With the New England Patriots’ training camp about to start Wednesday, everyone expected NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s final ruling on Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for ordering two Patriots peons to deflate footballs for him to be announced this week. Tuesday it happened.
And the reasoning behind it is pretty damning. Here’s the league’s statement.
“In the opinion informing Brady that his appeal had been denied, Commissioner Goodell emphasized important new information disclosed by Brady and his representatives in connection with the hearing.
On or shortly before March 6, the day that Tom Brady met with independent investigator Ted Wells and his colleagues, Brady directed that the cell phone he had used for the prior four months be destroyed. He did so even though he was aware that the investigators had requested access to text messages and other electronic information that had been stored on that phone. During the four months that the cell phone was in use, Brady had exchanged nearly 10,000 text messages, none of which can now be retrieved from that device. The destruction of the cell phone was not disclosed until June 18, almost four months after the investigators had first sought electronic information from Brady.
Based on the Wells Report and the evidence presented at the hearing, Commissioner Goodell concluded in his decision that Brady was aware of, and took steps to support, the actions of other team employees to deflate game footballs below the levels called for by the NFL’s Official Playing Rules. The commissioner found that Brady’s deliberate destruction of potentially relevant evidence went beyond a mere failure to cooperate in the investigation and supported a finding that he had sought to hide evidence of his own participation in the underlying scheme to alter the footballs.”
So not only did Brady refuse to turn over the phone, he outright destroyed it to hid it from the NFL investigation. Any narrative of Brady’s innocence that already required a major IQ-point deficiency by the defender, is now even more ridiculous.
NFL's Goodell Confirms Tom Brady's 4-Game Suspension http://t.co/LVJSoFKjco
— NPR (@NPR) July 28, 2015
Brady and NFLPA have been working hard through back channels to work out a deal where Brady wouldn’t be suspended, but still pay the four game checks he’d lose under the present suspension. Under pressure from NFL owners, reportedly including Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, that was never going to happen. The fact that Brady lied under oath again in the hearing, multiple times, and destroyed evidence should keep this out of the courts. It doesn’t mean it will, but it should.
Goodell: Hand over the Cell Phone
Brady: pic.twitter.com/5vtg0fkpPa— Sports Comedy (@SportsComedy_) July 28, 2015
The deflated ball is in Brady’s court now, along with his NFLPA lawyers. It’s obvious that the Patriots organization wanted to keep any dispute over the punishment out of the courts since owner Robert Kraft backed down on his own legal threats after a couple of private meetings with the commissioner. There’s a reason the Patriots don’t want a court case and that has everything to do with the legal ramifications of lying on the stand, and the evidence the NFL has helped them cover up and destroy from past cheating scandals.
Very disappointing that Brady and his camp thought destroying evidence would be the right course of action.
— Linda Cohn (@lindacohn) July 28, 2015
The idea was floated out that maybe Goodell was willing to reduce the punishment if Brady would just admit his guilt, but like any good sociopath, Brady doesn’t feel guilt.
By handing out the ruling the day before camp begins, the Patriots can now prepare for their first four games without Brady. Regardless of any legal case to come, the stain is on Brady for good and ensures that their latest Super Bowl victory will join their other three as cheating-tainted titles. No other team in the modern era has done more to earn the moniker of “cheaters.” And Goodell, coward that he is, can’t stand up against the other NFL owners to do anything to help. The rest of the NFL is done with the Patriots.
"Tom Brady destroyed potential evidence on or about the day he was scheduled to meet w/ investigators" via @RapSheet pic.twitter.com/dEW4FuUbl8
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) July 28, 2015
Frankly, Goodell should have hit them harder than he did. And, of course, he had that chance during Spygate to take care of them for good but, being the good lap dog, helped them cover up their wrongdoing and destroyed evidence that might have come in handy later on. Say, in a court case.
Somebody better put Teddy Bruschi on suicide watch.
