#DeflateGate (Court of Appeals Reinstates Suspension)

[Roy H.]

The statement from the league...

“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,” the league statement read. “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.”


This is really hurts Brady in my opinion...again, what he actually did isn't that big of a deal in terms of on the field help in winning games, but the optics of this are NOT good for Brady.  For me this shows me that Brady had to choose the lesser of two evils...he obviously felt that getting heat for destroying his phone wouldn't be as bad as getting heat for what was actually on the phone

I'm not turning over my PRIVATE cell phone just so that some league investigator can take a peak at some selective messages.

Sorry, but I'd do the same whether I was guilty or not, doubly so if I was a celebrity / public figure.

We'll see them in Federal court, things should get interesting.

Yeah... there's a number of reasons I'd destroy my cell phone rather than let it be analyzed by a third party.  None of these reasons are related to deflating footballs.

The thing is, he wasn't asked to turn over his phone.  He was asked to have his lawyer provide printouts of text messages responsive to Wells' questions.  There's a huge privacy difference there.

Unfortunately with all of this we don't know what really happened. Did Wells really even make that offer? It makes no sense to make that kind of offer. There has been so much misinformation on all sides of this that I don't know how we can accept any parts as truth. I hope it goes to court just so everything is in the open and clear. So sick of the leaks, reports, false information etc.

Keep in mind that Ted Wells is a member of the Bar.  He's talking about conversations he had with Brady's attorney.  If he's lying, he could face discipline with the Bar.  I seriously doubt that he's making it up; if he were, I'm sure Brady's attorney would dispute it.

Offers like this happen all the time in litigation.  You ask for something, and then the other side provides something responsive.  For instance, when I request email correspondence in a divorce case, I don't get the other side's hard drive or password to their email account.  Rather, the attorney prints out all emails that I have requested, after going through them and making sure there is nothing that can't be turned over in there.

[BudweiserCeltic]

The statement from the league...

“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,” the league statement read. “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.”


This is really hurts Brady in my opinion...again, what he actually did isn't that big of a deal in terms of on the field help in winning games, but the optics of this are NOT good for Brady.  For me this shows me that Brady had to choose the lesser of two evils...he obviously felt that getting heat for destroying his phone wouldn't be as bad as getting heat for what was actually on the phone

I'm not turning over my PRIVATE cell phone just so that some league investigator can take a peak at some selective messages.

Sorry, but I'd do the same whether I was guilty or not, doubly so if I was a celebrity / public figure.

We'll see them in Federal court, things should get interesting.

Listen, I'm as big of a Patriots fan as there is, but c'mon...how can anyone continue to think Brady isn't guilty here?  Regardless of whether or not his phone is private, he instructed someone to destroy it either on the day or just before the day that Ted Wells spoke to him.  It's one thing to not turn it over, but destroy it?...how can you not conclude from that that Brady is hiding something?

I'm not a Patriots fan, in fact I hate them, so this has nothing to do with fandom. ALSO, in which part of my post did I mention that Brady was innocent? I didn't. I don't care for it. I only care about handing out punishment by the league because someone didn't care to hand over a PRIVATE cell phone. That's the issue here.

You keep saying private cell phone...HE WASN'T ASKED TO TURN OVER HIS PHONE.  He was asked to turn over individual texts that he felt related to the investigation

Just the same, even in this minor scope, I'm not going to debilitate my privacy. If destroying personal belongings is the way to preserve my right to privacy, I'll go ahead and do it regardless of guilt or not.

[colincb]

The statement from the league...

“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,” the league statement read. “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.”


This is really hurts Brady in my opinion...again, what he actually did isn't that big of a deal in terms of on the field help in winning games, but the optics of this are NOT good for Brady.  For me this shows me that Brady had to choose the lesser of two evils...he obviously felt that getting heat for destroying his phone wouldn't be as bad as getting heat for what was actually on the phone

The NFL's report is very strongly worded to conclusively place blame on Brady. Why does the NFL need the phone?

[kozlodoev]

The thing is, he wasn't asked to turn over his phone.  He was asked to have his lawyer provide printouts of text messages responsive to Wells' questions.  There's a huge privacy difference there.

I'm still not sure what's on Brady's phone that couldn't be seen on McNally's and Jastremski's phones.

[celticsclay]

The statement from the league...

