Tom Brady’s agent, Don Yee, released a lengthy and emphatic statement Thursday morning that criticized the Wells Report, but he didn’t come out and say his client is innocent.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Yee point blank: “Did Tom Brady have any knowledge those of these balls being deflated?”
“No,” Yee said on CNN’s “A360.”
Anderson then asked if Brady is completely innocent.
“In my opinion, yes,” Yee said.
Yee also was asked to explain why Brady didn’t turn over his emails and texts to investigator Ted Wells. The quarterback has taken heat for not being completely transparent in the investigation.
“Without really getting into my communications with my client — I have to observe attorney-client privilege — but if you’re in a situation when it comes to disciplinary process when you’re generally assigned guilt and asked to prove innocence,” Yee said. “That’s No. 1. Proving innocence is essentially proving a negative, if you proclaim innocence. And so that’s a very difficult situation to put yourself in.
“Second, with the text messages, the scope that they asked for is actually very, very wide. I probably should have made the letter public that we received from the NFL’s lawyers. But in any event, if we would have provided the phone or the text messages — you have to understand Tom is also a member of the union. The commissioner’s office actually does not have any subpoena power. If a prominent player were to provide all of their private communications absent a subpoena, that sets a dangerous precedent for all players facing disciplinary measures.
“Finally, any information we would have provided, and the Wells investigative team did ask us to go through Tom’s phone on our own and provide them with information if we chose to go that route. But as you might surmise if we would have chosen to go that route, any information we would have given them, they probably would have had skepticism about anyway.”
Brady and Yee both said Thursday night that the Patriots quarterback will address the Wells Report at some point. Brady didn’t give a specific timetable when he spoke at Salem State University.
Thumbnail photo via Stew Milne/USA TODAY Sports Images
