New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had his 4-game suspension upheld by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday and in the report issued by the league, Goodell wrote that Brady destroyed his cell phone that was connected to the deflated balls investigation and now the Pats quarterback could consider a legal challenge to his ban heading into the 2015 season, according to media reports.
Brady appealed the suspension of his role regarding "Deflategate" and now the NFLPA and Brady will have to consider their next moves. According to Pro Football Talk, Goodell and the NFL released a statement on Tuesday, saying that "important new information" in the appeal process played into the outcome of the decision, including what Brady did regarding his cell phone from the time of the alleged incidents. There were reports that settlement talks had started between the league and Brady, but clearly that did not happen.
Brady has his appeal hearing for 10-hours last month and it took that time for Goodell and the league to render a decision on the appeal. The Patriots signed Matt Flynn and they have Jimmy Garoppolo as the backup and one of those two players likely will start the games that Brady can't play. According to Bloomberg's Scott Soshnick, the league has already started the process of getting into court, as the "NFL has asked the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to confirm Tom Brady's four-game suspension."
Rotoworld describes the move as the league "suing Brady" before he can sue them and the league also may try another tactic heading into a potential legal showdown. According to the report, SportsBusiness Journal's Daniel Kaplan is speculating that the league wants to try and move the suit "out of judge David Doty's jurisdiction in Minnesota." The league has lost some cases in the past with that judge and now the sides could be gearing up for a battle in court.
Check here for more on the Tom Brady suspension and the NFL decision.
The statements reads: "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. 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. 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."
