According to the new DeflateGate book, tom Brady could have avoided his four-game suspension if he had just been willing to publicly throw two Patriots equipment staffers under the bus for the entire thing.
In an excerpt from “12: The Inside Story of Tom Brady’s Fight for Redemption” shared with ABC News:
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell gave Brady an option of paying a $1 million fine instead of serving a four-game suspension. The catch? Goodell wanted Brady to “state publicly that former Patriots equipment guys [John] Jastremski and [Jim] McNally had purposely tampered with footballs, even without [Brady’s] knowledge.”
According to the book, Brady refused to do that:
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The book quoted Brady as saying this to NFLPA director DeMaurice Smith: “There’s no way I’m gonna ruin these guys for something I believe they didn’t do.”
Per CBS Boston:
Jastremski and McNally ended up being suspended by the Patriots, at the request of the NFL, according to reports. The NFL at first denied making such a demand but later sent out a release stating that both men had been reinstated. Neither employee has really been seen publicly since then, and neither has made any public comments regarding the matter. The authors of the book — Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge — said they were unable to get in contact with either McNally or Jastremski while conducting research.
Tom Brady ended up serving a four-game suspension and ultimately returned to lead the Patriots to a Super Bowl 51 victory.
