Don Yee, Tom Brady's Agent, Comments on QB's Suspension, Cellphone Scandal

On a day that saw New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and team owner Robert Kraft sound off on the NFL's decision to uphold Brady's four-game suspension for his alleged involvement in the Deflategate scandal, the embattled signal-caller's agent made his feelings known as well.

In an interview with Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com published Wednesday, Don Yee accused the league of shifting the focus from the science of Deflategate to his client's decision to destroy a cellphone that the NFL contends could have provided relevant evidence:    

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We're still trying to digest this decision and determine the best course of action at this point. The decision is very disappointing. It's misleading subterfuge, and it actually insults the intelligence of fans and the media. I will give them credit for completely shifting the focus from psi, and they have invented a new shiny object for everybody to look at and be distracted by. Notice how we're not even talking about psi anymore. The league essentially admits this through this decision and its media leaks—the psi issue is dead and their science is junk.

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In a statement following NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's decision to keep the suspension intact, the league cited Brady's actions involving the phone as one of the reasons for not reducing the ban, per Darin Gantt of Pro Football Talk:

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On or shortly before March 6, the day that Tom Brady met with independent investigator Ted Wells and his colleagues, Brady directed that the cell phone he had used for the prior four months be destroyed. He did so even though he was aware that the investigators had requested access to text messages and other electronic information that had been stored on that phone. ‎During the four months that the cell phone was in use, Brady had exchanged nearly 10,000 text messages, none of which can now be retrieved from that device. The destruction of the cell phone was not disclosed until June 18, almost four months after the investigators had first sought electronic information from Brady.

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The commissioner found that Brady's deliberate destruction of potentially relevant evidence went beyond a mere failure to cooperate in the investigation and supported a finding that he had sought to hide evidence of his own participation in the underlying scheme to alter the footballs.

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Yee explained that he and Brady told the league about the destruction of the phone prior to the meeting with Ted Wells, and he also claims they were informed that the phone wasn't needed as part of the investigation.

Brady's representative called the discarding of the cellphone a common practice and claims that the NFL was given the four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback's phone records:

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We were willing to reveal identities of everyone in Tom's phone. Everybody. We took the extra step to provide the Commissioner with all of Tom's personal cell phone billing records—the billing records show all outgoing and incoming phone calls and texts. We took the further step to advise the Commissioner we were willing to disclose the identity of every single person in the billing record Tom communicated with. We took the additional step of speaking to general counsel at AT&T to determine if the company could somehow retrieve all those text message and he wrote letter back saying that's not possible, and we gave that letter to the commissioner as well. The Commissioner tried to imply Tom was hiding something; does this seem like the behavior of someone trying to hide something?

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Yee also downplayed the contact Brady had with Patriots employees Jim McNally and John Jastremski, who are alleged to be responsible for the purposeful deflation of footballs prior to the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts:

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Tom's phone billing record from this time frame shows that he never spoke on the phone or texted with McNally, ever. Tom's phone billing record shows that nearly every communication with Jastremki was already in possession of Wells' team with exception of three texts between Tom and Jastremski on Feb. 7. Every other communication he ever had with Jastremski in that time period was already in the hands of Wells' team. They also had any communication between Tom and the equipment manager (Dave) Schoenfeld.

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ESPN's Darren Rovell is among those who question the value of Yee's comments regarding the phone records unless they are revealed to the public:

According to La Canfora, Yee is considering legal action against the NFL and seeking an injunction that could allow Brady to play despite the suspension. The NFL has already asked a federal court to uphold Brady's suspension, according to Bloomberg's Scott Soshnick, which Yee believes is telling:

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It is virtually unheard of for party in the position of the NFL in a dispute like this to file a preemptive lawsuit simultaneously with the issuance of the decision. That demonstrates tremendous weakness. The inference is that they do not believe that their evidence and reason could withstand scrutiny in any jurisdiction in America.

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The outrage of Brady and his closest supporters is palpable, but unless his legal team manages to successfully land an injunction, the two-time NFL MVP won't be playing a regular-season game for the Pats until Week 6.

The combative Yee seems ready for a legal battle; however, the NFL has sent a loud and clear message that it intends to make Brady pay significantly for his alleged wrongdoing.

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