NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Upholds Tom Brady's Deflate-Gate Suspension
1. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Upholds Tom Brady's
Deflate-Gate Suspension
The NFL on Tuesday upheld its four-game suspension of Tom Brady, the star quarterback of the New
England Patriots -- and said he had his phone destroyed just before he met with Deflate-Gate
investigators.
Unless Brady takes the league to court and wins, he will sit out a quarter of the Patriots' season as
they defend their Super Bowl title.
"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," the NFL said in announcing the
ruling.
Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote that Brady, one of the most marketable athletes in the sport,
"engaged in conduct detrimental to the integrity of, and public confidence in, the game of
professional football."
An investigator hired by the league concluded earlier this year that there was "substantial and
credible evidence" that Patriots personnel deflated footballs before the AFC championship game,
and that Brady knew about it. Brady has denied wrongdoing.
Read more from ProFootballTalk: Tom Brady's agent calls NFL appeal process "a sham"
A football inflated under the minimum pressure can be easier to grip, especially in bad weather, as
the Patriots and Indianapolis Colts faced in the championship game.
Besides the four-game suspension of Brady, the team was fined $1 million and stripped of two draft
picks.
The NFL said that Brady had the phone destroyed just before he met with Ted Wells, the NFL
investigator, on March 6. The destruction was not disclosed until June 18, the league said.
Brady told the league that he routinely has his old phone destroyed when he gets a new one. But he
offered no explanation for why he had his phone destroyed just before the meeting after using it for
four months, the commissioner said.
The investigator's report also faulted a Patriots locker room attendant and an equipment manager
and included incriminating texts between the two. One of them referred to himself as "the deflator."
2. John Jastremski, the equipment manager, texted Brady on Jan. 19, the day after the championship
game: "Dave will be picking your brain later about it. He's not accusing me or anyone. Trying to get
to the bottom of it. He knows it's unrealistic you did it yourself."
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/nfl-commissioner-roger-goodell-upholds-tom-bradys-deflate-ga
te-suspension-n399821
