One of the most surprising aspects of the Deflategate saga has been how little pressure New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has been under. Belichick, who was ultimately responsible for Spygate in 2007, was completely exonerated in the Ted Wells report.
By all indications, Belichick didn’t know that something illegal was (allegedly) going on with game balls. According to Ron Borges of The Boston Herald, Belichick never believed Brady when the star quarterback said he didn’t know, either.
“Belichick never believed his story, from what I was told,” Borges said on CSN New England’s Sports Tonight on Wednesday. “Because they all know. Why do you think all those retired quarterbacks, the Troy Aikmans of the world — Troy Aikman is about as nice a guy as I’ve ever met in football — nobody’s backed [Brady]. Nobody, not a single guy. Why do you think that is? Because they hate Brady? No. Because they’re not stupid. They know nothing’s done with those balls that the quarterback doesn’t want done.”
That isn’t totally true. Colin Kaepernick supported Brady with a tweet shortly after Brady was suspended, but there have been plenty of others who haven’t been so kind. Most recently, Buffalo Bills legend Jim Kelly essentially labeled Brady a cheater.
Borges added that Belichick and Kraft not believing Brady is one of the reasons Kraft decided to wave the white flag and not pursue legal action against the NFL. While there has been speculation that Kraft’s change in stance could hurt Brady’s appeal, I still feel that Kraft and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell probably worked out some sort of deal — especially if Brady agrees to turn over this key piece of evidence.
In any event, it seems unlikely that Kraft changed his mind that suddenly. How did he go from defending Brady publicly and saying he believes him to giving up because he determined Brady was lying? That doesn’t add up.
H/T Barstool Sports