“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,” the league statement read. “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.”


This is really hurts Brady in my opinion...again, what he actually did isn't that big of a deal in terms of on the field help in winning games, but the optics of this are NOT good for Brady.  For me this shows me that Brady had to choose the lesser of two evils...he obviously felt that getting heat for destroying his phone wouldn't be as bad as getting heat for what was actually on the phone

I'm not turning over my PRIVATE cell phone just so that some league investigator can take a peak at some selective messages.

Sorry, but I'd do the same whether I was guilty or not, doubly so if I was a celebrity / public figure.

We'll see them in Federal court, things should get interesting.

Yeah... there's a number of reasons I'd destroy my cell phone rather than let it be analyzed by a third party.  None of these reasons are related to deflating footballs.

The thing is, he wasn't asked to turn over his phone.  He was asked to have his lawyer provide printouts of text messages responsive to Wells' questions.  There's a huge privacy difference there.

Unfortunately with all of this we don't know what really happened. Did Wells really even make that offer? It makes no sense to make that kind of offer. There has been so much misinformation on all sides of this that I don't know how we can accept any parts as truth. I hope it goes to court just so everything is in the open and clear. So sick of the leaks, reports, false information etc.

Keep in mind that Ted Wells is a member of the Bar.  He's talking about conversations he had with Brady's attorney.  If he's lying, he could face discipline with the Bar.  I seriously doubt that he's making it up; if he were, I'm sure Brady's attorney would dispute it.

Offers like this happen all the time in litigation.  You ask for something, and then the other side provides something responsive.  For instance, when I request email correspondence in a divorce case, I don't get the other side's hard drive or password to their email account.  Rather, the attorney prints out all emails that I have requested, after going through them and making sure there is nothing that can't be turned over in there.

That helps some with clarification. Can Wells face disbarment for anything else he has done related to this? His report certainly does not seem on the up and up.

[Evantime34]

First off I am a diehard Pats fan.

The phone destruction thing seems really bad. Would Brady really destroy his phone if the only thing on there was admission of him doctoring balls? A practice that a lot of Qbs around the league do? If he was willing to destroy his phone then I'm wondering if there was something worse on there.

Then again a player with the competitive streak like Tom Brady is unlikely to accept a loss, even if refusing to accept it makes things much worse for him.

This whole thing really seems like the NFL was out to get Brady and the Patriots. In the Ray Rice case the NFL did everything they could to sweep it under the rug, including not searching out a security feed that TMZ was able to get. Yet when it comes down to the practice of deflating footballs that other qbs have admitted to doing they hire as many investigators as they can?

Regardless of what happens in this case, the NFL needs to come up with a uniform set of guidelines to deal with suspension issues, because right now it seems like they are making up the rules as they go along which is hardly fair.

[footey]

I was one of Brady's biggest defenders. If in fact he destroyed his phone, I feel like a complete fool who was played.  It really would reflect very poorly on his character.  Will refrain from final judgment until all the facts are in, but this looks bad.

[mahonedog88]

The statement from the league...

“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,” the league statement read. “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.”


This is really hurts Brady in my opinion...again, what he actually did isn't that big of a deal in terms of on the field help in winning games, but the optics of this are NOT good for Brady.  For me this shows me that Brady had to choose the lesser of two evils...he obviously felt that getting heat for destroying his phone wouldn't be as bad as getting heat for what was actually on the phone

I'm not turning over my PRIVATE cell phone just so that some league investigator can take a peak at some selective messages.

Sorry, but I'd do the same whether I was guilty or not, doubly so if I was a celebrity / public figure.

We'll see them in Federal court, things should get interesting.

Listen, I'm as big of a Patriots fan as there is, but c'mon...how can anyone continue to think Brady isn't guilty here?  Regardless of whether or not his phone is private, he instructed someone to destroy it either on the day or just before the day that Ted Wells spoke to him.  It's one thing to not turn it over, but destroy it?...how can you not conclude from that that Brady is hiding something?

I'm not a Patriots fan, in fact I hate them, so this has nothing to do with fandom. ALSO, in which part of my post did I mention that Brady was innocent? I didn't. I don't care for it. I only care about handing out punishment by the league because someone didn't care to hand over a PRIVATE cell phone. That's the issue here.

