I could not believe this piece appeared in the Providence Journal this morning. If a sports write from New England can be this reasonable, perhaps the appeal will fail after all.
Stinging indictment
Brady’s lack of cooperation adds to punishment
JIM DONALDSON
You want to hear that Tom Brady got a raw deal. I know that. You’re a Patriots fan, and so you want to hear that the Wells investigation was deeply flawed. You want me to join you not only in righteous indignation, but also indownright anger that the penalties levied by the NFL in the so-called Deflategate scandal are unjust, uncalled for, and way, way too severe. You want me, like you, to stand by “Our Man.” To say that the Patriot Way is the straight and narrow. To say that the NFL ran a sting operation on Brady and the Pats. That jealousy and envy around the league over the Patriots’ dominance for the last decade-and-half prompted a league-wide witch hunt. Believe me — far more than the NFL investigators believed Brady — that I totally get it that what you want to hear is that Tom Terrific shouldn’t have been suspended at all, much less for the first four games of the 2015 season. That the Patriots shouldn’t lose a first-round pick in 2016 and a fourth-rounder in 2017. That the Pats shouldn’t be fined $1 million — twice as much as they were as a result of the infamous Spygate incident in the 2007 season. Or do you want to pretend that never happened, either? But I’m not in the business of telling you what you want to hear, even though that’s the popular stance in New England, including among many in the media. Instead, I’m here to tell you that Brady made the wrong read. As a reading of Troy Vincent’s statement explaining why the Patriots’ superstar quarterback will miss the first quarter of this season makes very clear. Brady is brilliant at reading defenses, but he clearly misread the situation he was facing with NFL investigators. If Brady had nothing to hide, the NFL clearly feels, there was no reason he should not have submitted his text messages and emails for perusal. Especially since investigators, as noted in the Wells Report, stipulated that “those requests were limited to the subject matter of our investigation (such as messages concerning the preparation of game balls, air pressure of balls, inflation of balls or deflation of balls) and we offered to allow Brady’s counsel to screen and control the production so that it would be limited strictly to responsive materials and would not involve our taking possession of Brady's telephone or other electronic devices.” Brady hurt himself — badly — by his refusal. On principle, I believe Brady was in the right. His text messages and emails are none of the NFL’s damn business. As a practical matter, however — to help himself and avoid hurting his team — he should have cooperated more fully with the investigators. According to Vincent, among the factors that merited “strong consideration in assessing discipline” was “the extent to which the club and relevant individuals cooperated with the investigation.” “The failure of Tom Brady to produce any electronic evidence,” Vincent said in his statement, “despite being offered extraordinary safeguards by the investigators to protect personal information ... (is) significant.” Vincent also mentioned Brady specifically when he wrote that it was significant that “key witnesses were not fully candid during the investigation.” Look, the investigation wasn’t perfect. If you’re looking for holes, there are plenty of places where they can be poked. But you can’t look at the Wells Report in its entirety and conclude that Brady and the Patriots are totally innocent and blameless in Deflategate. Spygate also reared its ugly head when the NFL was weighing punishment for the Pats. Vincent cited the team’s “prior record," their previous “violation of competitive rules.” Vincent also noted that “while we cannot be certain when the activity began, the evidence suggests that (the AFC Championship Game against the Colts in Foxboro) was not the first and only occasion when this occurred, particularly in light of evidence referring to deflation of footballs going back to before the beginning of the 2014 season.” If you’re a Pats fan, that’s not the sort of thing you want to hear. You’re irate. You may even believe that Brady and the Pats are blameless and innocent beyond a shadow of a doubt. In which case, not only do you not want to hear anything different, you won’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. If it soothes the pain of punishment at all, you should know that there are many football fans outside New England who believe the Patriots got off easy. And you’ll never convince them otherwise. After all, the Patriots won a fourth Super Bowl last season after starting out 2-2, and Brady will be back for Game Five this year when the Pats play the whistle-blowing Colts in Indianapolis. How about that for scheduling? And you thought the folks in the NFL office were fools. — jdonalds @providencejournal.com On Twitter: @JDonaldsonProJo
