Brady baffled by Trump questions

LOS ANGELES -- New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady played down his friendship with President Donald Trump on Monday, a day after steering his team into a Super Bowl showdown with the Atlanta Falcons.

Brady, who is preparing for his seventh Super Bowl following the Patriots' 36-17 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday, told Boston's WEEI radio he was baffled by questions over his links to Trump.

"Why does everybody make such a big deal?" Brady told the "Kirk and Callahan" show. "I don't understand it."

Trump has been a staunch supporter of Brady throughout his career, defending the four-time Super Bowl winner over the "Deflategate" scandal which ended with the quarterback being suspended for the first four games of the season.

Brady, who in the past has been seen with one of Trump's signature "Make America Great Again" baseball caps, acknowledged he had been in regular contact with Trump over the years.

"I have called him, yes, in the past. Sometimes he calls me. Sometimes I call," Brady said.

"But, again, that's been someone I've known. I always try to keep it in context because for 16 years you know someone before maybe he was in the position that he was in. He's been very supportive of me for a long time. It's just a friendship. I have a lot of friends. I call a lot of people."

During last year's US presidential election, Trump claimed Brady had contacted him to let him know he had voted for him.

However Brady's wife, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, later denied on Instagram that she and Brady supported Trump.

Brady on Monday said it was possible to remain friends with someone yet disagree with their views.

"I don't want to get into it, but if you know someone it doesn't mean you agree with everything they say or they do. You have a lot of friends in your life," Brady said, adding that he hoped the issue would not distract from the Patriots' Super Bowl preparations.

"I just don't want to be a distraction for our team. There are too many guys that are working hard in one direction to help us win games to help us get to the point where we are now," Brady said.

Trump remains a polarizing figure in US sport. On Saturday San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich lambasted the US leader for "misogynistic, xenophobic and racist" behavior.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump says Brady 'totally innocent' in Deflategate

LOS ANGELES -- It's no presidential pardon but Donald Trump says New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is an "honorable guy" and "totally innocent" in the Deflategate scandal that led to an NFL ban.

The comments from the US president-elect were unveiled in a video clip by TMZ Sports of a Fox News documentary on Trump that aired Friday.

They were made during a September 15 interview at Trump's home. At that time, two months ahead of the US election, Brady was serving a four-game suspension without pay for his role in the under-inflating of footballs used in a 2015 playoff game.

An NFL investigation found Brady had knowledge that balls slightly deflated below minimum mandatory levels were used in the American Conference final against Indianapolis. The Patriots won that game and went on to capture the Super Bowl, Brady's fourth career NFL crown.

Brady fought a suspension in court for more than a year before finally dropping the legal fight and accepting the suspension to open this campaign. The Patriots went 3-1 without him to start the season.

"I think Tom is totally innocent," Trump said in the interview. "I think Tom, first of all I know him and he's an honorable guy, and I'm with him all the way."

Brady said before the election it would be "great" for Trump to win but backed off political comments after the vote, saying his wife, model Gisele Bundchen, would not let him make political public comments any more.

"He's a friend of mine, he's a great guy, and he's a great athlete obviously, but he's a winner," Trump said of Brady.

Brady had said he would reveal who he voted for in the election but later told Boston radio station WEEI: "I've got other things to worry about. Just speaking with my family, it's a bad idea. I know I told you I would, and then after I told you I would I changed my mind."

Brady, 39, is 4-1 since returning from the ban, having completed 72.9 percent of his passes for 1,635 yards and 12 touchdowns with only one interception.

At 7-2, the Patriots share the American Conference's best record with Oakland and Kansas City. All three are one game behind Dallas (8-1) for the best mark in the NFL.

New England play at San Francisco (1-8) on Sunday.

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'Deflategate' judge to rule soon after Brady, NFL talks fail

NEW YORK - The National Football League and its players union failed to reach a settlement in their dispute over New England quarterback Tom Brady's four-game "Deflategate" suspension despite weeks of talks, leaving a federal judge to resolve the issue in the coming days.

Following a final round of unsuccessful private discussions, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman said at a brief court hearing on Monday that he will likely decide whether to uphold or throw out the suspension within one or two days.

In any case, Berman said, he will issue his ruling before Friday, at the request of the league and the union. The Patriots open their season on Sept. 10 at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Brady was suspended for four games over his alleged role in a scheme to deflate footballs used in the Patriots' 45-7 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in a January playoff game. The win sent New England to the Super Bowl, where it defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-24.

With dozens of news cameras set up outside the courthouse, Brady and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell arrived within moments of each other around 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT).

The four-time Super Bowl champion and Goodell met behind closed doors before Monday's hearing with Berman and another federal judge who have been mediating the talks.

Other officials, including New York Giants co-owner John Mara, who heads the NFL's executive committee that oversees labor matters, joined the discussions in a last-ditch effort to bridge the differences.

Berman said the two sides had "tried quite hard" to reach a deal.

