Even if it didn’t come right out and say it, the main insinuation of the Ted Wells report on DeflateGate is that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady cheated, or at the very least was aware that cheating was happening on his behalf.
And that doesn’t sit too well with his father.
Tom Brady Sr. told Jim Corbett of USA Today that he’s not shaken in his belief in the upright nature of his son.
“I don’t have any doubt about my son’s integrity — not one bit,” Brady Sr. said. “In this country, you’re innocent until proven guilty. It just seems Tommy is now guilty until proven innocent. This thing is so convoluted. . . . They say that possibly — possibly — he was aware of this. The reality is if you can’t prove he did it, then he’s innocent, and lay off him. That’s the bottom line.”
Actually, there’s a pretty considerable gulf between not guilty and innocent, and it’s hard to look at the evidence in the report and come away thinking Brady had no knowledge of what was going on.
But dad was unmoved, saying the league was more worried about its image than his son’s.
“The league had to cover themselves. The reality is they had no conclusive evidence. This was Framegate right from the beginning,” he said. “They had to protect their asses, and that’s what they’re doing. . . .
“To impugn somebody without conclusive evidence saying this is more probable than not? The reality is they have scientific evidence. Now they’re overriding the scientific evidence and badgering the Patriots. It’s disgusting.”
Brady Sr. is reacting how any father would, or should react. And the league obviously has a vested interest in the appearance of integrity, which is why this thing dragged on so long.
But to suggest they’d target a four-time Super Bowl champion seems like a stretch.