The NFL didn’t budge on Tuesday. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, five weeks after hearing Brady’s appeal over the Deflategate issue, kept his suspension at four games.
(Yahoo! Sports, July 28, 2015)
In “NFL Investigation: Brady’s a Liar and a Cheat,” May 7, 2015, I not only declared my belief that Tom Brady is as guilty as sin, but urged Goodell to make an example of him to protect the integrity of the game.
But I had no idea Brady’s consciousness of guilt was such that he obstructed the Deflategate investigation the way Richard Nixon obstructed the Watergate investigation. In fact, given reports that he destroyed critical cellphone evidence “on or shortly before” the day he met with the special investigator, he really left Goodell no choice.
‘The evidence fully supports my findings that (I) Mr. Brady participated in a scheme to tamper with the game balls after they had been approved by the game officials for use in the AFC Championship Game and (2) Mr. Brady willfully obstructed the investigation by, among other things, affirmatively arranging for destruction of his cellphone knowing that it contained potentially relevant information that had been requested by the investigators,’ Goodell wrote in his ruling.
‘All of this indisputably constitutes conduct detrimental to the integrity of, and public confidence in, the game of professional football.’
(Washington Post, July 28, 2015)
In other words, it appears Brady used the cellphone at issue for only four months, as this scandal was unfolding, to orchestrate the cover up of his cheating. Then, like a common criminal, he destroyed it – complete with its reported 10,000 text messages – to cover his tracks.
Frankly, this ill-fated ploy vindicates my assertion that he should have been banned from playing in February’s Super Bowl and suspended for an entire year.
Mind you, I would find Brady a little more credible if he could prove that he destroyed and replaced his cellphone at least four times (representing his four, now suspect, Super Bowl wins), after using it for only four months, at any point during his sixteen years in the NFL, before November 2014. After all, even if he made a practice of destroying and replacing cellphones every year, for whatever reason, he would have done so at least fifteen times. It might also help if he could explain why he did not migrate data, including text messages, the way most people do when they replace their cellphones.
The point is that this guy just strikes me as an arrogant cheater and a pathological liar. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of legal hacks and PR flacks willing to enable and defend his pathologies for a handsome fee.
Which brings me to the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). It should leave Brady to his own devices … to protect its own integrity. That Patriots owner Robert Kraft accepted the team’s punishment without appeal is instructive in this regard. Many pundits accused him of throwing Brady under the bus. But Kraft did what was clearly in the best interest of his team and the league, honoring the unqualified maxim that no player is bigger than the game.
By the same token, it behooves the NFLPA to act in the interest of the association and the league. The evidence of Brady’s guilt is beyond any reasonable doubt. And Goodell’s power to discipline him is beyond reproach.
Therefore, standing by Brady – in his self-indulgent and futile efforts to salvage his reputation – will create an untenable and unsustainable expectation among other players; namely that the NFLPA will stand by them too, no matter how egregiously they cheat or what crimes they commit.
Trust me folks, in a legal fight between Brady and Goodell … on this issue, Brady is bound to suffer a humiliating and costly defeat. Unfortunately, he’s too full of himself to realize it, and his hacks and flacks are raking in too much of his money to deflate his ego. But he would be well advised to cut his losses, accept the suspension, and let his supermodel wife help him lick his wounds behind closed doors….
That said, I think it’s fair to assert that Tom Brady’s reputation in Football is (or should be) every bit as tarnished as Barry Bonds’ reputation in Baseball is (and should be). And to those who think this “golden boy” is too cool and good looking to be a serial cheater, consider yourselves every bit as gullible as those who thought the “all-American” Ted Bundy was too smart and good looking to be a serial killer. Granted, a harsh analogy, but the point is undeniable.
Related commentaries:
Deflategate…
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Tuesday, at 5:17 p.m.