The NFL upheld Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for his role in Deflategate. (Maddie Meyer, Getty Images)
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell ruled Tuesday that the four-game suspension handed to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for his role in Deflategate would stand.
League-appointed attorney Ted Wells led an in-depth investigation of the Patriots’ alleged underinflated footballs used in the AFC Championship. The concluded that it was “probable” Patriots personnel deliberately deflated balls and, on May 11, Goodell fined the team $1 million, stripped them of two future draft picks and suspended Brady for the first four games of the regular season.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he would not fight the punishment, but the NFL Players Association filed an appeal on Brady’s behalf shortly after the May ruling.
In released by the league Tuesday, Goodell explained his reasoning for upholding the four-game suspension for the star quarterback, citing Brady’s destruction of his cellphone:
“The most significant new information that emerged in connection with the appeal was evidence that on or about March 6, 2015 — the very day that he was interviewed by Mr. Wells and his investigative team — Mr. Brady instructed his assistant to destroy the cellphone that he had been using since early November 2014, a period that included the AFC Championship Game and the initial weeks of the subsequent investigation,” Goodell wrote. “During the four months that it was in use, almost 10,000 text messages were sent or received by Mr. Brady using that cellphone. At the time that he arranged for its destruction, Mr. Brady knew that Mr. Wells and his team had requested information from that cellphone in connection with their investigation. Despite repeated requests for that information, beginning in mid-February 2015 and continuing during his March 6, 2015 interview by the investigators, information indicating that Mr. Brady might have destroyed his cellphone was not disclosed until months later, on June 18, 2015, and not confirmed until the day of the hearing itself.”
The following Goodell’s ruling:
The Commissioner’s ruling today did nothing to address the legal deficiencies of due process. The NFL remains stuck with the following facts:
The NFL had no policy that applied to players;
The NFL provided no notice of any such policy or potential discipline to players;
The NFL resorted to a nebulous standard of “general awareness” to predicate a legally unjustified punishment;
The NFL had no procedures in place until two days ago to test air pressure in footballs; and
The NFL violated the plain meaning of the collective bargaining agreement.
The fact that the NFL would resort to basing a suspension on a smoke screen of irrelevant text messages instead of admitting that they have all of the phone records they asked for is a new low, even for them, but it does nothing to correct their errors.
The NFLPA will appeal this outrageous decision on behalf of Tom Brady.
Any report that suggests two sides were coming close on a settlement in the Brady matter is rubbish. Plain and simple, rubbish.
— George Atallah (@GeorgeAtallah)
Goodell’s ruling and the NFLPA’s reaction sparked a wave of mixed reactions by fans, media and NFL players. To wit:
stand firmly behind Tom Brady: “We continue to unequivocally believe in and support Tom Brady.”
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet)
: “It is incomprehensible why the league is attempting to destroy the reputation of one of its greatest players & representative.”
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet)
Tom Brady’s agent, Don Yee: “The appeal process was a sham, resulting in the Commissioner rubber-stamping his own decision.”
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet)
It’s Pats thing.1st Hernandez destroys his phone in murder investigation and now Brady destroys his in deflategate investigation. Just sayin
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe)
Even the most ardent Tom Brady supporter has got to admit that smashing his cell phone looks a little bit suspect!
— mark schlereth (@markschlereth)
Well you can’t say cheaters never win
— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR)
I like Tom Brady one of the Goats….but he still more than likely cheated…it’s a current event relax
— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR)
This further supports the theory that deflating footballs is a gateway drug. He’s graduated to destroying cellphones.
— Tom Crabtree (@itsCrab)
My assistant Jack Daniels and I actually destroy a cell phone every four months or so. Usually just the screen but I get it.
— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE)
To be fair and honest brutally destroyed my last iphone 6 when he knocked it out of my hand and it went 46 feet in the air.
— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE)
Steve Young on Brady: “I would suggest maybe at this point taking your medicine.”
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL)
