New England Patriots News: Tom Brady’s Popularity Plummets After Deflategate, Public Siding With NFL

The New England Patriots have even more bad news — the public appears to be turning on Tom Brady, once one of the most popular players in the league, and agreeing with the NFL’s harsh punishment of both him and the team.

Brady was handed a four-game suspension for his role in the Deflategate scandal, in which a report from investigator Ted Wells concluded it was likely he had knowledge of efforts to deflate balls to below regulation standards. The findings have Brady being labeled a cheater by many, and the public has responded.

A poll from E-Poll Market Research released Friday showed that 47 percent of more than 1,000 people surveyed say they don’t like Tom Brady, ESPN reported.

As the Sporting News noted, it was a dramatic dive for a quarterback who had always enjoyed high popularity:

Ten years ago, Brady’s likability was about 90 percent. It dropped to 77 percent in June 2008 following the Spygate scandal then fell to a career-low 68 percent in February after the Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX.

This comes on the heels of a poll from ESPN/ABC News that found 63 percent of all fans surveyed and 76 percent of so-called “avid” fans said they agreed with the league’s decision to ban Tom Brady and to dock the New England Patriots a first-round draft pick and $1 million.

Tom Brady isn’t taking the discipline lying down. He has hired noted lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, who has taken on the NFL in court and beaten the league including a milestone ruling that threw away restrictions on free agency.

Brady’s agent also attacked the findings, and the team’s counsel put out a 20,000-word rebuttal.

The team argued:

“The Report dismisses the scientific explanation for the natural loss of psi of the Patriots footballs by inexplicably rejecting the Referee’s recollection of what gauge he used in his pregame inspection. Texts acknowledged to be attempts at humor and exaggeration are nevertheless interpreted as a plot to improperly deflate footballs, even though none of them refer to any such plot. There is no evidence that Tom Brady preferred footballs that were lower than 12.5 psi and no evidence anyone even thought that he did. All the extensive evidence which contradicts how the texts are interpreted by the investigators is simply dismissed as ‘not plausible.’ Inconsistencies in logic and evidence are ignored.”

Many believe that the legal team headed up by Jeffrey Kessler will be able to win a case reducing or even eliminating the suspension — but that’s likely to do little to improve the public’s perception of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

[Image via Getty Images/ Mike Ehrmann]