Stephen A. Smith swings at De Smith, misses
Third, and perhaps most importantly, Brady went with his own counsel during the investigation — and promptly screwed up the case by refusing to make his cell phone or its contents available to Ted Wells. The NFLPA, given its history of tussling with the league when required, knows not only how to duke it out but also how to engineer a case to make it easier to win, or as the case may be harder to lose.
Brady, for example, would have gotten much more stern and candid (and authoritative) advice from Jeffrey Kessler than Brady got from Don Yee, who has a long history of letting Brady do whatever he wants to do. Without that advice, the NFL wouldn’t have been able to trump up the case after the fact with the notion that Brady “destroyed” his cell phone — a dynamic that was first leaked by someone in the league office to Stephen A. Smith.
NFLPA spokesman George Atallah apparently believes that the leak came from NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent.
“Sorry [De] missed the segment,” Atallah said to Stephen A. Smith on Twiter, “he was in court. Say hello to your boy Troy Vincent though. Hope to see you in Bristol soon.”