DeflateGate: Brady Appeal Hearing Transcript Released

457 pages. That is the length of the transcript of Tom Brady's 10-hour appeal hearing at NFL headquarters in New York in May. After the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) filed a reply brief today in Manhattan, the document became public. You can find it here:

National Football League - In the matter of: Thomas Brady - Appeal Hearing

If you find the time to read the document, do it as it is another piece of the ever evolving puzzle that is the DeflateGate scandal/farce. In case you want to read Brady's testimony, which he gave under oath, skip to page 47.

Brady begins his testimony talking about the ball preparation process in great detail: how they are broken in, how they are chosen and the anger with John Jastremski and the New York Jets game. He then continues to talk about that particular game and how it was the turning point of his knowledge regarding the PSI levels of footballs.

After that, Brady was asked about the AFC Championship Game and the subsequent outbreak of the scandal/farce. The Super Bowl MVP talked about the ball preparation once again and how the balls felt during the game as well as his contact to Jastremski after hearing about the news.

He then offered his intitial reaction and, safe to say, every Patriots fan and rational human being feels the same:

I couldn't believe it. I think I said it's ridiculous.

Brady went on to talk about his relationship to Jim McNally, his mobile phone which was replaced after it became clear to him and his legal team that there would be no consequences for not turning over the phone, and some statements in the Wells Report regarding texts and e-mails.