NFL upholds Tom Brady’s four-game suspension

Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for his role in “Deflategate” was upheld by National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday.

After weeks of conjecture that the league and the NFL Players Association were working on a settlement following the June 23 appeal hearing, Goodell issued a strong statement Tuesday in upholding the suspension for Brady’s role in using underinflated footballs during the AFC championship Game last season.

The league’s statement referenced “new information” disclosed by Brady and his representatives that includes Brady directing that his cell phone used for the four months leading up to his meeting with independent investigator Ted Wells’ team on March 6 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,” the league said in a statement. “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.

“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 Playing 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.”

The NFLPA said previously that it would fight any decision that included Brady being suspended for games. The Patriots’ veterans report to training camp on Wednesday, with the first practice Thursday. ESPN reported that Brady is first scheduled media availability is Friday.

With Tuesday’s ruling by Goodell, Brady is currently slated to miss the Patriots’ first four regular-season games: the Sept. 10 home opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sept. 20 at the Buffalo Bills, Sept. 27 at home against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Oct. 11 at the Dallas Cowboys before the team’s Week 5 bye.

He would be eligible to return in Week 6 at the Indianapolis Colts in a Sunday night game against the team that helped pave the wave for the “Deflategate” investigation after it was determined the Patriots used underinflated footballs during the AFC Championship Game last season.

The four-game absence will cost Brady about $2 million in salary. The four-game suspension is the longest for an active starting quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers missed the same number of games in violation of the league’s personal conduct policy in 2010.

Second-year quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is expected to start in place of Brady.

There has been speculation that Brady and the NFLPA will take the league to court if any part of the suspension was upheld, and could petition a federal judge to intervene on their behalf. The case would be decided by a judge rather than a jury, with Brady and the NFLPA likely contending the NFL is in violation of federal labor and arbitration laws.

The NFL announced in January that Wells would lead an investigation into the Patriots’ use of underinflated balls in the AFC Championship Game. Wells’ report, issued more than three months later, determined that Brady “more probable than not” was “at least generally aware” that the footballs used against the Colts had been tampered with. As a result of the report, the league suspended Brady for the first four games of the 2015 season, fined the Patriots and stripped the franchise of two draft picks, including a first-round selection.

The NFLPA requested that Goodell recuse himself from the appeals process, but Goodell maintained that it is his responsibility to oversee the hearing in the interest of protecting the integrity of the league.