Tom Brady knew – and now his legacy is irreparably tainted
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Version 0 of 1. For shame, Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. For shame. There is nothing terrific about what the New England Patriots quarterback is implied to have done prior to last season’s AFC Championship Game, which the Patriots won. In that game, Brady had a sparkling performance, throwing 35 passes, completing 23 of them for 226 yards and three touchdown passes. Now that performance – and really, who knows how many more? – stand indicted by Ted Wells’ report. In 243 damning pages, Wells lays out how Patriots staffers Jim McNally and John Jastremski likely took part in a coldly deliberate effort to deflate Patriots game balls after the game officials inspected them. Related: Why Tom Brady's Deflategate ban may well help the New England Patriots “Based on the evidence,” the report goes on to conclude, “it also is our view that it is more probable than not that Tom Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski involving the release of air from Patriots game balls.” On the evidence laid out, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell hammered Brady and the New England Patriots. Brady got a four-game suspension; the Patriots were fined $1m – the largest team fine in NFL history – and lost a 2016 draft pick. Goodell sent a statement with that sentence: the integrity of the game is paramount. Now, people might dismiss what Brady did, whether by complaining about the nature of the offense, or by making weak jokes about his balls. Deflating balls? C’mon, now. Really? Really. That’s cheating, plain and simple. For all that Brady tried to shrug off the allegations in the run-up to the Super Bowl, pretending that he couldn’t have possibly known about it – it turns out the suspicions were likely true all along. New England perpetrated a fraud. Ted Wells – the attorney hired by the league to investigate – lays out in condemnatory detail how Brady instigated the fraud. After a game against their archrival New York Jets, Brady complained furiously about his balls. McNally: Tom sucks...im going make that next ball a fucking balloon Jastremski: Talked to him last night. He actually brought you up and said you must have a lot of stress trying to get them done Jastremski: I told him it was. He was right though. Even now, Tom Brady wants to brush things off, as if it were no thing for us to concern ourselves with. At a raucous, rally-like appearance at Salem State University near Boston, Brady verbally shrugged when asked about his implied cheating. “I don’t really have any reaction,” Brady said when asked. “Our owner [Robert Kraft] commented on it yesterday. It’s only been 30 hours, so I haven’t had much time to digest it fully, but when I do, I’ll let you know. I’ll be sure to let you know how I feel about it, and everybody else.” No reaction? Seriously? Here’s a reaction: this is appalling. This is what disrespect for the rules and norms of the game looks like. A sense of entitlement, an arrogance that comes naturally to those who break the laws, and expect not only to get away with it, but to be celebrated for it. Does he think it taints the Patriots’ Super Bowl triumph? “Absolutely not.” It absolutely does. Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr got to Glendale, Arizona by crook. While he and the Patriots may have gotten there deservedly, that wasn’t enough. They wanted what life can never offer: a sure thing. They sought to ensure that certainty by defrauding the game. That it was – according to them – a mere question of ensuring that their balls weren’t fully inflated doesn’t lessen the severity of the offense. They sought an unfair advantage; once obtained, they proceeded to use it. That’s no different from a pitcher doctoring a baseball or a batter corking a bat. The only difference is that the crime was discovered after the fact, thus rendering any possible relief for the Indianapolis Colts that much more difficult. Could they have beaten the Colts without cheating? Perhaps. We’ll never know. That extends to the Patriots’ extraordinary record at home during the playoffs. It’s a fact that a deflated ball is easier to catch; easier to carry. Is it a coincidence that New England’s ball carriers mystifyingly fumble far less than you would expect? Are we to believe that this occurred just once – or is it part of a larger pattern of misconduct? Regardless of the punishment levied by the league, these are the questions that now must accompany any consideration of Tom Brady as a legendary player and the New England Patriots as a dynasty. These facts and these questions now forever hang over their heads, Damoclean in their import. Could Brady and the Patriots have achieved greatness by the book? Perhaps. The saddest thing is, we’ll never know. |