You keep saying private cell phone...HE WASN'T ASKED TO TURN OVER HIS PHONE.  He was asked to turn over individual texts that he felt related to the investigation

Just the same, even in this minor scope, I'm not going to debilitate my privacy. If destroying personal belongings is the way to preserve my right to privacy, I'll go ahead and do it regardless of guilt or not.

And that's fine.  But all the NFL can do is put pieces together.  And from their view, they see that the guy who is in the middle of this, the guy who was to be questioned by investigators, not just denied giving his phone, but he had it destroyed the same day he was to be interviewed...what else is the league supposed to think?

[celticsclay]

I was one of Brady's biggest defenders. If in fact he destroyed his phone, I feel like a complete fool who was played.  It really would reflect very poorly on his character.  Will refrain from final judgment until all the facts are in, but this looks bad.

I am probably in the same boat. However, a stupid question for me related to technology. Wouldn't these messages still be on the other's guys phones? Also aren't these messages still stored in the cloud or available through subpoena? I didn't really think destroying a phone did anything.

[BudweiserCeltic]

The statement from the league...

“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,” the league statement read. “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.”


This is really hurts Brady in my opinion...again, what he actually did isn't that big of a deal in terms of on the field help in winning games, but the optics of this are NOT good for Brady.  For me this shows me that Brady had to choose the lesser of two evils...he obviously felt that getting heat for destroying his phone wouldn't be as bad as getting heat for what was actually on the phone

I'm not turning over my PRIVATE cell phone just so that some league investigator can take a peak at some selective messages.

Sorry, but I'd do the same whether I was guilty or not, doubly so if I was a celebrity / public figure.

We'll see them in Federal court, things should get interesting.

Listen, I'm as big of a Patriots fan as there is, but c'mon...how can anyone continue to think Brady isn't guilty here?  Regardless of whether or not his phone is private, he instructed someone to destroy it either on the day or just before the day that Ted Wells spoke to him.  It's one thing to not turn it over, but destroy it?...how can you not conclude from that that Brady is hiding something?

I'm not a Patriots fan, in fact I hate them, so this has nothing to do with fandom. ALSO, in which part of my post did I mention that Brady was innocent? I didn't. I don't care for it. I only care about handing out punishment by the league because someone didn't care to hand over a PRIVATE cell phone. That's the issue here.

You keep saying private cell phone...HE WASN'T ASKED TO TURN OVER HIS PHONE.  He was asked to turn over individual texts that he felt related to the investigation

Just the same, even in this minor scope, I'm not going to debilitate my privacy. If destroying personal belongings is the way to preserve my right to privacy, I'll go ahead and do it regardless of guilt or not.

And that's fine.  But all the NFL can do is put pieces together.  And from their view, they see that the guy who is in the middle of this, the guy who was to be questioned by investigators, not just denied giving his phone, but he had it destroyed the same day he was to be interviewed...what else is the league supposed to think?

Not sure, but I'd think someone values his privacy.

This whole cell phone business is a complete red herring from Goodell... a complete distraction to anything of real relevance. Trying to get popular opinion on their side.

It's dirty politics.

Once this goes to court, we'll see how much this is a factor... it won't be.

[mahonedog88]

The statement from the league...

“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,” the league statement read. “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.”


This is really hurts Brady in my opinion...again, what he actually did isn't that big of a deal in terms of on the field help in winning games, but the optics of this are NOT good for Brady.  For me this shows me that Brady had to choose the lesser of two evils...he obviously felt that getting heat for destroying his phone wouldn't be as bad as getting heat for what was actually on the phone

I'm not turning over my PRIVATE cell phone just so that some league investigator can take a peak at some selective messages.

Sorry, but I'd do the same whether I was guilty or not, doubly so if I was a celebrity / public figure.

We'll see them in Federal court, things should get interesting.

Listen, I'm as big of a Patriots fan as there is, but c'mon...how can anyone continue to think Brady isn't guilty here?  Regardless of whether or not his phone is private, he instructed someone to destroy it either on the day or just before the day that Ted Wells spoke to him.  It's one thing to not turn it over, but destroy it?...how can you not conclude from that that Brady is hiding something?

I'm not a Patriots fan, in fact I hate them, so this has nothing to do with fandom. ALSO, in which part of my post did I mention that Brady was innocent? I didn't. I don't care for it. I only care about handing out punishment by the league because someone didn't care to hand over a PRIVATE cell phone. That's the issue here.

