Add another NFL legend to the growing list of current and former players who aren’t exactly ready to toss out all of Tom Brady’s career accomplishments over a few under-inflated footballs.
On Tuesday, former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre told FOX News that he does not believe Brady broke the rules.
“I don’t think by any stretch, in my opinion, that Tom was cheating,” Favre said, as transcribed by WEEI.com’s Christopher Price. “It sounds crazy. Historically, there’s been stealing of signs — and that goes to baseball and football. Just whatever advantage you could get. Lester Hayes putting Stickum on his arms with the Raiders. Pine tar. It’s just endless, the advantages that players would try to get.”
In their simplest form, all of the acts that Favre described are cheating. However, it seemed like his point was that there’s a difference between gamesmanship — as some call it — and blatant rule-breaking.
“I don’t know if Tom can honestly say he has completed more passes because of it,” Favre added. “I think more than anything, it helped with the grip based on conditions — not every game. And would other players do it? Sure, I have no reason to think otherwise.”
The example we keep going back to is Aaron Rodgers essentially admitting that he has tried to sneak illegal game balls past the officials, but we all know that is different from allegedly having an employee deflate balls after they have been inspected.
More importantly, Favre’s comments came before the Patriots unloaded this ridiculous excuse in their lengthy rebuttal of the Ted Wells report. After reading that, there’s a chance the Ole Gunslinger could change his mind.
