Was the phone required to be turned over per the CBA?
Did they offer to give the emails and texts?
Is he a famous person with a famous wife?
Did his private emails (answer number 2 first) get leaked?
Answer those and then get back to me.
Sure. I'll answer them:
1. "Was the phone required to be turned over per the CBA?"
To answer your question - it doesn't matter if the CBA states that they are allowed to. What matters is whether the CBA explicitly does not permit the league to request this info.
This matter will be determined on the balance of probabilities (not the criminal threshhold of "beyond a reasonable doubt".) What that means is that the trier simply needs to listen to the arguments and determine which story is most likely to be true.
As soon as the equipment staff phone text messages implicated Brady was part of the discussions, along with the logic that they will not alter balls without his permission along with all the other evidence, then the most reasonable, logical story is that Brady likely altered the balls and was party to these text conversations plus likely had other ones. They had cause to request the phone and in all likelihood Brady's only way to escape punishment was that examination of his phone actually exhonerates him somehow. Of all the stories argued, and the evidence provided, this was the story that was most true on the balance of probabilities - and when Brady refused to turn over the phone then its all a moot point because he's now guilty of not cooperating.
2. "Did they offer to give the emails and texts?"
Who? Brady and his team? Don't know and don't care. All we know is that he didn't provide them the phone so they could search it.
3. "Is he a famous person with a famous wife?"
Yep. He gets paid well for his fame too. Don't care about his wife.
4. "Did his private emails (answer number 2 first) get leaked?"
Don't know and don't care. It's immaterial. Wells only wanted the phone so that they could do a search by key words - not read through the entire phone. They didn't need to look at private emails/texts.
