Gisele Bundchen posted this ^^ Instagram on Saturday with the message “and my heart melts …#biggestlove #family.” This was basically her only direct comment following weeks of speculation that her marriage was/is in serious trouble following a really bad summer full of burqa-clad plastic surgery and Deflategate drama. She was also photographed dropping off some stuff at Patriots Stadium in Boston late last week – go here to see those photos. The message definitely seems to be “Gisele and Tom are fine, they are stronger than ever, for sure.” I wonder if the message would be different if the Deflategate case had gone down a different way?
Following last week’s resolution – temporarily? – of the Deflategate drama, Tom Brady made a statement on his Facebook page.
The regular season starts tomorrow morning and I can’t wait to fully commit my energy and emotion to focus on the challenges of the 2015 NFL season. I want to thank my family, my friends, all of the fans, past and current players and my teammates for the support they have given me throughout this challenging experience. I also want to thank Judge Berman and his staff for their efforts to resolve this matter over the past five weeks. I am very grateful. My thanks also to the union’s legal team who has fought so hard right along with me.
While I am pleased to be eligible to play, I am sorry our league had to endure this. I don’t think it has been good for our sport – to a large degree, we have all lost. I am also sorry to anyone whose feelings I may have hurt as I have tried to work to resolve this situation. I love the NFL. It is a privilege to be a member of the NFL community and I will always try to do my best in representing my team and the league in a way that would make all members of this community proud.
I look forward to the competition on the playing field and I hope the attention of NFL fans can return to where it belongs – on the many great players and coaches who work so hard every week, and sacrifice so much, to make this game great. Most importantly, I look forward to representing the New England Patriots on Thursday night in our season opener. I hope to make all of our fans proud this year … and beyond!
Tom will be playing in the Patriots’ first game this week, although Roger Goodell issued a statement saying that the NFL will be appealing Judge Berman’s decision. Goodell seems content to allow Brady to play… for now. I wonder how much longer Goodell will drag this out. I understand that there’s collective bargaining and players’ rights issues at stake, but there’s also a PR war going on and (just my opinion) neither the Patriots nor the NFL are winning the PR war.
Brady’s dad also called into a radio show in San Francisco and referred to Goodell as a “flaming liar” and the NFL as a “kangaroo court.” Go here to read/listen.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, Instagram.
That last pic perfectly sums up my feelings regarding Goodell.
I think it sums up the feelings of many about Goodell, including several team owners.
I am so terribly excited to see my boys Richard Sherman and BEAST MODE on the field I can’t even stand it. 💚💙
They’re a great team. I hope you have a good season.
Thanks pal! Your team sucks and I hope they lose every single game. JUST KIDDING SILLY! Seriously tho, see ya in the playoffs. 🎉🎉
Well, since we’re in different conferences, in order to meet in the playoffs, that means we’re both going to the Super Bowl! Again! Hurray for both of us! Cider doughnuts for everyone!
Exactly! 😃
That last photo actually makes the Jane Rosenberg courtroom sketch look pretty accurate.
Anyway, I’m glad the legal drama is mostly over before the season begins.
(Go, Pats!)
No one cares down here, mate! We’re all on board The Hayne Train. Toot-toot.
He made the team. Good luck to him this season. Enjoy.
It’s amazing to see him thriving up there! Hayne’s a great guy and will dominate all these American weaklings!
P.S. Is Tom Brady supposed to be some sort of heartthrob? I feel like I remember people swooning over him in the past and he’s married to a ‘model’ etc. But really?
That face is rough!
He looks like a serial killer!
That picture of him scowling looks like that infamous court drawing that caused all that controversy. He DOES look like Frankenstein when he scowls.
OMG Frankenstein is perfect. Thank you! It was bugging the hell out of me.
He looks total Frankenstein. Not attractive. Lol
FrakenFace is not cute to me anymore.
You’re welcome. I do not think he is attractive at all. I seriously have no idea what his wife sees in him.
He looks nothing like Frankenstein. He is very attractive.
Yes I don’t know why the artist had to apologize. That picture was spot on.
His employer’s a liar and the workplace is toxic? Well, welcome to the world of paid employment. He’s lucky he’s in a union. He’d have been out on his ear ages ago, otherwise. #solidarityforever
The ny post had an interesting pic of the patriots’ owner partying with the judge who ruled in their favor ..uh huh…
They were at the same party.
The judge is a very respected guy, he’s not going to compromise his reputation for Brady. You can remove your tin foil hat
The NFL chose to have the case heard in NY, Brady/NFLPA wanted Minnesota
BTW none of the guys in the picture are Judge Berman, but Kraft didn’t deny being introduced to him
Because judges are never biased and/or corrupt …
She did get a boob job! Didn’t realiZe she was so small before
The only thing your league had to endure was watching you throw a tantrum until you got your own way.
