Report: Tom Brady 'Wants The Entire Suspension Removed ... Feels He's Done Nothing Wrong'
BOSTON (CBS) -- As the Patriots open minicamp Tuesday outside of Gillette Stadium, next week's date of June 23 looms large for Tom Brady and the team as a whole. That will be the day that Brady will sit down with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the "independent arbitrator" who will hear Brady's appeal.
Brady is, of course, appealing the four-game suspension which was issued to him by NFL executive VP Troy Vincent and authorized by Goodell. Given Goodell's intimate proximity to the initial punishment process, it stands to reason that he's very, very unlikely to vacate the entire four-game suspension. Such a decision would diminish the integrity of the entire Wells report and, consequently, Goodell himself. Eliminating that suspension would erase any credibility Goodell may think he has left.
So, given that the likely scenario would force Brady -- and lawyer Jeffrey Kessler -- to take the appeal to federal court, there has been much debate as to what Brady's best course of action may be. Would he possibly create a distraction by fighting the suspension during the season? If Goodell lessens the punishment to, say, two games, would Brady bite the bullet and accept it for the greater good of the team?
While we won't know the exact answers to those questions until the saga plays out, ESPN's Sal Paolantonio did speak to some sources close to Brady, and they seemed to indicate that Brady intends to fight his suspension all the way.
"I can tell you, in talking to people who are close to this situation, Brady wants the entire suspension removed, and he wants to be exonerated," Paolantonio said. "He feels he has done nothing wrong."
Paolantonio added that Robert Kraft and the Patriots believe that Brady will be playing for the Week 1 season opener at Gillette Stadium.
Paolantonio said the Brady camp plans to "attack the Wells report" as being filled with "dubious, contradictory and mischaracterized circumstantial evidence that does not prove that Tom Brady deliberately ordered illegal tampering with the footballs."
Paolantonio noted that the league bylaws state that the punishment for manipulated footballs starts at $25,000 for a team, but not for the player. By missing four games, Brady would essentially be fined $1.88 million -- a punishment that doesn't seem to fit the crime.
Of course, even the best-laid plans can change. If Goodell were to shock the world and reduce the suspension down to one game, Brady could save himself the trouble of trudging to court every day, in front of the dozens of cameras that will be hounding him as he leads local and national newscasts while fighting the NFL. If it comes down to missing one game vs. dealing with that headache on a daily basis this summer, the decision could become more difficult.
But for now, Brady and his camp seem to know that the league has no hard evidence against him and really no precedent to account for the unprecedented level of punishment. And before your thoughts might go to "Well, Brady didn't cooperate," please remember Goodell merely fined Brett Favre $50,000 for refusing to turn over his cell phone while he was being investigated for sexually harassing a Jets employee. What's a worse crime: Sending nude pictures to a team employee or maybe telling an equipment manager to let a little air out of footballs? And in which investigation would the cell phone actually play a role in determining guilt or innocence? Come now -- it's not really close.
For the time being, we wait to see what will play out, knowing that Brady is apparently prepared to fight this thing as long as he needs to.
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