Breer: Brady Being Treated As Repeat Offender Because Of Spygate
BOSTON (CBS) -- On the morning after Tom Brady's appeal hearing with Roger Goodell took place in New York, NFL Network's Albert Breer joined Toucher & Rich.
Fred asked Breer whether Goodell can really remove Brady's suspension.
"I'd be surprised. I think he can parse it," Breer said, noting that the NFL's recently installed investigative arm needs to create a deterrent for a lack of cooperation. "So if they find somebody to have not cooperated, which is what they found in this case, and if they find somebody to have lied, which [Ted] Wells said Brady did (now, I'm not judging that; I'm just saying what's in the report), then they have to come down hard on those people. So I think that piece of timing here is going to make it difficult for him to get out of some sort of suspension.
"Now, I think what Goodell can do to game this a little bit, is he could parse it. He could say, 'We're still giving you two games for a lack of cooperation, but you know what? The violation, we can see your side of it, it's hard for us to point the finger directly at you, there's a lack of institutional control here, so we're going to fine you for that part of it.' And I think that would be the sensible thing to do, because you at least minimize the penalty for the actual violation."
Later, Breer did say that the punishment on Brady might be a bit unfair, as the quarterback seems to be paying the price for Bill Belichick's infraction eight years ago.
"I think the unfortunate thing about all of this, and I think we can agree here, Brady is paying for Spygate. And I think that part of it sucks, to be frank about it," Breer said. "You're treating him as a repeat offender. The team is a repeat offender; he's not a repeat offender. And I think that's the shame of all of this. You have a guy who has a clean record over 15 years, and I think at least to some degree he's being treated as a repeat offender simply because of the logo he wears on his helmet and who he works for."
Listen to the full interview with Breer below: