Deflategate Coverage You Won't See on ESPN

They've been covering this way pretty consistently on ESPN radio

It seems to me that the Pats did cheat, but not up to the level reported by ESPN and the NFL. But they did cheat and planned on cheating, which is why the phone was destroyed. Goodell is angry there was the slightest bit of cheating, so he's going to slam the team as much as he can, because anything that could anyway hurt his pride or his feelings gets destroyed by him.
However this case of Goodell over-punishing is nowhere near the level of what he did to the Saints

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tired of not giving a frick about this in the first place

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I was in Boston the week that shite came out and you would think the fricking world was against the Pats the way the New Englanders we're acting.

They all still say it's a conspiracy against TB and CBB

What's funny about the second link?

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What's funny about the second link?

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its a wordpress blog called wellsreportcontext.com and we are supposed to take it seriously?

again, why would a commissioner who is close friends with Bob Kraft suddenly decide to smear his boy's team and one of the biggest faces of the league if they were completely innocent like they claim?

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Brady's lawyer told the NFL that they would work with Brady's provider to give relevant text messages to the NFL investigators, but Gooddell said that was too much trouble.

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From everything I understand about text messages, that would have been impossible. After 48 hours, you're not getting anything other than time stamps and to/from information.

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That's not true at all.

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Well it was on the news. ESPN coincidentally. They may have had to get the texts from the recipients because Brady's phone was broken or sold or whatever several months after the whole thing occurred and they finally asked to get texts, but you know, they were still willing to work with the NFL.

Now it's, "He destroyed his phone so we couldn't get the necessary information." Well, where is the motion for sanctions arising out of spoliation?

The only thing that I don't understand is how every single ESPN personality managed to get his head a mile up Roger Goodell's arse. You would think it would be crowded in there but I guess it was pre-reamed.

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Is the destruction of the cell phone the only explanation being offered for the suspension being upheld?

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That and Goodell agrees with the conclusions of the Wells Report regarding the science of the deflated balls.

But getting back to this destroyed phone mess. When Wells released his report he was quoted as saying that Brady and his attorneys provided "substantial cooperation" during his investigation. The only thing he had to say about being stonewalled was how the Patriots denied him a fourth meeting with one of the ball boys. Here is what he said in his press conference when the report first released:

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"[Tom Brady] answered every question I put to him. He did not refuse to answer any questions in terms of the back and forth between Mr. Brady and my team. He was totally cooperative.”

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So how can Roger Goodell justify the suspension due to a lack of cooperation from Brady's camp? Because he destroyed his old phone? Wells didn't even want the phone in his possession. As he stated in the same press conference:

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“Keep the phone. You and the agent, Mr. Yee, you can look at the phone. You give me documents that are responsive to this investigation and I will take your word that you have given me what’s responsive.”

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Goodell's leaning on Brady's cellphone as evidence of some sinister obstruction of the investigation contradicts Wells' own disinterest in physically obtaining the phone and just basic common sense. On the latter, the NFL had access to the phones of the equipment personnel Brady supposedly conspired with. Have you ever gotten a text from someone? Have you noticed that their words then show up on your phone?

If any part of this process has bordered on the sinister, it's the notion that Goodell can have no contractual or criminal-justice pretext for seizing the private property of an employee and steamroll through a gateway into his private life, his thoughts and communications with anybody – then, when denied this, deprive that employee of privileges and payments he is owed, because privacy must equate with conspiracy.

It’s odd that the NFL is basing any of their disciplinary ruling on this given that at the time of the Wells Report, Ted Wells said he never was interested in the physical phone. And that he was willing to take Brady and Yee’s word about whether there were responsive documents contained in it.

It is worth noting, too, that Roger Goodell did not provide his private phone in the Mueller investigation. Did he miss any time as commissioner for it? No.