriots would have only been able to deflate footballs at home games based on the way the Wells Report suggests it was happening. While this doesn't exonerate Brady and the Pats, it does suggest that if they were doing it, they either didn't do it often or it didn't really matter.

But this doesn't tell the entire story.

In the chart below, we look at touchdowns per game, interceptions per game, and adjusted yards per attempt (yards per attempt adjust for interceptions) during the same 2006-2014 period (left side). But now we are also going to look at those stats for just the final four games of the regular season (right side) when the weather is generally worse and using underinflated footballs is thought bring a bigger advantage.

Again we see that if we look at home versus road games for the entire season, the splits are nearly identical. But what is interesting here is that Brady's numbers at home late in the season are nearly identical to his overall numbers at home, suggesting his performance in December at Foxboro Stadium doesn't drop off while his performance on the road drops (e.g. 30% drop in TDs per game).

Again, this isn't proof of anything. But it does show that Brady has an ability to continue playing well at home late in the year and doesn't have the same success on the road.

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Cristiano Ronaldo is No. 4 on our list of the most dominant athletes in the world.

He's also the world's highest-paid soccer player, which means he has a decent amount of cash to burn.

The 30-year-old forward for Real Madrid owns luxury cars, flies around the world in private jets, and makes a mint on endorsement deals — and that's not even half of it.

He earned $80 million last year, making him the second highest-paid athlete in the world.

Source: Forbes

And more than a quarter of that ($28 million) is in endorsement deals with companies like Tag Heuer and Nike.

Source: Forbes

He rakes in over $9 million from his Nike deal alone.

Source: Sport

Helio Castroneves walked away unscathed after going airborne in a crash during a practice session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Wednesday.

Coming into the first turn on his second lap of the practice run, Castroneves lost control and spun into the wall, causing his car to flip over in midair before landing on its back wheels and scraping to a stop in turn two.

Castroneves was examined by medical personnel while still in his car and then brought to the emergency medical site on the tracks infield, where he was cleared to return to finish the practice session, AL.com reports.

Afterwards, Castroneves told reporters "I didn't expect to go flipping backward. I was very surprised by that. I was expecting a big shunt and big issues, but it was just like I spun out at any other racetrack."

"The car was fast; it certainly was taking off," Castroneves added. "It's not the way we wanted to take off. ... You can't be scared to go back out there. You're confident because of this group of guys."

The Brazilian has won the Indianapolis 500 three times in the past. The 99th running of the historic race is scheduled for May 24. 

Watch the full video here:

SEE ALSO: Paul Walker's car from original 'Fast and Furious' could bring $200,000 at auction

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He doesn't have much to say about deflated footballs, but ask New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski about his dating life and he'll give you an earful.

When radio producer Outsider Mike from "SVP and Russillo" asked Gronkowski about using Tinder, the athlete acknowledged it was hard to convince prospective dates he was the true Gronk.

"No one believed it was me ... it was fun, though!" he said.

He also had four solid pieces of advice to anyone looking to swipe right on love.

1. Don't be picky. Gronk advises swiping right on everyone to increase your chances of finding someone who's into you.

2. Use pickup lines. He suggests Googling "Tinder pick up lines."

3. Have fun! It's not whether you win or lose; it's how you play the game.

... and maybe most important ...

4. Flex. E! reports: "Gronk advised Mike to ask the ladies, 'Hey, do you work out, 'cause I'm ripped, I'm jacked,' and send them a picture with your shirt off. Something like that and they'll be like, 'Whoa, this guy is serious. I like him.'"

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Washington Wizards forward Paul Pierce spoke too soon after hitting a big shot.

Down two with 12.4 seconds to go in a pivotal Game 5, Pierce hit a clutch corner three to put the Wizards up 81-80 with 8.3 seconds remaining.

Afterward, Pierce turned to the Hawks' bench and yelled at them.

According to Hawks beat writer Chris Vivlamore, Pierce was yelling "SERIES" after the shot, declaring that Washington would go up 3-2 and go back home for Game 6.

