Deflategate legal battle could be next
In deciding to uphold the four-game "Deflategate" suspension of superstar New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell concluded Brady destroyed his cell phone to try to hide potentially incriminating evidence and thwart the league's investigation, reports James Brown, co-host of "The NFL Today" on CBS.
But in a post on Facebook Wednesday morning, Brady said, "I am very disappointed by the NFL's decision to uphold the 4 game suspension against me. I did nothing wrong, and no one in the Patriots organization did either." He vowed to keep fighting the suspension.
Brady's cellphone was destroyed in March, around the time he spoke with NFL investigators.
But he didn't disclose it until last month, when Goodell heard his appeal.
In the commissioner's view, that was yet another piece of evidence pointing to Brady's guilt.
Even though he knew investigators wanted emails and texts from his cell phone, Brady ordered his assistant to destroy it -- something he says he does whenever he gets a new one.
Brady had the phone for just four months at that point, and Goodell pointedly noted Brady's previous cell phone was still around.
The commissioner concluded Brady "made a deliberate effort to ensure that investigators would never have access to information that he had been asked to produce."
USA Today sports columnist Nancy Armour says Brady's phone -- with about 10,000 text messages -- was a key piece of evidence.
"If you're not guilty, if you had no knowledge, if you had no role in this, why would you destroy your cell phone?" Armour asked.
Goodell said scientific tests proved the balls used in January's AFC championship game did not deflate from natural causes.
He added Brady's 4 game suspension was justified because he was an active participant in a scheme to tamper with the game balls.
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In January, Brady told reporters he did nothing wrong.
At a news conference, Brady said, "I have no knowledge of anything. I have no knowledge of any..."
"Are you comfortable that nobody did anything wrong?" a reporter interrupted.
"Yeah, I'm very comfortable saying that.," Brady replied.
The NFL Players Association said Goodell ignored "legal deficiencies of due process." The union promised to appeal in federal court.
Both the union and Brady's agent, Don Yee, insisted the four-time Super Bowl winner was "completely transparent" and did provide phone records to the league.
Yee said in a statement, "The appeal process was a sham, resulting in the commissioner rubber-stamping his own decision."
"It's not the crime itself that's so bad, it's the cover up," Armour observed. "If Brady had just 'fessed up and said, 'You know what? I did it,' he would have gotten his hands slapped and we all would have moved on.
Brady reported to training camp Monday and is eligible to play in preseason games.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has a news conference scheduled Wednesday morning. The team still stands behind Brady, saying there was no hard evidence of wrongdoing against him.