The law firm of Ted Wells has sent a letter to the New York Times demanding a retraction of their story linking the NFL to the tobacco industry.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison sent the letter on behalf of the NFL and Wells is a partner in the firm.

Wells was the "independent" deflate-gate investigator. 

There were two key parts to that Times story, which centered around the long-running concussion controversy. One was that the NFL used flawed concussion research from 1996 through 2001, omitting more than 100 concussions in its findings. 

The other important part of The Times' story was the supposed connection to the tobacco industry, and that is what seemed to draw most of the NFL's ire. 

Times sports editor Jason Stallman told Politico that he sees "no reason to retract anything."