The reference also dates back to Game 3, when Pierce banked in a game-winning jump shot and told ESPN's Chris Broussard after that he didn't call bank, he "called game."

However, on the possession after Pierce's big three-pointer, the Hawks scored the game-winning layup when Al Horford flew in for an offensive rebound and putback.

Pierce is one of the NBA's best trash talkers. So, naturally, after a big shot he was going to say something. However, maybe next time he should hold off until the Wizards finish the game — particularly when he was one of the players standing idly by when Horford got the game winner:

The Hawks now have a 3-2 lead as the series goes back to Washington, DC.

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A week after ESPN president John Skipper announced his decision to not renew Bill Simmons' contract, two primary theories have emerged for why ESPN is letting its most talked-about writer go.

1. Simmons' projects didn't generate enough ad revenue to justify his $5 million salary.

2. The relationship between Simmons and ESPN had been on the rocks for a while, and the last straw was Simmons going on the "Dan Patrick Show" — which isn't an ESPN property — and ripping NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a day before Skipper announced he was out.

Both theories were floated by ESPN biographer James Andrew Miller in Vanity Fair on Wednesday, and they've popped up in pretty much every post about why Simmons is out at ESPN.

The Big Lead's Jason McIntyre reported ESPN would have had to give Simmons "$6+ million" per year in a new deal, which wasn't worth it considering the modest popularity of his two prestigious ventures, Grantland and 30 for 30.

"Simmons is the most powerful member in sports media, an innovator with the most popular podcast in sports, a vanity website, the 'original blogger' who carved out a niche as the Boston Sports Guy and smoothly transitioned to being a creator of the Emmy-award winning 30 for 30 series, but … were any of those ventures generating significant revenue?" he asked.

Deadspin's Kevin Draper took a deeper look at Grantland's numbers and concluded, "Grantland’s traffic is rough enough when put in context, but it is downright startling that the website is still in business when you consider its expenses."

ComScore has its traffic at a modest 6 million unique visitors per month while ESPN's internal numbers put it at 10 million, according to Miller.

The problem with this theory is that there's evidence that ESPN doesn't see Grantland as a traffic- and revenue-driver. Rather, ESPN sees it as a prestige site. Business Insider's Nicholas Carlson reported last year that one digital media CEO heard "Grantland writers were completely shielded from traffic data and that there was little pressure on them to attract new readers."

You can interpret that as a managerial failure on Simmons' part (why isn't he pushing for more uniques!?). Or, you can read it as a sign that ESPN is fine with a tiny corner of its media empire generating critical acclaim rather than traffic. ESPN is a $50 billion company and ESPN sites generate 88 million uniques per month in the U.S. It can afford to bankroll Grantland.

As Miller notes, ESPN has even used the Simmons/Grantland model to launch other boutique sites around big names:

"If the Simmons/Grantland model was so financially weak, why hire quant star Nate Silver away from The New York Times and create FiveThirtyEight.com at great expense, or attempt a similar build on the still-under-construction The Undefeated under Jason Whitlock? Both of those worlds are Simmons-esque. If Simmons’s projects weren’t generating enough revenue to at least justify their existence, why bother trying that route again—and not just once, but twice?"

Which brings us to the second theory: Simmons and ESPN were feuding for a while and Skipper finally pulled the plug after the Patrick radio appearance.

ESPNers need permission to go on radio shows owned by other media companies. While Simmons reportedly told ESPN he was going on the Dan Patrick Show on May 7 to talk about Deflategate, it has been widely reported as the last straw for Skipper.

Miller writes, "The chief reason there was an abrupt announcement last week and that a drama-free, buddy-buddy ending didn’t happen is painfully simple, and simply painful: it was all because of Simmons’s latest appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, and his seemingly gratuitous slam at N.F.L. commissioner Goodell."

On the show, Simmons said Goodell lacked the "testicular fortitude" to hand down the Deflategate punishments at the same time the Wells report was released.