Stinging indictment
Brady’s lack of cooperation adds to punishment
JIM DONALDSON
You want to hear that Tom Brady got a raw deal. I know that. You’re a Patriots fan, and so you want to hear that the Wells investigation was deeply flawed. You want me to join you not only in righteous indignation, but also indownright anger that the penalties levied by the NFL in the so-called Deflategate scandal are unjust, uncalled for, and way, way too severe. You want me, like you, to stand by “Our Man.” To say that the Patriot Way is the straight and narrow. To say that the NFL ran a sting operation on Brady and the Pats. That jealousy and envy around the league over the Patriots’ dominance for the last decade-and-half prompted a league-wide witch hunt. Believe me — far more than the NFL investigators believed Brady — that I totally get it that what you want to hear is that Tom Terrific shouldn’t have been suspended at all, much less for the first four games of the 2015 season. That the Patriots shouldn’t lose a first-round pick in 2016 and a fourth-rounder in 2017. That the Pats shouldn’t be fined $1 million — twice as much as they were as a result of the infamous Spygate incident in the 2007 season. Or do you want to pretend that never happened, either? But I’m not in the business of telling you what you want to hear, even though that’s the popular stance in New England, including among many in the media. Instead, I’m here to tell you that Brady made the wrong read. As a reading of Troy Vincent’s statement explaining why the Patriots’ superstar quarterback will miss the first quarter of this season makes very clear. Brady is brilliant at reading defenses, but he clearly misread the situation he was facing with NFL investigators. If Brady had nothing to hide, the NFL clearly feels, there was no reason he should not have submitted his text messages and emails for perusal. Especially since investigators, as noted in the Wells Report, stipulated that “those requests were limited to the subject matter of our investigation (such as messages concerning the preparation of game balls, air pressure of balls, inflation of balls or deflation of balls) and we offered to allow Brady’s counsel to screen and control the production so that it would be limited strictly to responsive materials and would not involve our taking possession of Brady's telephone or other electronic devices.” Brady hurt himself — badly — by his refusal. On principle, I believe Brady was in the right. His text messages and emails are none of the NFL’s damn business. As a practical matter, however — to help himself and avoid hurting his team — he should have cooperated more fully with the investigators. According to Vincent, among the factors that merited “strong consideration in assessing discipline” was “the extent to which the club and relevant individuals cooperated with the investigation.” “The failure of Tom Brady to produce any electronic evidence,” Vincent said in his statement, “despite being offered extraordinary safeguards by the investigators to protect personal information ... (is) significant.” Vincent also mentioned Brady specifically when he wrote that it was significant that “key witnesses were not fully candid during the investigation.” Look, the investigation wasn’t perfect. If you’re looking for holes, there are plenty of places where they can be poked. But you can’t look at the Wells Report in its entirety and conclude that Brady and the Patriots are totally innocent and blameless in Deflategate. Spygate also reared its ugly head when the NFL was weighing punishment for the Pats. Vincent cited the team’s “prior record," their previous “violation of competitive rules.” Vincent also noted that “while we cannot be certain when the activity began, the evidence suggests that (the AFC Championship Game against the Colts in Foxboro) was not the first and only occasion when this occurred, particularly in light of evidence referring to deflation of footballs going back to before the beginning of the 2014 season.” If you’re a Pats fan, that’s not the sort of thing you want to hear. You’re irate. You may even believe that Brady and the Pats are blameless and innocent beyond a shadow of a doubt. In which case, not only do you not want to hear anything different, you won’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. If it soothes the pain of punishment at all, you should know that there are many football fans outside New England who believe the Patriots got off easy. And you’ll never convince them otherwise. After all, the Patriots won a fourth Super Bowl last season after starting out 2-2, and Brady will be back for Game Five this year when the Pats play the whistle-blowing Colts in Indianapolis. How about that for scheduling? And you thought the folks in the NFL office were fools. — jdonalds @providencejournal.com On Twitter: @JDonaldsonProJo