Agreed.
And I think we all knew in the end he would get his way.
It’s all over until the next time this team gets caught doing something shady to win. I don’t care about football but this guy’s a cheat just like so many others but that’s pro sports.
Completely agree.
He’s not a cheat. Did you even read the “evidence”? Did you read the reportswhich debunked the NFL’s evidence?
There’s zero proof of anything, even the judge pointed out the lack of evidence. He referred to the NFL’s investigation as “independent” through his ruling and called it alleged ball deflation.
I think what is so disturbing about this whole process is that two handlers are fired from there job and no one seems to care. Tom Brady with his smug face had the look of a man that knew he would get off. I believe the league that if he was so innocent why would he withhold information and destroy his phone. It’s a shame two men with families making about $35,000 a year are now unemployed and have no reason to celebrate.
They were suspended at the request of the NFL. The patriots need permission to reinstate them.
I hope they’re brought back. One is only a game day employee so he hasn’t missed work and has a regular job. I’m not sure if the other guy was suspended with or without pay.
Brady said he feels terrible for them and what they and their families have been through because of this
@Audrey, until Edwin brought this up, I haven’t read one Brady fan say one word about the people who lost their jobs. It’s nice to see that patriot’s fans care as much about the Little Guys as Brady does – not one bit.
He’s tainted regardless. The phone destroying made him seem worried about them finding something.
Like Bridget Moynahan’s text messages? Because she’s furious with Goodell.
I don’t believe he is a cheat. Too many variables related in psi. Could be any player out there. They aren’t perfect team no team is but bottom line it was a witch hunt. Some QBs have come out and mentioned that they like there footballs all different. Goddell is gone soon and I think that this appeal will fade away.Changes are made now about footballs and the next big win for patriots someone will cry foul and away we go again.lol and this isn’t even my team but there good.
Brady hasn’t said a bad word about Goodell or the league.
But they posted a picture of the top QBs last night, asking fans to guess which ones will be playing in the Super Bowl this year. And they didn’t include Brady, the reigning SB MVP.
They deleted it after a lot of backlash, a few players spoke out about it.
NFL is being really petty and passive aggressive
No, that’s just realistic. Most experts don’t have the Pats listed in the top five picks to win the Super Bowl this season. The favorites are Green Bay and Seattle.
One of those teams might make the Super Bowl but both won’t. They’re in the same conference.
But Goodell is being petty. He was scheduled to attend the Super Bowl banner ceremony Thursday night but has now cancelled.
I see them listed high on most power rankings. It’s crazy to not include the guy who just won a sb.
If expectations are that low for the pats, there wouldn’t have been so much backlash.
It will be interesting to watch his stats this year…😏
In my opinion, Brady will forever be tarnished by this. He did have a temper tantrum until he got his way. He lied and said he always destroyed his phones, when that was not, in fact, true. He had the phone destroyed knowing the NFL was interested in seeing it. He did not fully cooperate with the investigation. So his underlings took the fall, as they always do. Shady Brady. Baby Brady. To some, he will always be Teflon Tom, but to many football fans in New York, he’s Cheater Brady Who Got Away With It. No surprises there. I hope to see the Sea Hawks win the next Super Bowl. Not only is Richard Sherman younger, hotter and smarter than Tom Brady, he is also more honest. I think kids would do well to think of Sherman as a role model because it really is not if you win or lose, but how you play the game.
Sherman is such a stand up guy, so is Lynch and those guys do a great deal for the community. So sick of the young angry black man trope they both get shackled with. They’re both highly intelligent and articulate men, and obviously awesome atheletes to boot. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.
Neither is seen that way honestly. Sherman is highly intelligent and everyone knows that. Lynch isn’t seen as an angry black guy either, he’s highly respected by fans and other teams.
Sherman did get off on a technicality after failing a drug test
Respectfully disagree. Even here on CB, which isn’t exactly the most sports-centric site, both men and the Sewhawks in general have frequently been called “thugs”. The comments on YouTube and IG echo the same.
Disappointing but not surprising. I remember dez being called a thug and crazy for getting pumped up and yelling on the sidelines during the game.
Others are called passionate but dez only had negative words used.
Its sad that these guys are stereotyped like that
A temper tantrum doesn’t win court cases.
Brady is playing because he and his lawyers won in court. The judge saw that the NFL did not treat Brady fairly while investigating and especially during his appeal.
Brady hasn’t talked at all until now. He hasn’t whined or thrown tantrums.
He’s not a cheater. More and more NFL fans are seeing that. Previously, only around 25% of fans believed brady was innocent. Now that NFL lies have been exposed, more than 60% believe brady is innocent.
The investigator told Brady that he did not need his phone. Brady gave all records and emails
“More and more NFL fans are seeing that.”