Between 2009 and 2014, Simmons was suspended three times, all for criticizing ESPN. The last suspension came last fall when he called Goodell a liar on a podcast and dared ESPN to admonish him for it. Simmons' Dan Patrick Show rant didn't explicitly mention ESPN, but when you consider the context — Simmons going on a nonESPN radio show hosted by an ex-ESPNer who has been critical of the company and unloading on Goodell in the same fashion that led to his most recent suspension — you can interpret the whole thing as a shot at ESPN, and understand why it set Skipper off.

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Lawyers for the New England Patriots have issued a long letter defending the team against the Wells report.

In the letter, the lawyers defend locker-room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski, who sent series of damning texts seemingly discussing their plan to deflate the footballs.

In one text from May 2014, McNally called himself "the deflator."

According to Patriots lawyers, McNally and Jastremski weren't talking about footballs. In the letter, the lawyers say "deflator" referred to McNally's losing weight.

The letter calls Jastremski a "slender guy" whose goal was to lift and gain weight. Meanwhile, McNally is called a "big fellow" whose goal was to lose weight. The explanation from the letter:

They never asked Mr. Jastremski about it in his interview. Had they done so, they would have learned from either gentleman one of the ways they used the deflation/deflator term. Mr. Jastremski would sometimes work out and bulk up — he is a slender guy and his goal was to get to 200 pounds. Mr. McNally is a big fellow and had the opposite goal: to lose weight. "Deflate" was a term they used to refer to losing weight. One can specifically see this use of the term in a Nov. 30, 2014 text from Mr. McNally to Mr. Jastremski: "deflate and give somebody that jacket." (p. 87). This banter, and Mr. McNally's goal of losing weight, meant Mr. McNally was the "deflator." There was nothing complicated or sinister about it.

The letter also provided texts from McNally and Jastremski discussing losing weight:

12:21:46: JM "Whats up dorito dink"
12:22:53: JJ "Nada"
12:22:53: JM "Whens the pong party….im on fire"
12:23:10: JJ "Omg"
12:23:34: JM "Bring it"
16:29:48: JM "You still with your women"
16:29:59: JJ "Yup"
16:33:21: JM "You must have her [omitted out of respect to Mrs. Jastremski]"
16:34:39: JM "You must have a picture of her [omitted out of respect to Mrs. Jastremski]"
16:36:31: JJ "Omg"
16:37:16: JM "You working"
16:37:53 JJ "Yup"
16:39:40 JM "Nice dude…jimmy needs some kicks….lets
make a deal…come on help the deflator"

The letter also says one text from McNally, "Chill buddy im just f----n with you…. im not going to espn …. yet," actually referred to a joke by McNally that he wouldn't get Jastremski in trouble for giving him new sneakers. Here's the full explanation from the letter:

The 'espn' reference in this string of jocular texts was part of their banter and related to the 'new kicks.' Mr. Jastremski had made it clear to Mr. McNally over time that his (Jastremski’s) boss would not be happy with him were he to give away sneakers to Mr. McNally. That fact is quite explicit in a number of their texts. (p. 82 — after texting about possibly getting Mr. McNally sneakers and apparel, Mr. Jastremski writes: 'unless Dave [his boss, Dave Schoenfeld] leaves the room tomorrow then it'll wait till next week'). Getting sneakers or apparel for his friend Mr. McNally, in short, meant Mr. Jastremski would have to do so behind his boss's back. They teased each other about whether Mr. Jastremski would get in trouble for giving him sneakers. The May 2014 McNally text reference to 'not going to espn' follows his request for 'new kicks,' and was Mr. McNally's way of saying, in substance: 'Hey, don't worry about whether giving me those sneakers will get you in trouble — I'll never tell.'

The lawyers say the NFL investigators had these texts but never asked Jastremski or McNally about the meaning of them. Had they done so, the lawyers contend, context for "deflator" would have been provided.

In the NFL's official statement in which the league announced Tom Brady's four-game suspension, it says the Patriots suspended both McNally and Jastremski. Neither can be reinstated without the approval of Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations, and neither will be allowed to resume his respective positions or handle equipment, namely footballs, on game days.

