COLTS

DeflateGate ruling: What they said on 4 key points

Scott Horner
scott.horner@indystar.com
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell (from left), Patriots QB Tom Brady and Patriots owner Robert Kraft

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld the four-game suspension handed down to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for the DeflateGate episode. Brady, Patriots owner Robert Kraft and the NFL players' union spoke in response to the ruling.

DESTROYING THE PHONE

The investigation included a review of two of Brady's cellphones, one he used from spring of 2014 through Nov. 5, 2014 and another from March 6, 2015 through April 8, 2015. The phone he used between those dates was destroyed.

Goodell: Mr. Brady explained that when he changes cellphones, he gives his old cellphone to an assistant with the instruction "to destroy the phone so that no one can ever, you know, reset it or do something where the information is available to anyone." But this conflicts with the fact that the cellphone that he had used prior to November 6, 2014 was, in fact, available for (forensic experts Brad) Maryman's review. Had Mr. Brady followed what he and his attorneys called his "ordinary practice," one would expect that the cellphone that he had used prior to Nov. 6, 2014 would have been destroyed long before Mr. Maryman was hired. No explaination was provided for this anomaly.

Brady: I replaced my broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER my attorneys made it clear to the NFL that my actual phone device would not be subjected to investigation under ANY circumstances. ... Most importantly, I have never written, texted, emailed to anybody at anytime, anything related to football air pressure before this issue was raised at the AFC Championship game in January. To suggest that I destroyed a phone to avoid giving the NFL information it requested is completely wrong.

IMPORTANCE OF THE PHONE

Goodell: Mr. Brady's affirmative action to ensure that this information would not be available leads me to conclude that he was attempting to conceal evidence of his personal involvement in the tampering scheme, just as he concealed for months the fact that he had destroyed the cellphone requested by investigators.

Brady: We turned over detailed pages of cell phone records and all of the emails that Mr. Wells requested. We even contacted the phone company to see if there was any possible way we could retrieve any/all of the actual text messages from my old phone. In short, we exhausted every possibility to give the NFL everything we could and offered to go thru the identity for every text and phone call during the relevant time. ... There is no "smoking gun" and this controversy is manufactured to distract from the fact they have zero evidence of wrong doing.

Kraft: Six months removed from the AFC Championship Game, the league still has no hard evidence of anybody doing anything to tamper with the psi levels of footballs. I continue to believe and unequivocally support Tom Brady.

NFL players' union: The fact that the NFL would resort to basing a suspension on a smoke screen of irrelevant text messages instead of admitting that they have all of the phone records they asked for is a new low, even for them, but it does nothing to correct their errors.

BRADY'S DENIAL

Goodell dismissed Brady's denial of involvement in any scheme to deflate the football pointing to four phone calls between him and John Jastremski, totaling 25 minutes; 12 text messages; and a meeting in the "QB room," which Jastremski had been been in before, beginning the day after the AFC championship game. The two had not communicated that often previously.

Goodell: The unusual pattern of communication between Mr. Brady and Mr. Jastremski in the days following the AFC Championship Game cannot readily be explained as unrelated to conversations about the alleged tampering of the game balls.

Brady: Despite submitting to hours of testimony over the past 6 months, it is disappointing that the Commissioner upheld my suspension based upon a standard that it was "probably" that I was "generally aware" of misconduct. The fact is that neither I, nor any equipment person, did anything of which we have been accused. He dismissed my hours of testimony and it is disappointing he found it unreliable.

PUNISHMENT

Goodell: In terms of the appropriate level of discipline, the closest parallel of which I am aware is the collectively bargained discipline imposed for a first violation of the policy governing performance enhancing drugs; steroid use reflects an improper effort to secure a competitive advantage in, and threatens the integrity of, the game.

Brady: I authorized the NFLPA to make a settlement offer to the NFL so that we could avoid going to court and put this inconsequential issue behind us as we move forward into this season. The discipline was upheld without any counter offer. I respect the Commissioner's authority, but he also has to respect the CBA and my rights as a private citizen. I will not allow my unfair discipline to become a precedent for other NFL players without a fight.

Kraft: The decision handed down by the league yesterday is unfathomable to me. It is routine for discipline in the NFL to be reduced upon appeal. In the vast majority of these cases, there's tangible and hard evidence of the infraction for which the discipline is being imposed.

NFL players' union: The NFL resorted to a nebulous standard of 'general awareness' to predicate a legally unjustified punishment, the NFL violated the plain meaning of the collective bargaining agreement.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick, on the events of the past couple  of days: Nothing really to talk about here.

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