Three years ago, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady scored a major victory in the #DeflateGate case, delaying by a full season his four-game suspension. Two years ago, Brady eventually accepted the punishment. He explained his thinking in a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“Just too much anxiety,” Brady said regarding the decision to drop his appeal, via the Boston Herald. “I realized I couldn’t win. It was divided attention and I was tired of that, tired of waking up and having a call with someone from the Player’s Association. I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to use this as an opportunity, to have the month of September off for the first time in like 16, 21 years, and I’m going to take advantage of this.’”
Brady went to California for the month to visit his mother, who was receiving cancer treatment, during the four-week suspension. He also took his wife to Italy.
“Man, that was the best month off I think I’ve ever had,” Brady said. “In some ways, it was a great experience. I think you look back on those experiences and it was a really tough experience in my life.”
His instincts were right regarding his ability to win any further appeals. In fact, he possibly wouldn’t have managed to further delay the suspension pending a long-shot appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
That said, long-shot appeals sometimes prevail. Just ask the folks in New Jersey, who now enjoy legalized gambling because the powers-that-be pulled a needle out of the haystack by taking the case to the Supreme Court.