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The New England Patriots and their lawyers have issued a rebuttal to the Wells report and the investigation into whether or not the team intentionally deflated footballs used in the AFC Championship game.

While the Wells Report has no direct evidence of somebody deflating the footballs, it goes to great lengths to suggest that it occurred when locker room attendant Jim McNally took the bag of footballs into a bathroom without permission before the game started.

The Patriots' rebuttal attempts to discredit this suggestion by arguing that it was no big deal that the footballs went missing from the officials' locker room, and it was definitely not a big deal that McNally went to the bathroom with them.

According to the Wells report, McNally was seen taking two bags of footballs from the officials' locker room 20 minutes before kickoff.

McNally did this "without [referee Walt Anderson's] permission or the permission of any other member of the officiating crew," according to the report.

The Patriots' rebuttal argues that McNally did have permission to "remove the footballs from the part of the dressing room where game officials congregate pre-game." This is corroborated by the Wells Report, which notes that Anderson had given McNally permission to move the footballs from the dressing area of the locker room to another part of the locker room, the sitting area.

At no point does either side say McNally had permission to remove the footballs from the locker room entirely.

McNally was then seen on video taking the bags of footballs out of the officials' locker room. The Patriots argue that this was done in "full view of numerous League and game officials," but never argue that this was done with permission or that he had permission to take the footballs into a bathroom.

The Wells Report emphasizes the importance of the footballs going missing by noting that "it was the first time in Anderson's 19 years as an NFL official that he could not locate the game balls at the start of a game," and that when realized they were missing, he was "visibly concerned and uncharacteristically used an expletive."

According to the report, surveillance video shows McNally taking the bags of footballs into a hallway bathroom for one minute, 40 seconds, which the NFL says was long enough to deflate the balls with a needle.

The Patriots counter this by arguing that there is no proof McNally didn't just go into the bathroom to, you know, go to the bathroom:

"The report does not address whether one minute and 40 is consistent with the time that it takes a gentleman to enter a bathroom, relieve himself, wash his hands, and leave. In fact, it is. Nor does the report consider or acknowledge that, with the start of the game having been delayed, there was no reason for Mr. McNally to rush any efforts to deflate footballs in the bathroom if that was the task at hand. Mr. McNally had already been told that the start of the game had been delayed (from 6:40 to 6:50). He entered the bathroom with almost 20 minutes until game time. There was simply no need to rush were he engaged in releasing air from footballs — a process one would suspect would have to be done very carefully so as not to release too much air from any football. The one minute and 40 seconds in the bathroom was far more likely to have been for exactly the reason Mr. McNally gave."

The other issue brought up in the Wells Report was that "McNally provided varying explanations for the bathroom stop and his decision not to utilize readily available bathroom facilities in the Officials Locker Room and adjacent Chain Gang Locker Room."

The Patriots point to the Wells Report's own findings that the officials' locker room was crowded. At one point, the Wells Report quotes an official who said the sitting area "felt like Grand Central Station."

The Patriots' rebuttal argues that "one can draw no adverse inferences from an attendant deciding not to use the crowded facilities" even though there is no indication in the Wells Report that the actual toilet area was crowded.

The Wells Report is filled with a lot of circumstantial evidence and argues that taken as a whole, the picture is clear, the Patriots cheated. The Patriots are now going to great lengths to poke holes in all of the evidence.

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“Never say never.”

That was the response Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s content boss, gave to the question about whether the world’s largest subscription streaming service will ever stream live sports.

It’s a question that Netflix executives have had to answer many times before, and they’ve repeatedly said that sports, which are, of course, best viewed live, don’t fit with Netflix’s watch-anytime model.

Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, emphasized that point again on Wednesday at a conference hosted by MoffettNathanson, a media and telecommunications research firm.

But he also didn’t completely rule out the proposition.

“I will never say never, but I would say that where we sit today I don’t think the on-demandness to sports is enough of an addition to the value proposition to change,” Sarandos said, according to a webcast of the event. “I think the leagues have tremendous leverage in those deals, so it’s not like we’re going to get in and de-leverage the leagues.”

