Tom Brady Hits Back: 'I Did Nothing Wrong'

Tom Brady isn't shying away from the NFL's decision to uphold his four-game DeflateGate suspension. In a Facebook post this morning, Brady says, "I am very disappointed by the NFL's decision to uphold the 4 game suspension against me. I did nothing wrong, and no one in the Patriots organization did either." He accuses Commissioner Roger Goodell of dismissing Brady's "hours of testimony" and takes special issue with the "narrative surrounding my cellphone," which the NFL says he destroyed even though he knew investigators wanted its texts and data. "I have never written, texted, emailed to anybody at anytime, anything related to football air pressure before this issue was raised at the AFC Championship game in January," he writes. "To suggest that I destroyed a phone to avoid giving the NFL information it requested is completely wrong. ... This controversy is manufactured to distract from the fact they have zero evidence of wrongdoing."

Comments under his post range from pro-Brady fanaticism ("Pats Nation will always have your back, Tom. At no point did we ever doubt you") to eye-rolling critics like one who tells devotees, "Brady cheated and needs to be a man and just own up to it." Meanwhile, Patriots coach Bill Belichick showed up at a previously scheduled news conference this morning, but he made it clear he wouldn't be talking about his star quarterback, saying, per ESPN, "We start training camp and we're on to the 2015 season. … It's already been addressed." Before Belichick spoke, Patriots owner Robert Kraft stepped to the podium and said he made a mistake in accepting punishment against the team in March. "I was wrong to put my faith in the league," he said, per the Boston Globe. (Read Brady's full Facebook post.)