If Tom Brady was already in trouble over DeflateGate, his agent Donald H. Yee just made it worse. Yee released a statement Thursday criticizing the NFL, Ted Wells and the entire DeflateGate investigation all but ensuring that any chance Brady had of getting off lightly for ordering two New England Patriots peons to deflate his footballs evaporated forever.
Statement from Tom Brady's agent, Don Yee: "The Wells report, with all due respect, is a significant and terrible… http://t.co/uGDRJutIk1
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 7, 2015
Yee accuses the NFL and the Indianapolis Colts of conducting a “sting operation” against Brady.
“One item alone taints this entire report. 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. The Wells report buries this issue in a footnote on page 46 without any further elaboration.”
It’s funny that Yee refers to it as a “sting operation” since the very reason law enforcement organizations run them is to catch criminals in the act of committing a crime. So, good choice of words, Don.
Yee then goes on to accuse Wells’ law firm of colluding with the NFL, coming to its conclusion before performing the investigation and claims that the assertions in the report are easily debunked. I don’t know where Yee went to college, but it’s safe to say there was no science requirement to get a Juris Doctor.
Also, as a writer, I can tell him that before you pick loaded words like “sting operation” you might want to toss it in the old Google search field, just to be sure you understand its meaning. But I digress.
Yee finishes by saying that he was present at Tom Brady’s interview and that the quarterback was just a super good boy (You good, Tommy? You good?) and answered every question without crying, pissing himself and with no fingers or toes crossed.
He then goes back to one of his original assertions, that the NFL paid for a false report to implicate Brady falsely.
“This report contains significant and tragic flaws, and it is common knowledge in the legal industry that reports like this generally are written for the benefit of the purchaser.”
Tom Brady is doomed.
After the DeflateGate report broke Wednesday it was clear that not only was Brady guilty, but he’d been guilty for a while using two Patriots underlings, John Jastremski and Jim McNally, to purposefully deflate footballs in an effort to circumvent NFL rules and gain a competitive advantage.
McNally referred to himself as “the deflator” in the transcribed texts included in the report and made it clear that he received gifts and money from Brady for deflating the footballs to his specifications below the required 12.5 psi the NFL demands.
While there were no emails or texts from Brady (other than the “You good, Johnny?” questions) it’s not because Wells didn’t try. Brady just wouldn’t let them review his texts to Jastremsky or McNally.
Wells, in the report, summed it up.
“We believe it is unlikely that an equipment assistant and a locker room attendant would deflate game balls without Brady’s knowledge and approval.”
Yee has stepped in it and has wiped his poop-covered shoe all over Tom Brady. Brady was unquestionably heading for a suspension and the only issue was how long it was going to be. The chorus of former players and commenters calling for Brady just to come clean and admit wrongdoing was growing louder by the second and it seemed that might be a way for Brady to minimize the damage, not only to his 2015-16 season, but to his legacy as a quarterback. Yee’s statement has made it clear that move isn’t on the table. Tom Brady, guilty as Hell, has been instructed by his agent to fight. Because of that, the NFL and Troy Vincent are going to bring the hammer down hard, not only on Brady, but on his head coach Bill Belichick and his team.
Robert Siegel asked Tom Brady's agent, Don Yee if he thinks DeflateGate report was a 'malicious assault on Tom Brady and the Patriots.'
— All Things Considered (@npratc) May 7, 2015
My prediction Wednesday was that Brady would be banned for a year, that Belichick would have to miss eight games and the Patriots would lose their 2016 first-round pick. Now, that might be a dream punishment for what the league is going to hit Brady with, especially since the team has already been busted seriously cheating once before during SpyGate.
Patriots owner Bob Kraft has already publicly stated that he will accept the league’s decision, so Brady will get no help from his team that he hurt, nor the coach that he might get suspended as well. Brady is all on his own.
Well, not all on his own. He still has Donald Yee.
Lucky him.