Sarandos said the prospect of paying huge sums for rights to live sports programming, which can be very, very expensive, “doesn’t get [him] that excited.”

“Not to say that it wouldn’t someday down the road someday make sense,” Sarandos continued. “Today I think that there’s lots of growth in what we’re doing.”

TV ratings are down, Americans are watching less TV, and some cable and satellite subscribers are “cutting the cord," choosing instead to get their video entertainment from streaming services like Netflix, Dish’s Sling TV, HBO Now, and Hulu, among others.

But live sports are one of the few things people still can't miss on so-called “linear” TV -- the Super Bowl and NCAA football championship game broke viewership records, while March Madness had its highest TV viewership in 22 years. 

People can also pay sports leagues directly to stream games. Major League Baseball has for years streamed baseball games through MLB.TV, and NBA fans can also sign up for a streaming service from the NBA.

The NFL is also planning to stream a Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars game on YouTube this fall.

SEE ALSO: Streaming services really are convincing people to ditch cable, and it's only going to get worse

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The New England Patriots and their lawyers have published a 20,000-word rebuttal to the Wells Report— which found the team probably intentionally deflated footballs before the AFC title game.

The rebuttal, which comes in the form of a bare-bones webpage called wellsreportcontext.com, is an incredibly long, detailed attack on the report's conclusions.

Some of its points are convincing. (The league was warned about ball inflation levels and did nothing.) Others are pretty tough to believe. (The employee who called himself "the deflator" was just talking about losing weight!)

"The report rejects the simple and fully supported scientific explanation for the PSI drop and instead builds adverse inference upon adverse inference from speculative and circumstantial evidence in order to develop even the soft conclusions it reaches," the team says.

The rebuttal says there's no definitive proof that locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski plotted to deflate the balls, and there's no definitive proof that Tom Brady knew about it.

But there's a big problem here: The Patriots indefinitely suspended McNally and Jastremski, the two employees at the center of the scandal, without pay the day the Wells Report came out. In a statement, the NFL said owner Robert Kraft made the decision:

"Patriots owner Robert Kraft advised Commissioner Roger Goodell last week that Patriots employees John Jastremski and James McNally have been indefinitely suspended without pay by the club, effective on May 6th. Neither of these individuals may be reinstated without the prior approval of NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent. If they are reinstated by the Patriots, Jastremski is prohibited from having any role in the preparation, supervision, or handling of footballs to be used in NFL games during the 2015 season. McNally is barred from serving as a locker room attendant for the game officials, or having any involvement with the preparation, supervision, or handling of footballs or any other equipment on game day."

If wellsreportcontext.com is to be believed, McNally and Jastremski did nothing wrong and the balls deflated by themselves due to environmental conditions. So why were they basically fired?

The rebuttal doesn't mention any of this. It only vigorously defends the same two employees that the team punished internally.

Kraft and the team have denied any wrongdoing throughout this entire process. When the Wells Report was released, Kraft put out a statement saying, "To say we are disappointed in its findings, which do not include any incontrovertible or hard evidence of deliberate deflation of footballs at the AFC Championship game, would be a gross understatement."

But in that same statement he said he would accept any punishment handed out by the league. On that same day, according to the NFL, Kraft indefinitely suspended McNally and Jastremski without pay.

We've reached out to the team asking for clarification on why McNally and Jastremski were punished.

In a statement after the league punished the team and Tom Brady, Kraft suggested that he might fight the decision, saying, "Despite our conviction that there was no tampering with footballs, it was our intention to accept any discipline levied by the league. Today’s punishment, however, far exceeded any reasonable expectation. It was based completely on circumstantial rather than hard or conclusive evidence."

Despite that rhetoric, he's the one who initially punished McNally and Jastremski. The Patriots can nitpick the details of the Wells Report all they want, but right now their actions with respect to the two employees at the center of the scandal undermine the central premise of their 20,000-word website.

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