Tom Brady issues statement: ‘To a large degree, we have all lost’
Tom Brady has said almost nothing publicly since Ted Wells’ deflate-gate report was released, unless you count his words from an NFL appeal transcript.
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Late Friday night, Brady finally broke his silence with a statement on his Facebook page. In it, he doesn’t go into any details of the case (though, that was documented extensively in the appeal transcript) but he says he’s sorry the entire ordeal happened, and says everyone involved “lost” to a large degree:
“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!”
The whole debacle wasn’t good for anyone, not for Brady having to deal with this coming off another Super Bowl win and not for the league which was embarrassed when all of its efforts to over-punish one of the league’s greatest players led to a high-profile loss in federal court.
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Although the NFL chose to appeal, and that might last well into 2016, it seems like Brady is ready to put the focus on football. Wouldn’t that be nice.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
