It may not have been smart for Tom Brady to destroy/dismantle/whatever his phone, but he’ll be doing the smart thing next Wednesday. According to Albert Breer of NFL Media, Brady will appear in court on August 12, for the first of two settlement conferences with Judge Richard M. Berman.
Albert Breer of NFL Media, whose tweets regarding the possibility of Brady participating by phone kicked up a mini-storm of something other than sand, reports that Brady will attend in person and that “was always the plan.”
But if it was always the plan, there should have been no reason for anyone to inquire regarding the procedure for appearing by phone. And there should have been no reason for the NFLPA to explain it would “follow Brady’s guidance.”
Our guess is that the NFLPA poked around about participating by phone because Brady asked to do it that way, and that the NFLPA heard enough to reconfirm the notion that it wouldn’t have been wise to seek permission to not attend.
The wisest move would have been to not even poke around. Merely asking the question can create a question about how committed a litigant is to doing what the judge wants. The best approach in these cases always is to show a full and unconditional commitment to attend whenever and wherever the judge requests.