Tom Brady Calls NFL's 4-Game Suspension 'Unfair'

By Eyder Peralta / NPR

Published July 29, 2015 at 3:58 AM PDT

This story was published more than 9 years ago.

NFL quarterback Tom Brady attends the welterweight unification championship bout on May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Tom Brady issued an impassioned defense of his actions this morning after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell decided to uphold a four-game suspension over his role in "deflategate."

The New England Patriots quarterback called the suspension "unfair" and said he was "disappointed" that Goodell dismissed his "hours of testimony."

The bottom line, Brady said, "I did nothing wrong, and no one in the Patriots organization did either."

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That was, of course, not the conclusion Goodell came to, and it was not the conclusion that attorney Ted Wells came to after a significant investigation.

As we reported:

"The Wells Report identified two Patriots employees — equipment assistant John Jastremski and officials locker room attendant Jim McNally — as playing pivotal roles in deflating footballs to make them easier to grip."Transcripts of messages between the two workers referred to Brady by name, and spoke of both meeting with and receiving gifts from him."

In his decision on Tuesday, Goodell specifically said that he found Brady was aware of and supported the deflation of footballs. Not only that, Goodell said, but Brady also tried to get rid of potentially incriminating evidence by asking an assistant to destroy his cellphone and SIM card.

Brady responded to that accusation like this:

"I also disagree with yesterdays narrative surrounding my cellphone. I replaced my broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER my attorneys made it clear to the NFL that my actual phone device would not be subjected to investigation under ANY circumstances. As a member of a union, I was under no obligation to set a new precedent going forward, nor was I made aware at any time during Mr. Wells investigation, that failing to subject my cell phone to investigation would result in ANY discipline.

"Most importantly, I have never written, texted, emailed to anybody at anytime, anything related to football air pressure before this issue was raised at the AFC Championship game in January. To suggest that I destroyed a phone to avoid giving the NFL information it requested is completely wrong."

In his statement Tuesday, Goodell said that Brady did not disclose that the cellphone had been destroyed until "almost four months after the investigators had first sought electronic information from Brady."