NFL says Brady destroyed evidence, upholds his 4-game suspension

Published 5:55 pm Tuesday, July 28, 2015

FOXBORO, Mass. – NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell didn’t buy Tom Brady’s alibi and now the question is, will a federal judge believe him?

Brady, star quarterback for the New England Patriots, testified at his four-game suspension hearing last month that he innocently destroyed his cell phone used before and after the Deflategate scandal because it was his practice to do so whenever he got a new phone.

With it, he eliminated thousands of text messages sent and received – messages the NFL sought to scrutinize in connection with its investigation of Brady’s role in the Patriots’ use of underinflated footballs in the Jan. 16 AFC title game against the Indianapolis Colts.

Goodell indicated Tuesday Brady’s destruction of potential evidence was a critical factor in upholding the four-game suspension.

Goodell said Brady instructed an assistant to destroy the cell phone March 6, the day Brady was interviewed by New York attorney Ted Wells, who headed the league’s deflategate investigation. But, Goodell added, that conduct was not disclosed by Brady until June 18 at his appeal hearing.

“During the four months the cell phone was in use, Brady exchanged nearly 10,000 text messages, none of which can now be retrieved from that device,” the commissioner said.

Brady and the NFL Players Association are expected to sue the league over his suspension. They will also ask for a court order allowing him to play until the issue is decided by a judge.

It was widely reported that the league and the Players Association exchanged offers for a potential settlement for Brady’s suspension, but that Brady was not willing to accept any offer that included him sitting out games.

In an attempt to complicate Brady’s legal action, the NFL filed a document in federal court in New York Tuesday seeking confirmation of the commissioner’s decision to uphold the suspension under the principles of federal labor law.

Based on its investigation, the league fined the Patriots $1 million and took away two future draft picks – a first rounder in 2016 and a fourth rounder in 2017. Team owner Robert Kraft reluctantly accepted that phase of the punishment.

But Brady insisted he was victimized by assumptions and vowed to fight his suspension in the federal courts if Goodell did not void his penalty. He had asked an independent arbitrator to hear his appeal to the league but the commissioner declined the request.

Two Patriots employees — John Jastremski and James McNally — were suspended by the team in the wake of the scandal. McNally, a ball boy who referred to himself as the “deflator,” was found to have removed a dozen Patriots balls from the officials’ locker room without permission, taking them into a locked bathroom before the start of the New England-Indianapolis game.

The NFL investigation concluded Brady had general knowledge of the plan to let air out of the balls, making them easier to handle on a cold, rainy day.

The underinflated balls were discovered at halftime when the Colts complained to the officials. New England led 17-7 at that point in the game, and went on to wipe out Indianapolis, 45-7, with a scoring barrage during the second half using properly inflated footballs.

Brady said at the time he preferred his footballs at the soft end of the league’s pressure scale, but insisted he did not instruct anyone to go below the minimum allowed.