In a not-at-all unexpected end (for now) to the #DeflateGate saga, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has upheld his four-game suspension of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady
In the league’s release on the matter, they stated that “important new information disclosed by Brady and his representatives” during his appeal hearing came into play.
“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.”
As a result, Goodell did not shorten his initial punishment, which will now certainly be headed to court.
“The commissioner found that Brady’s deliberate destruction of potentially relevant evidence went beyond a mere failure to cooperate in the investigation and supported a finding that he had sought to hide evidence of his own participation in the underlying scheme to alter the footballs.”
Let the games begin.