Uh, no. Only in New England is there a majority opinion that the judge’s decision exonerated the Pats. The rest of the country still sees the Pats as cheaters…which they are. Specifically, Belicheck.
All of Goodell’s incompetency and malign intent does not exonerate the Pats.
You’re in the 30-40% who disagree. Plenty of others are paying attention and realizing how many lies were out there.
No, I’m in the 95% of NFL fans who don’t live in New England. The other 5% just make up in volume what they lack in reality.
Most NFL fans think the Pats cheat (which, of course, is true). Most NFL fans think the Pats are overrated (which they are).
Money and influence win court cases. How do people not know this?
@jib, the NFL has far more money than Tom Brady does.
@jferber, unless an employer owns an employee’s phone, the employer has no right whatsoever to that phone, for any reason. The employee has the right to do whatever he or she wants to do with his or her phone. Brady did give phone records to the NFL. Goodell had no right to that phone. And Bridget Moynahan has let it be known that she is none too thrilled with Goodell sticking himself into her private text messages about her son.
This.
And the Patriot fans don’t care one bit about the two low,paid employees who lost their jobs and had their reputations tarnished. Oh, yeah, Brady cares. Has he offered them financial help?
I hate to see the rich smug guy get off and the poor “little people” pay the price for his cheating. It makes me despise his ugly skeletal face even more.
I don’t think there’s much debate as to who came out of this looking worse: The NFL, losing yet again when a federal judge scrutinizes the decision-making of Roger Goodell.
Brady never should have been suspended. I don’t think he did anything out of the ordinary for a NFL quarterback. Goodell was in the wrong for handing down a suspension more severe than was given to Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson initially. It’s absurd that domestic abuse is treated with less severity than a witch hunt by Goodell.
Now that this matter is hopefully resolved, the NFL now has time and resources to investigate a matter of more pressing concern – the too favorable officiating for the Green Bay Packers. Given that the Packers are probably going to have a down year, the bias in favor of the Packers is going to be worse than ever.
I’m wondering if officiating will favor the Broncos and ravens to try to get manning or smith into the sb
We all have opinions. I think your opinion is vey biased.
Him – Mouth breathing Jock. Wife….Brazzo opportunist. Behind closed doors….more missionary than you could possibly imagine. Trust me…
Cannot stomach Tom Brady and his constant bitch face. Typical sorry/not sorry apology. Cheater. Hope they lose every game and I’m not kidding.
I am a die hard Patriots fan – but can admit that Brady probably knew the balls were a little softer than they should be. Did he ‘order’ it to be done? Who knows. I’d guess it’s more of the people working there knowing how he likes things and making sure they are done his way.
The biggest problem I’ve had with this case is the complete lack of consistent disciplinary actions taken by the league. When the disciplinary action for beating your fiance or failing a drug test is far lighter than for a minor equipment violation (which this was), you’re showing that there is a bias. I believe (someone correct me if I am wrong) the ‘official’ punishment for an equipment violation is $25k. How did it go from $25k to $1mm, 2 draft picks and a 4 game suspension? Because he destroyed a phone that he was told wasn’t needed? The horrors. The man is a well known and wealthy athlete with a well known and wealthy wife and a few kids to protect. Damn straight he destroyed it. I would have too. He provided what was requested and decided to protect his privacy (b/c the league wouldn’t!) on everything else.
I also have a problem with the lack of responsibility taken by the league. The balls are measured at the beginning of the game and then again at half time. In the middle? All of the balls are given back to the team. If you want to require the balls to stay at ‘regulation’ then you should be either weighing them more frequently (i.e. just before being put in use) or you need to be controlling access to them. Anything else suggests that it’s really not a big deal to the league.
Unless, of course, it’s ‘done’ by Tom Brady….
The balls? ONE ball.
Fair point. The ONE ball. 🙂
Brady and the Patriots cheated and they were caught. When this story broke before the Super Bowl, the sports commentators said that all the teams do it, but the problem was how Brady and the Patriots responded to the allegations. The vast majority of sports commentators (who are retired NFL players) said that Tom and his franchise handled the whole situation horribly. Many of them were outraged.
Basically, Brady, Belichick, and that insufferable owner of the Patriots should have all manned-up and admitted to the infraction, and taken the heat then, which, AGAIN, the football pundits said, would have been the right thing to do. They would have gotten a slap on the hand and everyone would have moved on. But instead, they denied it was Brady, blamed the lowly ball “boys”, and generally acted like a bunch of bratty assholes.
Because of their unwillingness to take ownership in the first place, this thing spiraled out of control. It would have been over and done with months and months ago if Brady and company would done the right thing.
Yes, ESPN has just written a whole piece about the Patriots: http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/13533995/split-nfl-new-england-patriots-apart.
The team released a statement denouncing the report. But to quote the ESPN sports desk, “C’mom Man…”