Despite what we think about the New England Patriots, Deflategate, Tom Brady as a person or anything else to that effect, there’s one thing we can all agree on: Tom Brady is an empirically good-looking guy.
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Brady is among the most animated quarterbacks in NFL history, but he sat stoically in court, either looking straight ahead at Berman or looking down. If there is one person immune to absurdity, it’s Brady. Berman is choreographing that dance. During an open hearing in between closed-door negotiating sessions, Berman grilled Daniel Nash, an attorney representing the league, about a lack of solid evidence that Brady ordered balls to be deflated in the AFC Championship Game.
This is what it’s come to in this never-ending national nightmare: Brady and Goodell can’t stand the sight of each other.
A sketch of Tom Brady from Wednesday’s court hearing hit the web and it’s absolutely terrifying. Both sides are drawing a picture that doesn’t resemble reality.
Both sides had asked the judge to rule before the Patriots’ September 10 season opener.
Berman is “known among his colleagues as a settlement judge” and is urging both sides to settle the case, Nichols said.
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“What is the direct evidence that implicates Mr Brady”, Berman asked according to the Associated Press. That sounded like a rhetorical question. However, as the judge pointed out, Brady’s performance in the game was better before the balls were deflated. The NFL definitely would not want to do that, especially since Ted Wells admitted Pash reviewed and commented on the supposedly “independent” report. But he also said there was no “smoking gun” showing Brady had direct knowledge that the balls were underinflated for the first half of the Patriots’ 45-7 win over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC championship game January 18. The Commissioner was given the power under the collective bargaining agreement to determine what is in the best interest of the NFL, and this matter gets to the heart of competitive advantage. “But it is a long leap from there to suggest Mr. Brady ordered it”, Kessler told Berman. “I’m a background person”. Kessler admitted it was Donald Yee, Brady’s agent/lawyer, who advised Brady not to turn over the electronic correspondence and that if Brady had to do it again, he would have cooperated. The NFL attorneys had to be shaking their heads at a line of inquiry questioning the evidence the league spent $3 million to collect. Doubtful. For Brady, neither a suspension of any duration nor an admission of guilt would be acceptable; for the NFL, either becomes critical if the goal is to avoid undermining the investigation and the proceedings that culminated in the four-game suspension.
