Hurley On The Adam Jones Show: Will AEI Report Have Any Effect On Tom Brady's Appeal?
BOSTON (CBS) -- On Friday, AEI released a report which really hurt the credibility of the NFL-sponsored Wells report -- the same NFL-sponsored Wells report which was used as the basis for Roger Goodell issuing an unprecedented level of punishment on Tom Brady and the Patriots.
While Robert Kraft dropped his fight with the NFL weeks ago, the fight for Brady lives on, with his appeal date set for June 23.
So, when Brady sits down with "neutral arbitrator" Roger Goodell at the end of the month, it's hard to imagine the AEI report will have any effect on the appeal process.
Adam Jones asked CBSBostonSports.com's Michael Hurley whether the AEI report will only come into play if Brady eventually takes the fight to court.
"Yeah, absolutely," Hurley said. "[The AEI report] really lays out two scenarios that Goodell would have to accept. Either he spent $5 million on a report that had really shoddy work, or he paid $5 million for a report that was purposefully slanted one way and was deceitful. Either one of those doesn't look good for him, so he sort of has to live and die by his own report. So yes, this definitely will only help Brady if it goes to that next level. I still feel like it's going there."
As for those two scenarios, Hurley said the commissioner should be embarrassed by the public shaming the AEI group just put on Ted Wells' report.
"My main takeaway was that this is basically a posterization by these folks at AEI," Hurley said. "It's something that if you're Ted Wells or you're Roger Goodell, you should feel pretty embarrassed. Now, I don't think that they will feel embarrassed; I don't think that they're capable of that human emotion. But that was my main takeaway -- this does not look good for them."
Hurley also discussed how the Brady appeal might go, why the AEI people got involved with BountyGate and DeflateGate, and the apparently still-cordial relationship between Brady and Robert Kraft. Listen below:
