Mike Ditka Believes Tom Brady Is Innocent, Shouldn’t Settle With NFL (Video)

Mike Ditka has a message for Tom Brady: Stand your ground.

The New England Patriots quarterback is in New York on Wednesday for a meeting with U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman. Berman has urged Brady and the NFL Players Association to reach a settlement with the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell over Brady’s four-game suspension for his alleged role in Deflategate.

Yet the sides haven’t been able to reach a deal, and in an appearance Wednesday on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” Ditka said Brady shouldn’t be the first to budge.

“If you’re innocent — and I believe Tom Brady is innocent; he doesn’t have to deflate a football to win a football game — then you don’t (settle),” the former Chicago Bears coach told ESPN’s Hannah Storm.

At the moment, it looks like things are heading in that direction. Settlement talks between Brady, the NFLPA and the league Tuesday reportedly “went nowhere,” and ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported the NFL wants Brady to “accept” the findings of the Wells Report, which the quarterback has refuted in his testimony.