Tom Brady trashed his cell phone - and his reputation

Worse than if he'd never appealed his four-game ban in the first place. Worse than he did when it was only "more probable than not" that the Patriots deflated footballs and that Brady was "generally aware" of the deflation. Worse because this winner of four Super Bowls has made himself seem the dunce of dunces.

From NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's rejection of Brady's appeal : "The most significant new information that emerged in connection with the appeal was evidence that on or about March 6, 2015 -- the very day that he was interviewed by Mr. (Ted) Wells and his team -- Mr. Brady instructed his assistant to destroy the cell phone that he had been using since early 2014, a period that included that AFC Championship game and the initial weeks of the subsequent investigation."

Got that? Now hear this: "During the four months that the cell phone was in use, Brady had exchanged nearly 10,000 text messages, none of which can now be retrieved from that device. The destruction of the cell phone was not disclosed until June 18, almost four months after the investigators had first sought electronic information from Brady."

That's our Tom. He throws deflated footballs! He trashes his cell phone! He's good at working against a Cover 2, bad at orchestrating a Cover Up!

Me, I'd have docked Brady four more games for filing the appeal and wasting the NFL's time, but I'm not Goodell. I'm also not Tom Brady's image consultants, all of whom are presumably looking for work as we speak. One of football's greatest quarterbacks has been recast as an utter clown.