Updated at 3.15 p.m. PT with statements from Tom Brady’s agent, Don Yee, and the New England Patriots.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has upheld the four-game suspension imposed on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, the NFL announced Tuesday.
Brady was accused of colluding with Patriots staff to under-inflate footballs used in the 2014 AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts in a scandal that has come to be known as Deflategate.
Brady will miss the season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers, as well as games against the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Dallas Cowboys. In an ironic twist, he will return in Week 6 (the Patriots have a bye during Week 4) for a Sunday Night Football matchup against the Colts.
In the opinion informing Brady that his appeal had been denied, Commissioner Goodell emphasized new information disclosed by Brady and his representatives in connection with the hearing.
According to the opinion, on or shortly before March 6, the day that Tom Brady met with independent investigator Ted Wells and his colleagues, Brady said that the cellphone he had used for the prior four months had been 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 cellphone was in use, Brady exchanged nearly 10,000 text messages, none of which can now be retrieved from the device. The destruction of the cellphone was not disclosed until June 18, almost four months after the investigators had first sought electronic information from Brady.
Based on the Wells report and the evidence presented at the hearing, Commissioner Goodell concluded in his decision that Brady was aware of, and took steps to support, the actions of other team employees to deflate game footballs below the levels called for by the NFL’s official rules.
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.
Following the announcement of the NFL’s decision Tuesday, Brady’s agent, Don Yee, ripped into the league in a strongly worded statement. “ The Commissioner’s decision is deeply disappointing, but not surprising because the appeal process was thoroughly lacking in procedural fairness. Most importantly, neither Tom nor the Patriots did anything wrong,” he said. “And the NFL has no evidence that anything inappropriate occurred. The appeal process was a sham, resulting in the Commissioner rubber-stamping his own decision.
“The extent to which Tom opened up his private life to the Commissioner will become clear in the coming days,” Yee continued. “The Commissioner’s decision and discipline has no precedent in all of NFL history. His decision alters the competitive balance of the upcoming season. The decision is wrong and has no basis, and it diminishes the integrity of the game.”
The Patriots are also standing steadfastly by their Super Bowl MVP. “We are extremely disappointed in today’s ruling by Commissioner Goodell,” the team said in a statement on their official site. “We cannot comprehend the league’s position in this matter. Most would agree that the penalties levied originally were excessive and unprecedented, especially in light of the fact that the league has no hard evidence of wrongdoing.
“We continue to unequivocally believe in and support Tom Brady. We also believe that the laws of science continue to underscore the folly of this entire ordeal. Given all of this, it is incomprehensible as to why the league is attempting to destroy the reputation of one of its greatest players and representatives.”
Shootings, Stabbings, Dog Fighting: 11 NFL Scandals That Rocked the League (Photos)
After signing a five-year, $40 million contract extension with the New England Patriots, Aaron Hernandez had a spectacular fall from grace in June 2013, when his friend Odin Lloyd was fatally shot and his body dumped in an industrial park near the tight end’s Massachusetts home. Hernandez was subsequently charged with first-degree murder and later indicted for a 2012 double-murder. He was quickly dropped by the Patriots and is currently in prison awaiting trial, facing life without parole.
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The NFL’s most-notorious defendant, OJ Simpson went from being a Pro Bowl quarterback and "Naked Gun" star to being America’s most wanted when he came the prime suspect for the brutal 1994 murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Following the “trial of the century,” the former Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers player was acquitted, but is currently serving time in a Nevada prison for armed robbery and kidnapping.
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Chad Johnson and “Basketball Wives” star Evelyn Lozada’s 2010 reality TV wedding was marred when the former wide receiver was arrested a month later for domestic battery for allegedly head-butting his new wife. Lozada quickly filed for divorce and Johnson avoided jail time with a year-long probation, but was fired by the Miami Dolphins in an embarrassing stand-off that aired on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”
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Aldon Smith of the San Francisco 49ers was arrested for DUI in 2012 and then received stab wounds that June when a fight broke out at his house party, during which two other people were shot. Next up was crash when he was allegedly under the influence of marijuana, and finally this year a bizarre event at Los Angeles airport when he allegedly told a TSA agent that he had a bomb. Smith is sitting out for the first nine games of the 2014 season.
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Ray Rice’s former teammate was embroiled in a scandal of his own when Ray Lewis and two of his colleagues were indicted for a January 2000 murder that occurred after a fight at a Super Bowl party. The Baltimore Ravens linebacker negotiated a plea deal and got 12-month probation and $250,000 fine, and even went on to win another Super Bowl. His companions, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting, were later acquitted and the killer has never been found.
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Michael Vick was implicated in an illegal interstate dog fighting ring that had operated for five years. The quarterback pleaded guilty in 2007 and served 21 months in prison for the crimes against canines at Bad Newz Kennels, and has since returned to the field with the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Jets.
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Dez Bryant’s troubled childhood included his mother being arrested for dealing crack cocaine when he was 8. Their relationship remained volatile, and in July 2012 the Dallas Cowboys wide receiver was arrested after allegedly hitting her in the face during an argument. He later went through counseling and told a Dallas Men Against Abuse event, “I’m done with domestic abuse.”
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After bouncing between teams as a wide receiver, Donte Stallworth’s darkest hour came in March 2009 when he hit and killed a pedestrian while driving on a Miami Beach causeway in the early hours of the morning. Stallworth had a 0.12 alcohol level and tested positive for marijuana, leading to a charge of DUI manslaughter. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 1,000 hours of community service and eight years probation, along with settling a civil case with the victim’s family.
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Now back playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger was suspended without pay for the first six games of the 2010 season for violation of the NFL's personal conduct policy after “Big Ben” was accused of sexual assault on two separate occasions by different women. Charges were later dropped, but Steelers owner Art Rooney was reportedly “furious” at his star player.
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Cherica Adams was eight months pregnant with Carolina Panthers’ Ray Carruth’s child when she was shot four times in her car, calling 911 and naming the wide receiver as the one of the assailants. After both Adams and the unborn baby died, Carruth fled police and went on the run, before finally being found hiding in the trunk of a car in Tennessee. He was later sentenced for murder but escaped the death penalty.
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Adam "Pacman" Jones was suspended for the 2007 season, losing a total of $1.3 million in salary, for repeated violations of the NFL's personal conduct policy — including an altercation in a strip club when he allegedly pulled a dancer off stage and attacked a security guard, who was later shot by a member of his entourage and paralyzed from the waist down. Jones was charged with one count of felony coercion, one misdemeanor count of battery and one misdemeanor count of threat to life. He later signed with the Dallas Cowboys but was again involved in an incident with his bodyguard at a Dallas hotel.
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Ray Rice’s brutal elevator attack on his now-wife is the latest disturbing violent incident to plague the NFL over the decades
After signing a five-year, $40 million contract extension with the New England Patriots, Aaron Hernandez had a spectacular fall from grace in June 2013, when his friend Odin Lloyd was fatally shot and his body dumped in an industrial park near the tight end’s Massachusetts home. Hernandez was subsequently charged with first-degree murder and later indicted for a 2012 double-murder. He was quickly dropped by the Patriots and is currently in prison awaiting trial, facing life without parole.