We finally have a conclusion - for now - to the Deflategate saga. The NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell announced Tuesday that they have upheld the four-game suspension for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, according to the New York Times.
Per the Times, the league released a 20-page statement which revealed that its decision was based, at least in part, on Brady's "ordering" of potential evidence, specifically in the form of his cellphone, destroyed. HNGN passed along a report earlier Tuesday which suggested that Brady may have destroyed the cellphone and that the NFL was likely to uphold the suspension in full.
"The destruction of the phone, which occurred shortly before Brady met with the league-appointed investigator, was only revealed at Brady's appeal hearing in June," according to the Times.
You can read the NFL's full statement on the discipline below, thanks to NFL.com's Rand Geltin...
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld today the 4-game suspension imposed on #Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. pic.twitter.com/CYm9fT0rUy
— Rand Getlin (@Rand_Getlin) July 28, 2015
And here's Brady's agent, Don Yee's statement on the ruling, via ESPN's Adam Schefter...
"The Commissioner's decision is deeply disappointing, but not surprising because the appeal process was thoroughly lacking in procedural fairness.
Most importantly, neither Tom nor the Patriots did anything wrong. And the NFL has no evidence that anything inappropriate occurred.
The appeal process was a sham, resulting in the Commissioner rubber-stamping his own decision. For example, the Wells investigative team was given over 100 days to conduct its investigation. Just days prior to the appeal hearing, we were notified that we would only have four hours to present a defense; therefore, we didn't have enough time to examine important witnesses. Likewise, it was represented to the public that the Wells team was 'independent'; however, when we requested documents from Wells, our request was rejected on the basis of privilege. We therefore had no idea as to what Wells found from other witnesses, nor did we know what those other witnesses said.
These are just two examples of how the Commissioner failed to ensure a fair process.
Additionally, the science in the Wells Report was junk. It has been thoroughly discredited by independent third parties.
Finally, as to the issue of cooperation, we presented the Commissioner with an unprecedented amount of electronic data, all of which is incontrovertible. I do not think that any private citizen would have agreed to provide anyone with the amount of information that Tom was willing to reveal to the Commissioner. Tom was completely transparent. All of the electronic information was ignored; we don't know why. The extent to which Tom opened up his private life to the Commissioner will become clear in the coming days.
The Commissioner's decision and discipline has no precedent in all of NFL history. His decision alters the competitive balance of the upcoming season. The decision is wrong and has no basis, and it diminishes the integrity of the game."
The franchise was reportedly unaware of the fact that Brady's cellphone had allegedly been destroyed, with an unnamed Pats staffer telling Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports that Tuesday's report was the first time anyone with the team had heard of it. As part of the ruling, Goodell found that Brady "was aware of" and had taken "steps to support" the illegal deflation of footballs, per Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports. It also indicated that Brady's destruction of his cellphone had kept the league from accessing over 10,000 "potential text messages."
Which brings us to the presumed legal battle we all expected would come in the wake of just such a ruling - Ian Rapoport of NFL.com stated plainly after the ruling that Brady and the NFLPA will "see the NFL in court." Albert Breer of NFL.com added that the NFLPA is "ready to go to federal court" and is simply waiting on Brady's go-ahead.
