Robert K. Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, said on Wednesday that he had been wrong to believe the N.F.L. would exonerate Tom Brady in the scandal over deflated footballs.  Tom Brady and the New England Patriots shot back at the N.F.L. a day after Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld Brady’s four-game suspension for his role in deflating footballs used in the A.F.C. championship game.  In a statement posted early Wednesday morning on his Facebook page, Brady said that he was disappointed in the league’s decision not to reduce or eliminate his suspension and said that “neither I, nor any equipment person, did anything of which we have been accused.”  He added, “I did nothing wrong, and no one in the Patriots organization did either.” Goodell “dismissed my hours of testimony, and it is disappointing that he found it unreliable.”  Robert K. Kraft, the longtime owner of the team and one of the most powerful figures in the game sharply criticized the decision at a press conference Wednesday, calling it “unfathomable.”  “I was wrong to put my faith in the league,” he said, adding that he regretted not appealing the team’s own penalties. Days after the championship game, Kraft had taken the unusual step of publicly upbraiding the commissioner for his handling of the matter. But he later accepted the $1 million dollar fine and forfeiture of draft picks that the league imposed.  You’re Tom Brady. You have potentially incriminating text messages. Quick — how do you destroy your cellphone in a way that effectively obliterates all the text messages?  Brady Wednesday also disputed accusations that he had destroyed his phone to hide evidence from the N.F.L.:  “I replaced my broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER my attorneys made it clear to the N.F.L. that my actual phone device would not be subjected to investigation under ANY circumstances. As a member of a union, I was under no obligation to set a new precedent going forward, nor was I made aware at any time during Mr. Wells’s investigation that failing to subject my cellphone to investigation would result in ANY discipline.  “Most importantly, I have never written, texted, emailed to anybody at any time, anything related to football air pressure before this issue was raised at the A.F.C. championship game in January. To suggest that I destroyed a phone to avoid giving the N.F.L. information it requested is completely wrong.”  In his ruling Tuesday upholding the suspension, Goodell said that investigators sought Brady’s text messages starting in mid-February, weeks before he destroyed his cellphone, which came around the time investigators were set to meet Brady. Goodell said that Brady had not communicated with a team staff member who handled the balls before the game, but the league did seek texts that they had sent to each other after the game.  N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a a 20-page statement Tuesday upholding the four-game suspension of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.  Brady said he had done everything possible to get investigators the information they wanted. “There is no ‘smoking gun,’ and this controversy is manufactured to distract from the fact they have zero evidence of wrongdoing,” he said.  In response to news media reports that the N.F.L. had offered him a reduction of his suspension in exchange for an admission of wrongdoing, Brady said: “I authorized the NFLPA to make a settlement offer to the N.F.L. so that we could avoid going to court and put this inconsequential issue behind us as we move forward into this season. The discipline was upheld without any counteroffer.”  The N.F.L. Players Association said Tuesday that it would go to court to have the suspension reversed. The league has already gone to federal court to have a judge affirm the decision and the commissioner’s right to hear Brady’s appeal, something critics of the league said was a conflict of interest.  Brady’s Facebook posting drew more than 1,000 comments within minutes, most from supportive Patriots fans.  Goodell on Tuesday upheld the four-game suspension of Brady for his alleged role in the deflation of game balls to gain a competitive advantage in the A.F.C. championship matchup in January.  The league based its decision mainly on Brady’s asking an assistant to destroy a cellphone that he had used the week of the game. Brady was not obliged under league rules to provide the phone.  Should Brady serve his suspension, Jimmy Garoppolo is expected to be the team’s quarterback for the first four games. Brady would be eligible to return for the fifth game, on Oct. 18 against the Indianapolis Colts, the team that the Patriots played in the A.F.C. championship in January.
The Patriots quarterback reiterated his innocence, a day after his four game-suspension was upheld, and owner Robert Kraft criticized the league.