(Getty Images)

All through the Deflategate process, one in which many voices were shouting many different things, there was one group that was conspicuously quiet: NFL quarterbacks, past and present.

Oh, a few would do a demonstration on PSI for television cameras or give a perfunctory quote about their own preference for an ideal football, but no one at all came rushing to Brady’s defense. There were two inferences to make from this: First, everybody was doing the same exact thing, so they hoped Brady’s saga would end quickly so they could get back to tailoring footballs to their specificities. Or, as Boston Herald writer Ron Borges told a Boston sports program this week, nobody besides Don Yee lept to Brady’s defense because no one believed his story, including Bill Belichick.

(AP)

“Belichick never believed his story, from what I was told. Because they all know. Why do you think all those retired quarterbacks, the Troy Aikmans of the world — Troy Aikman is about as nice a guy as I’ve ever met in football — nobody’s backed [Brady]. Nobody, not a single guy. Why do you think that is? Because they hate Brady? No. Because they’re not stupid. They know nothing’s done with those balls that the quarterback doesn’t want done.”

Remember Belichick’s bizarre press conference from the height of Deflategate, the one in which it seemed like he was throwing Brady under the bus but was possibly trying to shift blame to the Golden Boy quarterback, someone who would never be sanctioned by the NFL? No one could believe it was the first, so the second made more sense, especially in a “Belichick is crazy like a fox” reading of the situation. Now it looks like it was indeed Belichick hanging his quarterback out to dry. Why else would he have repeatedly invoked Brady’s name at that press conference?

(USA TODAY Sports)

“Tom’s personal preference on his footballs are something he can talk about in much better detail than I can possibly provide,” Belichick said that day, 10 days before the Super Bowl, in a highly damning quote given well before anyone had heard of Ted Wells.

If anyone knows how to manipulate the media, it’s Belichick. That line about Brady wasn’t accidental or given without thought of what it’d mean or how it’d be perceived. Belichick knew what he was doing and, evidently, he knew what his quarterback was doing. And when Brady got caught, it was every man for himself.

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