On Tuesday afternoon, it was announced that Tom Brady‘s four-game suspension for his role in the Deflategate scandal would be upheld. Brady’s appeal of the original suspension was denied by Commissioner Roger Goodell after a wait of over a month and a half.
It was originally thought that Brady’s suspension was so harsh due to his refusal to turn in his cell phone and cooperate with the Ted Wells investigation. It has now been revealed that Brady destroys his cell phone on a regular basis and did so in this case. However, reports have shown that Brady did not destroy his phone until the day he was interviewed by Wells, creating an inconsistency in the pattern of how he had disposed of his phone(s) before. From the league statement:
“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.”
And from the original Wells Report:
In which the NFL shows Brady was inconsistent in his destroying phones routine pic.twitter.com/2X5EHTlhtx
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) July 28, 2015
It is expected that Brady will now take this to court, so this situation is far from over. Though there have been holes found in the Wells Report, that seemed to have no effect on Goodell’s decision to uphold this suspension, with Brady’s destruction of evidence cited as the primary reason for upholding the suspension. It will be interesting to see how these holes come in to play in court, if at all.
For New England, they will now need to prepare to play their first four games with Jimmy Garoppolo under center. The second-year quarterback has big shoes to fill and will need to lead this team through the first month of the season. Brady will be able to go through training camp with the team, so his influence on Garrapolo will be key in how those four games go. It has been reported that Garropolo has come far in learning the offense and has improved substantially.
Brady and the NFLPA will most likely take this case to court, even though the NFLPA (and Brady by extension as a member) had previously agreed to terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement regarding non-compliance with league investigations.
Tom Brady didn't have to turn over his cell phone, but the players union agreed to terms of punishment for this type of non-cooperation.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 28, 2015
Two problems for appeal: 1) Courts have great deference to established arbitration systems, 2) Brady/NFLPA agreed to CBA, Cmmr as arbitrator
— Andrew Brandt (@AndrewBrandt) July 28, 2015
The risk of that would be possibly missing late season games if that is when the case would be completed. Despite Goodell’s decision on Tuesday, there is still a lot of speculation left in the saga, and we will likely see in the coming days what course Brady and the NFLPA will decide to take.
