NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has made the decision to uphold New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's four-game suspension for the deflategate scandal.
The 37-year-old was banned by the league back in May after he was found to be generally aware that members of the Patriots' equipment staff had deflated footballs in their AFC championship win over the Indianapolis Colts.
Brady made the decision to appeal the suspension, which was heard by Goodell in the NFL's offices in New York back in June.
At the hearing, Brady disclosed that the mobile phone he was using throughout the scandal and the previous four months had been destroyed, leading Goodell to uphold the suspension on the grounds that he provided no evidence to contradict the investigation into the incident by Ted Wells.
The NFL said in a statement: "On or shortly before March 6, the day that Tom Brady met with independent investigator Ted Wells and his colleagues, Brady directed that the cell phone he had used for the prior four months be destroyed. He did so even though he was aware that the investigators had requested access to text messages and other electronic information that had been stored on that phone.
"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.
"Based on the Wells Report and the evidence presented at the hearing, commissioner Goodell concluded in his decision that Brady was aware of, and took steps to support, the actions of other team employees to deflate game footballs below the levels called for by the NFL's official playing rules.
"The commissioner found that Brady's deliberate destruction of potentially relevant evidence went beyond a mere failure to cooperate in the investigation and supported a finding that he had sought to hide evidence of his own participation in the underlying scheme to alter the footballs."
Brady has authorised the NFLPA to take the NFL to federal court in an attempt to get the suspension overturned.
Simon Sinclair
