Details from NFLPA lawyer Tom Depaso’s possible defense of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in the upcoming DeflateGate punishment appeal came out Tuesday, thanks to Sal Paolantonio of ESPN. Details that are so dumbfounding they’ll make your eyes water.
"Brady wants entire suspension removed and wants to be exonerated. Feels he's done nothing wrong." – ESPN's Sal Paolantonio
— Dan Leberfeld (@jetswhispers) June 16, 2015
Brady, of course, has been suspended for the first four games of the 2015-16 NFL season. The Patriots were fined $1 million and will lose their 2016 first-round draft pick and a 2017 fourth-round pick. New England owner Bob Kraft has decided not to fight the NFL’s punishment.
According to Paolantonio, Depaso will attack the Wells Report as “dubious, contradictory and mischaracterized circumstantial evidence that does not prove that Tom Brady deliberately ordered illegal tampering with the footballs.”
Now, it’s obvious to everyone that even accidentally stumbled upon details of the Wells Report while looking for Supernatural slash fiction that everything in that sentence is insane. But none to fear, it gets crazier than that.
Even though Depaso will argue that Brady is “innocent,” he’ll simultaneously argue that he’s guilty and just being punished too harshly. According to Paolantonio, the NFL operations manual states that a team caught tampering with an NFL football will be fined $25,000, but that Brady’s four-game suspension equals a fine of $1.882 million for Brady.
“I can tell you in talking to people that are close to this situation,” Paolantonio said. “Brady wants the entire suspension removed and he wants to be exonerated. He feels he has done nothing wrong. And if you listen to Bob Kraft, it’s pretty clear the Patriots believe they’ll have Tom Brady… for the season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
Now, there are plenty of reasons why all that is pure crazy talk, mainly because Roger Goodell himself will be the arbitrator of Brady’s appeal and won’t overrule Vincent’s judgement. And, as I discussed in a column a few weeks ago, there’s plenty of reasons for Tom Brady not to sue when he gets Goodell’s final judgment and he wears three of them on his fingers in this photo.
Make it 4. #OnToTheRings pic.twitter.com/nbKsSUBvdD
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) June 15, 2015
Truly, Brady can only claim to one Super Bowl ring won outright without cheating and that was only because he was busted cheating the week before and couldn’t do it. In fact, Brady needs to be thanking the Colts for at least helping him keep even a semblance of a legacy intact and he should ship one of those Super Bowl rings to Seattle Seahawks Pete Carroll, who was the Patriots’ real MVP after that pass play call on the goal line at the end of the game.
Goodell and the NFL helped the Patriots cover up their past transgressions, so it makes no sense for Brady to think they’ll step back up and do it this time. He needs to face reality and no amount of his Ed Grimley dance moves are going to make it go away.
https://youtu.be/Esn6E4al-5U?t=4s
But keep dancing, Tom. Keep dancing. Shine on you crazy diamond.