"In some cases, that doesn't happen, and this is one of those cases," he said.

The judge's decision can be appealed by either side, a process that would last months.

Brady's suspension came after Ted Wells, a lawyer hired by the NFL to investigate the incident, concluded Brady was "generally aware" that two Patriots employees had conspired to deflate the balls. An underinflated football can be easier to grip, particularly in cold weather.

Goodell rejected Brady's appeal on July 28. The league immediately filed a lawsuit asking Berman to uphold the suspension, while the players union sued to contest it.

The union said Brady had no notice that he might be suspended and that Goodell was not impartial, given his praise of Wells' work before the appeal. The NFL said the league's collective bargaining agreement gave Goodell sole authority to hear appeals.

Should the suspension remain in place, Brady would return Oct. 18 against the Colts.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond and Joseph Ax; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Alan Crosby)

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NFL union releases Brady's 'Deflategate' testimony

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON - The National Football League players union on Tuesday made public a full transcript of star New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's June 23 appeal of his four-game "Deflategate" suspension before league Commissioner Roger Goodell.

The transcript, filed in Manhattan federal court as part of the union's challenge to the suspension, revealed Brady's testimony defending his alleged role in a scheme to deflate footballs before the Patriots' 45-7 playoff win in January over the Indianapolis Colts.

It also shed light on Brady's decision to destroy his cell phone rather than turn it over to NFL investigators, who were seeking potentially incriminating text messages.

Brady said he sometimes has an assistant destroy old phones to ensure that personal information, such as family photos, remains confidential.

"I have always told the guy who swaps them out for me, make sure you get rid of the phone," he said, according to the transcript. "And what I mean is destroy the phone so that no one can ever, you know, reset it or do something where I feel like the information is available to anybody."

In upholding the suspension, Goodell cited in part Brady's decision to get rid of the phone on the same day he was interviewed by Ted Wells, a prominent attorney hired by the NFL to probe the scandal.

During the 10-hour hearing, Brady said no one told him that failing to hand over evidence would result in discipline.

The two sides are expected to appear in court on Aug. 12 before U.S. District Judge Richard Berman. Both the NFL and the union have asked Berman to decide whether to uphold the suspension by Sept. 4, six days before the season begins.

The union claims Goodell was not an impartial arbiter because he had praised Wells' work before the appeal, while the league has argued that Goodell was authorized to conduct the hearing under its labor agreement.

In his report, Wells faulted two Patriots employees but concluded that Brady was "generally aware" of the plan to deflate footballs, which can make them easier to grip.

At the hearing, Brady said, "I never in the history of my career, I never thought about the inflation level of a ball," according to the transcript.

Goodell also fined the Patriots $1 million and forfeited two of the team's future draft picks.

The Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 in the Super Bowl, giving Brady his fourth championship and cementing his place as one of the greatest players in NFL history.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York and Steve Ginsburg in Washington; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Andrew Hay)

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Patriots owner Kraft backs Brady in 'Deflategate'

NEW YORK -- New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft backed embattled "Deflategate" quarterback Tom Brady while coach Bill Belichick evaded the issue as the reigning Super Bowl champions began pre-season workouts Wednesday.

"I continue to believe and unequivocally support Tom Brady," Kraft said. "The league's handling of this entire process has been extremely frustrating and disconcerting."

The Patriots remain uncertain who will be the starting quarterback when they face Pittsburgh in September in the NFL season opener since Brady, a four-time Super Bowl winner, has been suspended for four games by the league but is taking the case to court in a union-backed appeal.

Brady, who can take part in pre-season training activities with the Patriots, is likely to be allowed to play for the Patriots while the legal process plays out, although at the risk of still facing a four-game ban later in the campaign.

One of the most high-profile athletes in American sport, Brady was found by Goodell to have been at least "generally aware" of a plot by Patriots staff to improperly reduce the air pressure of balls used by Brady during the American Conference playof final against Indianapolis earlier this year.

The Patriots defeated the Colts 45-7 on their way to winning the Super Bowl.

After NFL commissioner Roger Goodell rejected Brady's appeal Tuesday, the quarterback released a statement on Facebook saying he was not required to turn over his cellphone under the NFL-union deal and did not destroy it to hide evidence, with Kraft and Belichick later standing by their man.

"The decision handed down by the league yesterday is unfathomable to me," Kraft said. "The league still has no hard evidence of anybody doing anything to tamper with the (air) level of footballs."

Kraft said he now regrets not going to court to fight league penalties against the team, saying he thought the move would make it easier for the NFL to avoid banning Brady.

"I wanted to return the focus to football," Kraft said. "I was willing to accept the harshest penalty in the history of the NFL because I believed it would help exonerate Tom.

"For reasons that I cannot comprehend, there are those in the league office who are more determined to prove that they were right rather than admit any culpability of their own. I have come to the conclusion that this was never about doing what was fair and just.

