SALEM, Mass. — Tom Brady was feeling loved Thursday night in the O’Keefe Center, but stray too far from the cozy confines of New England, and it won’t be so pleasant for the Patriots quarterback.
Brady was met with chants of “M-V-P, M-V-P, M-V-P” as he and sportscaster Jim Gray were announced as part of the Salem State speaker series.
Brady addressed — or, not really — the Wells Report during his one-hour chat with Gray for the first time since the document regarding the DeflateGate controversy was released Thursday. Brady said he has no reaction to the report at this time, but that he believes the Patriots’ Super Bowl XLIX victory isn’t tainted.
Brady also understands he’s not the most well-liked person in America right now.
“I think my nature and my character as one — I think as a human you care what people think,” Brady said. “I certainly care what the people that are close to me think and what they care about. I think also as a public figure, you learn that not everyone is going to like you either.
“Good, bad, indifferent, there are a lot of people that don’t like Tom Brady, and I’m OK with that. Like I said, I have teammates that I love and support that love and support me. I have fans, I have family. I’m very blessed.”
Brady eventually will speak out about the Wells Report, and based on what his agent, Don Yee, said on CNN Thursday night, it’s likely Brady will reiterate he had no knowledge the Patriots’ footballs were deflated. The report paints Brady in a bad light, but there’s enough wiggle room that Brady can maintain his innocence and fight any punishment handed out by the NFL.
Brady knows what the NFL has on him. The league put all its cards on the table, and it’s not exactly a royal flush.
Patriots staffers John Jastremski and Jim McNally discuss needles and deflating with one another, but they never implicitly state Brady had them alter footballs after the balls were checked by the officials.
It’s unclear how the NFL will attempt to punish Brady, but it might not have enough on the quarterback to suspend him without a legitimate, drawn-out fight by the Patriots that could get ugly.
The Wells Report failed to definitively prove the Patriots’ footballs were deflated by hand because investigators only had referee Walt Anderson’s assumed pregame readings, which admittedly were varied. They don’t know which gauge was used pregame, and referees allowed the Colts’ footballs to warm up at room temperature before testing them at halftime.
The report is almost entirely based on those texts between Jastremski and McNally, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will need to decide if those exchanges are enough to bury Brady. Brady, obviously, has decided they are not.
Thumbnail photo via Matt Slocum/Associated Press
