1. One text using that nickname, two years ago. No context, just another equipment guy hassling him like locker room humor. Yep, solid circumstantial evidence....*rolls eyes*
2. The league used that term, not Brady. It was used purposefully to bolster their non case to morons who want to believe he did something without any evidence to back it up. It sounds so inflammatory, sort of like Hillary, right? The NFL acknowledges they knew he did that on a regular basis. On page 11 or something like that according to Rush today. Lots of players and famous people do that on a regular basis. It's common and defensive and for good reason.
3. The extent of the deflation of the balls has always been exagerrated, there were never any close to two pounds under. The Colts had four balls measured, they too were under. There were two gauges used, and they measured different from one another, and nothing was written down. Ponder that for a while and look in the mirror.
4. I've watched this game a long time, and played it, if you're going to say with a straight face that an underinflated football leads to that many less fumbles, I might have to turn to derision again.
5. Once again, if he was getting so much out of this by purposefully deflating balls for ten years, how does he suddenly get faced with inflated balls and play better in the second half? Lots better. How does he come out and torch the best defense in the league in the past five years in the SuperBowl if this is all true? Did the Patriots running backs suddenly fumble these two games? Oops, no fumbles. Imagine that.... Occam's razor sir, look it up.
Not only that: Brady then claimed that he does that frequently, and then gave the NFL some old phones (which he hadn't destroyed, paradoxically.)
Brady looks like an evidence-hiding fool in this instance, who clearly tried to obstruct the investigation.
Furthermore, we all know that the Patriots now have a well-documented history of, shall we say, "bending the rules"?
What it all adds up to is unrepentant "conduct detrimental to the integrity of game".
I'm glad the NFL isn't rolling over for the Patriots. Go ahead and let Brady get an injuction on his game suspensions. That way, they'll occur later in the season, when it will really matter.
Brady clearly tried to obstruct the investigation by destroying evidence on the very day he was supposed to surrender the phone, and it's no wonder that the hard evidence is rather thin.
Also, this investigation is not a criminal investigation, and does not by any means require that standard of proof. I would think that the standard of proof would more likely resemble that which occurs in a civil proceeding, which is a preponderance of evidence, not "beyond a reasonable doubt".
Would the effect of an underinflated ball be greater if the temperature was extremely cold? It was 10 degrees wind chill the prior week for the Ravens game but no Ravens defensive player held the ball long enough to notice.