New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on Monday took the same stance as his head coach when asked about Deflategate. Brady, who seemed a bit nervous during his press conference last week, insisted he has never broken or told anyone else to break any rules when preparing game balls.
“Absolutely not,” Brady said during his weekly appearance on WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan Show. “Look, I don’t want to keep getting into this. No, I didn’t and I haven’t and I never will. That’s obviously how I feel and the kind of person that I am.
“No one knows the facts. I picked 24 balls, that’s what I picked. Whatever happened after I did it and whatever the situation was where they measured them, I have no idea [about] any of those facts.”
By pointing out that he does not know what the situation was where the footballs were measured, Brady — like Belichick — was clearly shifting the focus onto the NFL. As we wrote about extensively before, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the NFL is covering for its officials if the game balls were not inspected properly.
Brady also admitted he has taken the cheating accusations personally.
“I personalized a lot of things and thought this was all about me, and my feelings got hurt,” he said. “Then I moved past it, because it’s not serving me. What’s serving me is trying to prepare for the game ahead. I’ll deal with whatever happens later. I’ll have my opportunity to try to figure out what happened and figure out a theory like everyone else is trying to do.”
There’s no way Brady’s feelings were hurt worse than Mark Brunell’s.
Belichick already proposed one theory during a press conference that included a classic “My Cousin Vinny” reference. Given the most recent comments we have heard from Brady and Belichick, it seems obvious that the Patriots are confident the NFL has no proof of any wrongdoing. While some refuse to admit it, the Pats may have done nothing wrong. We won’t know until the NFL releases its findings.
