Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: SeaJay
Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
Any person with an ounce of common sense can see Brady was involved and knew what was going on.
I know that some of the guys hanging out in the park all day are dealing drugs. I also know the location of a cat house.
Knowing doesn't mean squat. I'm not sure how we know he was involved. May have been an off handed comment he made within earshot of the equipment boys one day with them taking it upon themselves to do the deed with him not objecting. Probably he was more involved than that, but we do not know he was involved. I think the line between innocence and guilt is very wide and very grey.
This is the NFL, not the West Point Cadet honor code.
For the 1000th time, unless you believe the equipment people decided ON THIER OWN to deflate those balls, then Brady was involved...please tell me you're not that naïve...
AND why do people think he destroyed the cell phone? Because it could have been used to show he knew. Brady handed over almost 10,000 copies of text messages but conveniently there were a couple to those two clowns that "he couldn't retrieve". He can retrieve 9,990+ but those couple conveniently he couldn't. Ok.
In a court of law the hard evidence is not there. The NFL is not a court of law and the preponderance of evidence is enough. Brady knew at the very least what those two clowns were doing. At the very least if he didn't tell them outright to do it.
He is also responsible for what those guys did on his behalf because he is known to have told them I like my balls at such and such so get them there and I don't care how you do it( something like that - local talk show read it out of one of the reports ). I don't want to hear anything excuses about he was joking or didn't think they would really do it. I also don't want to hear that he didn't intend for them to break any rules or that he didn't know about the rule. If he said ANYTHING to those guys about how he likes the balls, and it appears he did do that, then he is ultimately responsible for what they did on his behalf.
I believe in fairness and playing by the rules. I don't think the deflated balls are that big of a deal really although let's be honest and admit if it didn't help why do it? They did provide some competitive advantage even if nothing more than his comfort( a pro athlete who is comfortable performs better ). Steroid use for example is worse. To me it is the whole thing added up...
- Past cheating scandals for teams Brady was on
- Teams Brady was on constantly bend rules and step over into gray areas - push every rule and line there is
- From the moment this broke the team and Brady went into nuclear defense mode and were combative and uncooperative - not the actions of the innocent
- More than enough text message evidence to show Brady at least knew what was going on even if he didn't specifically tell the 2 guys to do it
- Brady destroys phone the day of Wells interview and denies access to the info until after it is deleted by phone carrier
- The missing texts of the almost 10,000 I mentioned above
I am sorry but there is enough there, especially for someone associated with know cheating and rule bending, for a reasonable person to believe Brady knew and/or was involved. Had Brady and the team cooperated fully and maybe just simply come out and admitted it and said we didn't know it was a problem they would have got a slap on the wrist and the world would have moved on. They fought this tooth and nail and tried to claim it is some kind of conspiracy or something. Like the NFL set this all up( i.e. they deflated the balls to nab the Patriots ).
I think it is really sad that the cheaters win this. At least the team was fined and lost the draft picks so they get hit with something.