Things in the Deflategate saga are heating up, as the NFL announced Tuesday that it will uphold Tom Brady's four-game suspension without pay and the NFL Players' Association announced it will once again appeal on the player's behalf.
Brady waited until Wednesday to respond, but when he did he took a particularly feisty aim at what he called a "narrative surrounding my cell phone," after the NFL's decision also revealed that the player ordered his device destroyed on or around the day he was set to speak with investigators.
Just a lot of back and forth, right? Well not if you're Samsung, who, like every other semi-interested American, has been watching this saga unfold from the sidelines. That is, until they were thrown right under the bus, no warning at all, by Brady himself in his Facebook response published Wednesday.
I also disagree with yesterdays narrative surrounding my cellphone. I replaced my broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER my attorneys made it clear to the NFL that my actual phone device would not be subjected to investigation under ANY circumstances.
Yeesh. Not a good day to be a Pats fan and a Samsung employee. Replaced. So easily. It really hurts to see something like that happen. What did Samsung ever do to you to deserve this, Tom?!
You see, Brady happened to have the cell phone he had been using since last November destroyed on or around March 6, right when he was interviewed as part of the NFL's independent investigation into Deflategate. Thus, nearly 10,000 text messages from that period (which includes the Deflategate game in question) were apparently lost with it.
Brady and his lawyers dismissed the NFL's claim that this was a move to seemingly obstruct information to be obtained, arguing that the quarterback has provided more than enough information as a private citizen. (Some texts and call records were detailed in the investigation, true, but even those made Brady's role and two men on the Patriots staff seem a little questionable, to say the least).
The NFL decision revealed Wednesday that it is apparently Brady's practice to destroy old phones when he gets a new one (understandable) and also that Brady ordered the phone to be deep-sixed the day he was to meet with investigators and then did not tell the league about it until his appeal hearing four months later (not as understandable).
Either way, Brady's bizarre callout of the companies was not lost on Twitter.
Can Samsung bounce back after this hit? No one can say. But we are talking about the company that pulled off a choreographed selfie between fellow Boston hero David Ortiz and THE President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, without the White House's consent.
On the brighter side, at least Apple may have a new spokesman? And one who will have some free time on his hands this fall to do a spot, at that.
Read Brady's full Facebook statement:
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