"I want to apologize to the fans of the New England Patriots and Tom Brady. I was wrong to put my faith in the league. Personally, this is very sad and disappointing to me."

Kraft said the NFL wanted to distract from its lack of evidence by pointing to Brady destroying his cellphone.

"It intentionally implied nefarious behavior and minimized the acknowledgement that Tom provided the history of every number he texted during the relevant time frame," Kraft said. "And we had already provided the league with every cellphone of every non-(union) employee that they requested."

Belichick was asked time and again about Brady and would only respond with unspecific talk about the start of training camp.

"We're going to take it day to day, just like we always do," he said.

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Brady blasts NFL 'Deflategate' suspension, denies wrongdoing

New England Patriots football star Tom Brady denied on Wednesday he had destroyed his cell phone to avoid giving it to NFL investigators, saying the flap was "manufactured" to distract from "zero evidence" against him in the "Deflategate" scandal.

Brady issued his statement a day after National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld a four-game suspension of the quarterback for his part in an alleged scheme to deflate footballs below league standards in the game that put the Patriots in the 2015 Super Bowl.

A ball inflated below NFL standards could make it easier to grip, especially in cold weather games.

"I am very disappointed by the NFL's decision to uphold the four-game suspension against me," Brady said in a statement posted on his Facebook page. "I did nothing wrong, and no one in the Patriots organization did either."

Patriots owner Robert Kraft threw his support behind his player, considered one of the NFL's all-time greats.

"I was wrong to put my faith in the league," Kraft said in blasting Goodell for upholding the suspension. "I continue to believe and unequivocally support Tom Brady."

Goodell on Tuesday said Brady, one of the league's most popular and highest paid players, admitted during an appeal hearing last month that he directed an assistant to destroy his cell phone around March 6. That was the day he was due to meet with league investigators.

The commissioner said Brady's conduct suggested he was attempting to conceal evidence.

But Brady insisted on Wednesday there was nothing nefarious about the phone's destruction. As a member of the players union, he said, he was under no obligation to hand the phone to investigators. And he said he was never told that failing to do so would result in any discipline.

Brady said he replaced his broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 after his attorneys made clear to the NFL that his phone would not be subjected to investigation.

Brady, a four-time Super Bowl champion, denied his phone, which the NFL said held some 10,000 text messages, contained any damning evidence.

"I have never written, texted, emailed to anybody at anytime, anything related to football air pressure before this issue was raised at the AFC Championship game in January," Brady wrote, referring to the American Football Conference game won by the Patriots.

The NFL players union on Wednesday filed a petition in federal court in Minnesota to overturn Goodell's decision, which would force Brady to miss a fourth of the season. The union said the decision "gives the back of the hand to fundamental arbitral principles concerning procedural fairness and arbitrator bias."

The decision should be reversed as Goodell denied Brady access to evidence and witnesses and deprived him of a fair hearing, the union said.

Goodell initially leveled the penalty on Brady after a 243-page report from attorney Ted Wells, whom the NFL hired to investigate the matter.

Wells said the scheme to deflate the footballs was carried out by two Patriots employees. Under NFL rules at the time, the home team took possession of game balls before kickoff.

The investigators said he determined that Brady probably knew about the alleged scheme largely on the basis of text messages between the employees that implied the quarterback was aware of the plan to deflate the footballs.

'ZERO EVIDENCE'

Brady on Wednesday said the finding was unfair because there was no direct evidence to support it.

"There is no 'smoking gun,' and this controversy is manufactured to distract from the fact they have zero evidence of wrongdoing," the 37-year-old quarterback said in his post.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan asked the union to respond by Aug. 13 to the league's request that he declare the suspension valid under the collective bargaining agreement. A hearing would follow later.

The allegations of tampering surfaced during New England's 45-7 rout of the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC title game in January. Weather conditions on game day in a Boston suburb Boston were raw, and a ball deflated below league standards might have been easier for a quarterback like Brady to grip.

The victory enabled the Patriots to advance to the Super Bowl, where the team defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 to claim the NFL championship.

Kraft said on Wednesday he regretted accepting the "harshest penalty in history of NFL" when he chose not to appeal a $1 million fine imposed on the team for its alleged role in the scandal. Goodell also ordered the club to surrender two draft choices, including the team's coveted No. 1 pick next year.

"I truly believe what I did in May, given the actual evidence of the situation and the league's history on discipline matters, would make it much easier for the league to exonerate Tom Brady," Kraft said. "Unfortunately, I was wrong."

The players union said it will soon file a motion seeking an injunction for relief from the ruling prior to Sept. 4, when the Patriots begin final preparations for their first regular season game against Pittsburgh on Sept. 10.

If the NFL's decision is upheld in court, the Patriots will have to overcome the loss of Brady until Oct. 18 when, ironically, they face the Colts.

Head coach Bill Belichick on Wednesday declined to get into the fray concerning Brady, saying the club will prepare for the season like it always has.

"We're going to take it day by day," he said.

(Additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown)

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