Details of how Tom Brady pressed his “Deflategate” suspension appeal to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell were made public on Tuesday when the NFL Players Association released a hearing transcript.
The New England Patriots quarterback denied any wrongdoing and explained destroying his cellphone was something he did routinely to avoid personal details becoming public.
The NFL last month penalized Brady for ordering the destruction of his mobile phone at the center of the scandal, citing it as a key reason for dismissing his appeal against a four-match suspension.
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Brady and the union took the matter to a US federal court in the hopes that he might be reinstated before next month’s season opener for the Super Bowl champion Patriots.
The issue concerns a report by an NFL investigator saying it was likely Brady knew in a playoff game about footballs being below NFL minimum inflation levels, making them easier to grip, grab and throw.
Brady told Goodell in the hearing that he picked the NFL minimum as his desired inflation level almost at random after being unhappy with an overinflated ball at an October game last season against the New York Jets.
“In the history of my career, I never thought about the inflation level of a ball,” Brady said, noting that he picked the ones he wanted by “feel.”
“The irony of everything is I don’t even squeeze a football. I grip the ball as loosely as possible. I’m just gripping it like a golf club,” he said.
NFL attorneys were concerned about multiple calls between Brady and the Patriots worker who provided the balls, calls Brady could not explain that came as the Deflategate scandal was growing and when the worker would be called upon to prepare 100 footballs for use in the Super Bowl.
“I don’t remember exactly what we talked about,” Brady said. “Me talking with him about these things that were unprecedented, he was the person I’d be communicating with.”
“I was trying to make sure he was composed so he could do his job over the course of the next two weeks,” Brady added.
Brady said he was told by attorneys on Feb. 28 that investigators wanted texts and e-mails that he received and sent, but they advised him not to hand over his cellphone.
“I was relying on the advice of my lawyers,” Brady said. “What they basically said: We don’t think it’s proper for you to turn your phone over, so you don’t need to do that.”
However, Brady, whose wife is model Gisele Bundchen, said he has routinely given cellphones to an assistant to be destroyed during his career, in part because of photographs and NFL and endorsement contracts that would be included in them.
And, Brady noted, he receives free upgraded phones in exchange.
“I don’t want anybody ever to see the contents of the phone,” Brady said. “I’ve always told the guy who swaps them out for me to make sure you get rid of the phone. What I mean is destroy the phone.”
NFL investigators took issue with the timing of the destruction of the phone covering early this year, just before Brady spoke to investigators, who saw his move as dimming his credibility.
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