DeflateGate: NFL Network Employee Lashes Out at Roger Goodell Over Investigation

A former member of the New England Patriots, and current NFL Network employee, has taken to the airwaves to absolutely hammer Roger Goodell and the NFL Headquarters investigation of Tom Brady and DeflateGate. Heath Evans has had enough. Jump to the 12:00 mark to hear his thoughts on DeflateGate.

Evans spent four seasons with the Patriots, including the SpyGate season of 2007. He knows how New England functions and he has open communication with quarterback Tom Brady. He's fully on board with Brady at this point in time.

"When the Wells Report was released, I read probably about a third of it and I'm thinking, ‘Man, this seems very one-sided and there just seems so much left out of it,'" Evans said to Damon Amendolara of CBS Radio. "Then I go back and read the whole stinking thing and I start formulating opinions about things that have been left out."

Of course, this is the standard thought process of everyone who read beyond the executive summary of the report. Fortunately for Evans, he has the connections to speak with Brady directly to hear the quarterback's side of the story.

"Tommy was like, ‘You know me well enough to know I'm not cheating this game,'" Evans said of his communication with the quarterback. "I have stood by him for the course of the thing. I think people that are willing to read now and really start tracking everything that's been released- everything that the Patriots released, everything that the NFLPA has released- you're starting to see a completely different side of more or less a witch hunt, and maybe a few guys in the league office that had some ill will directed toward the Patriots and leaked out false reports and started a landslide that was just lies and propaganda...His name probably won't ever be looked at the way it should because people are always just going to remember the bold headlines, but there's no substance to this whatsoever."

Evans made a point to separate his entity of the NFL Network from that of Goodell.

"People say, ‘Heath, you work for the NFL, you better watch it,'" Evans said. "No, I work for Jerry Jones, and I work for Daniel Snyder and I work for the Rooney family and I work for Robert Kraft and I work for Tom Benson. I don't work for Roger Goodell and that league office. The owners own the network...It has nothing to do with loyalties. I challenge people to go read what's out there and formulate your own opinion."

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is the chair of the NFL owners committee that oversees the NFL Network. Jones is also an outspoken supporter of Roger Goodell's decision to suspend Tom Brady, so hopefully Evans' stance won't have a long term impact on his employment.

If anything does happen, though, Evans is likely to be at peace with his decision to speak out.

"I got my job by being factually correct, bold and opinionated," Evans said. "...People don't want to read because they just want to say, ‘Hey, we want the Patriots to be cheaters' because they can't wrap their minds around for the last 15 years, they're just better than everybody. That's just the truth. People love to hate on the best."