If Brady didn’t destroy the phone, which he was obligated to provide under the CBA, he wouldn’t have been punished as severely.
So that makes it OK for them to manufacture evidence?
Brady should have never been required to hand over his phone or else!
He wasn’t obligated to provide the phone. The NFL had no rights to it at all.
The NFL also both stated they didn’t want the phone, and confirmed they had every single one of the relevant texts they sought...from the phones they did have the rights to: the team *issued* phones carried by the equipment manager and the ball boy.
What the CBA does have is a procedure where before punishment the player must have a hearing on specificity stated rules violation, and then has the right of appeal. To this day, Brady has still not had said hearing - which is part of why the NFL was playing games in evading saying what precisely he was being punished for, and what punishment pertained to what.
During the whole investigation and hearing process, the NFL never even argued they had any such right.
They were just throwing spaghetti against the wall.