No Matter How The Court Case Ends, Tom Brady Has Already Lost

No Matter How The Court Case Ends, Tom Brady Has Already Lost

I can’t take it any more.  A dour-looking Tom Brady was in court today, arguing against his NFL suspension, and online cartoonists are having a field day, comparing Gisele’s husband to “the Hunchback of Notre Dame” and Gollum of “Lord of The Rings.” Enough is enough.

I usually write people management or productivity management.  This is about reputation management.

What a catastrophic reputational blunder.  If Tom Brady had simply come out back in January and said, “Sure, my boys deflated the footballs a touch, but it doesn’t matter.  We all do it.  All quarterbacks work the footballs over before a game to get the feel to their liking.  All pitchers scuff up baseballs a little during a game to get them the way they like them.  Sure, it was probably bad judgment on my part, and I’ll apologize for that.  But it was no big deal, it was no difference maker.  As you all saw, we kicked the Colts’ butts in the second half of the AFC Championship game much more decisively with the league balls… than we did in the first half with our balls.”

The cover-up is worse than the crime – A little quick history here.  I’m no Brady basher.  I’m a little old to have a favorite athlete, but I’d say Tom Brady is (or was) my favorite athlete since Pete Sampras retired.  And my Patriots credentials are pretty solid.  I’ve been a Pats fan since, oh, 1960, when the team was formed and I was 8.  I listened to Tom on his Monday morning interviews on WEEI in Boston for years and always admired how he handled himself.  Self-deprecating.  Great team player.  Always thoughtful, articulate, classy.  When the Pats won the won the Super Bowl this year, my first thought (after wanting to hug Malcolm Butler) was: That’s it.  Tom’s now arguably the greatest quarterback in history.  Four Super Bowls and all those monster stats over 15 years.  Like a true fan , I was so pleased for him.
And now this.

A laughingstock.

The deflated ball jokes.  The incriminating texts from equipment managers.  The destroyed cell phone.  In the court of public opinion, Tom Brady’s golden-boy, best-QB-in history image is already way more chewed up than a fourth quarter field on a rain-soaked day.
And rightfully so, I’m afraid.  Was it hubris that made him want to try to cover up an (alleged) insignificant infraction?  That led him to paint himself into an impossible corner?  Was he so perfect he couldn’t admit being even a little imperfect, as are we all.

We’re all sinners.  We all make mistakes.

No asset is more precious than reputation. That’s why the handling of reputation management in such cases is such a delicate matter, such a crucial fourth-down call.  It would have been so much easier for Tom to admit a little honest guilt, take his medicine and get a slap on the wrist – which probably would have been largely forgotten by the time the Super Bowl parade rolled around.

Instead, we have a miserable drawn-out seven-month process.  And now a miserable court case.

It doesn’t matter any more.  Four game suspension, two game suspension, who cares?

There will be no winners here.  No matter how this ends, Tom Brady has already lost.  The Internet is abuzz and the greatest quarterback in history is being compared to a Hobbit.