Neither Brady nor the Patriots were caught cheating.
The Well’s reports makes ambiguous accusations without proof.
The only ball that was significantly under pressure, was the one intercepted by the Colts, brought to their sideline and not brought to the ref until 10 minutes after, which gave them plenty of time to let air pressure out.
The Players Union is standing behind Brady because the report “probably was aware,” is ambiguous and not warranting a four game suspension.
Not handing over his cell phone to the investigators…Brady’s lawyers told him not to, and to destroy the phone instead.
Why ? Because its personal and not any of the NFL’s business, but also because both Brady and his super-model wife are subjects for gossip columnists and they would’ve used anything to make a story and there is no way the Well’s investigators could stop it, whether true or not. There would’ve have been false gossip columns about secretly released stories based on the cell phone.
So yeah, destroy the phone for there is no way anyone can say they some how got a juicy secrete message off it.
Goodell wants the judge to make the call in throwing out the suspension this way he can say, " I wanted to punish Brady, but the judge ruled otherwise."
Goodell should be fired after this all said and done.
Jim
I have a little insight to Brady. I have personal friends in and around the NFL. One of them was a receiver. He is a devout Catholic. Brady’s Dad, (also a devout Catholic) asks my friend to pray for Tom on a daily basis.
Brady Cheated. Period. He likes the balls a certain way and never ever would a person have altered the balls and not been under the QBs direction. It just would not happen in the entire NFL. Ever. Imagine an equipment manager doing this and not having the approval of the QB Or even telling him about the balls he would be throwing in an NFL playoff game. So we can leave this “not caught” stuff behind us. Not to mention the history and reputation of cheating. If the lawyers instructed Tom to destroy the phone then why was that not the story? Why was the lie that Tom had no idea that they wanted the phone and he was just exchanging it for a new one…
C’mon Man! (Little MNF Reference)
I will tell you that on a personal level and as a Catholic, Brady needs our prayers. And on a professional level you are correct if Goodell Loses. ( I don’t mean both sides claim victory) but flat out loses, he should go. I say this as a Goodell fan and an NFL fan. The NFL needs to be ruled with an iron fist. And if Goodell is losing his grip, he should go and they should get someone who can impose a harsher standard. But all of this is media driven anyway. Remember all the NBA scandals and such. Stern being taken to task? Remember the Baseball fiasco that we are still dealing with?
Somehow we have a league in which Tebow should not be allowed to play, Sam is obviously the best player on the planet, People get 2 games for wife beating and 4 games for letting the air out of a football. Vick gets million dollar pay days.
This is not unique to football. Baseball has historically had way worse scandals. Some of them recently. And who can forget the NBA in the 90s who had a whole team (portland) of felons and Kobe’s deal, and etc.
This should have been handled better by Goodell but I usually have a personality that sides with owners and commissioners anyway.
Goodell has made some mistakes but man, In my opinion that guy should be president of our country. Perhaps that job would be easier. There is an election coming up…