Dunlap: Tom Brady's Agent Latest Fraud In This Whole Sham
This guy Don Yee has some damn gall.
Then again, he's the agent for Tom Brady, who has even more damn gall.
And Brady plays for Bill Belichick, who might have the most gall on the planet.
You can have them as far as I'm concerned --- you can have all three of them. I don't have much use for that unholy triumvirate.
They seem like a delusional bunch of cheaters to me; and there's no way in the world I'm the only one who can feel this way.
Anyhow, back to Yee, who on Thursday morning came out with a chirpy defense of his client in the wake of the Ted Wells Deflategate report. In Yee's epistle, he puts forth a whole bunch of lawyerspeak that essentially tries to sway the public into believing the Wells report was unfair and out to get Brady.
But, perhaps, the most maddening portion of Yee's missive is that he has the nerve to question how the National Football League went about trying to catch a man who was cheating instead of putting the onus on the man who was cheating to, well, stop cheating.
Yee wrote, in defense of Brady: "What does it say about the league office's protocols and ethics when it allows one team to tip it off to an issue prior to a championship game, and no league officials or game officials notified the Patriots of the same issue prior to the game? This suggests it may be more probable than not that the league cooperated with the Colts in perpetrating a sting operation."
And to that, I say, "So what, Mr. Yee. Tell your client not to cheat and he doesn't have to worry about a sting operation."
Does this guy Yee understand what he's writing? Does he truly believe the most prudent solution to cheating is to tip off the organization that benefits most from the person in question cheating?
What a crock. What a sham. What a failed attempt to deflect the real issue, which is this: It is more than probable that Brady was aware of what was going on with a couple of equipment guys releasing air from balls so that the quarterback could have an easier time throwing them.
That's the issue here, never forget it. Without that happening, no tentacles come off of it.
Because of such behavior, Brady must be hit with a suspension to begin the 2015 season.
That's the immediate hit to Brady, but there should be long-term implications as well (but, you know, let's check with Mr. Yee first to be sure that's OK with him).
As for Brady's legacy?
It should take a hit. A major one.
And every single game that he played in --- from the moment he stepped into the NFL --- should be subject to being in question.
I don't care for the "he is great anyway" and "the Patriots won a lot of games without cheating" crowd. I don't care for that line of thinking one bit because, here's why: How do we know that?
I deal in the knowns. And the known here is that Tom Brady's offense was involved in one drama (Spygate) and now he is at the epicenter --- in Deflategate --- of another one.
At some point, that smoke produces fire and that's the point at which we have arrived. There isn't just a flicker; there are heavy flames.
That's how logical people should look at it, that's the way I look at all of this.
Or, you could look at it like Brady's agent Don Yee and try to blame everyone but the person who should be blamed most, Tom Brady.
Doing that, however, just adds to this situation that is already such a sham.
Colin Dunlap is a featured columnist at CBSPittsburgh.com. He can also be heard weekdays from 5:40 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sports Radio 93-7 "The Fan." You can e-mail him at colin.dunlap@cbsradio.com. Check out his bio here.