You keep saying private cell phone...HE WASN'T ASKED TO TURN OVER HIS PHONE.  He was asked to turn over individual texts that he felt related to the investigation

Just the same, even in this minor scope, I'm not going to debilitate my privacy. If destroying personal belongings is the way to preserve my right to privacy, I'll go ahead and do it regardless of guilt or not.

And that's fine.  But all the NFL can do is put pieces together.  And from their view, they see that the guy who is in the middle of this, the guy who was to be questioned by investigators, not just denied giving his phone, but he had it destroyed the same day he was to be interviewed...what else is the league supposed to think?

Not sure, but I'd think someone values his privacy.

This whole cell phone business is a complete red herring from Goodell... a complete distraction to anything of real relevance. Trying to get popular opinion on their side.

It's dirty politics.

Once this goes to court, we'll see how much this is a factor... it won't be.

So then just don't turn over the phone...but he didn't just keep it in his pocket, he had his assistant destroy it.  There's privacy, and then there's covering something up.

[D.o.s.]

Aaron Hernandez could have told him that was a bad idea.

w/e. It's July and we've got to fill the 30-ish hours before training camp.

[BudweiserCeltic]

The statement from the league...

“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,” the league statement read. “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.”


This is really hurts Brady in my opinion...again, what he actually did isn't that big of a deal in terms of on the field help in winning games, but the optics of this are NOT good for Brady.  For me this shows me that Brady had to choose the lesser of two evils...he obviously felt that getting heat for destroying his phone wouldn't be as bad as getting heat for what was actually on the phone

I'm not turning over my PRIVATE cell phone just so that some league investigator can take a peak at some selective messages.

Sorry, but I'd do the same whether I was guilty or not, doubly so if I was a celebrity / public figure.

We'll see them in Federal court, things should get interesting.

Listen, I'm as big of a Patriots fan as there is, but c'mon...how can anyone continue to think Brady isn't guilty here?  Regardless of whether or not his phone is private, he instructed someone to destroy it either on the day or just before the day that Ted Wells spoke to him.  It's one thing to not turn it over, but destroy it?...how can you not conclude from that that Brady is hiding something?

I'm not a Patriots fan, in fact I hate them, so this has nothing to do with fandom. ALSO, in which part of my post did I mention that Brady was innocent? I didn't. I don't care for it. I only care about handing out punishment by the league because someone didn't care to hand over a PRIVATE cell phone. That's the issue here.

You keep saying private cell phone...HE WASN'T ASKED TO TURN OVER HIS PHONE.  He was asked to turn over individual texts that he felt related to the investigation

Just the same, even in this minor scope, I'm not going to debilitate my privacy. If destroying personal belongings is the way to preserve my right to privacy, I'll go ahead and do it regardless of guilt or not.

And that's fine.  But all the NFL can do is put pieces together.  And from their view, they see that the guy who is in the middle of this, the guy who was to be questioned by investigators, not just denied giving his phone, but he had it destroyed the same day he was to be interviewed...what else is the league supposed to think?

Not sure, but I'd think someone values his privacy.

This whole cell phone business is a complete red herring from Goodell... a complete distraction to anything of real relevance. Trying to get popular opinion on their side.

It's dirty politics.

Once this goes to court, we'll see how much this is a factor... it won't be.

So then just don't turn over the phone...but he didn't just keep it in his pocket, he had his assistant destroy it.  There's privacy, and then there's covering something up.

I for one destroy all my phones when I'm done with them.

And I don't know what can of worms I'm opening just for this simple allowance, better I nip things in the bud and roll with it.

[celticsclay]

I could go for destroying a beer right about now

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

So is he being suspended for deflating the football or failing to cooperate with the NFL? Seems to me that the original suspension was for the alleged deflations, but RG's team decided that it would have too tough of a time proving that in court and is now shifting the argument to "he didn't play nicely in the sandbox with us."

Mike

Pretty much.

Look, I know that much of the country hates the Patriots, and that I'm a biased Patriots fan (though I do think that Brady knew what was going on), but this has been nothing but a witch hunt from the beginning. When the NFL simply issues a warning for one minor infraction (heating balls on the sidelines, on national TV) but drops the hammer for another, the league has no credibility in my eyes.