Opinion

Tom Brady Calling Signals From The Clinton Playbook

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Tom Brady’s four-game suspension has been upheld by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Brady’s punishment is “for violating the league’s policy on integrity of the game,” according to Mr. Goodell. C.S. Lewis described integrity as, “Doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” Which is at the heart of the matter for Tom Brady. His footballs were deflated while no one was watching. What did Brady know and when did he know it?

Furthermore Brady destroyed evidence, specifically his cell phone which was used to exchange “nearly 10,000 text messages, none of which can now be retrieved from that device” according to NFL investigators. And Brady destroyed the cell phone four months after investigators first sought his electronic exchanges. Is this starting to sound familiar?

Compare the Brady deflate-gate to Hillary Clinton and her “lost” emails. Or even the “lost” emails of Lois Lerner of the IRS. ”There is a two-month gap in Hillary Clinton’s emails that coincides with violence in Libya,” per The Daily Beast. Vanished into the ether or deliberately destroyed? Hillary didn’t smash her cell phone like Tom Brady, but she did “wipe her email server clean” and refused to turn it over to an independent third party investigator. What difference does it make, as she might say, how the emails were destroyed? Gone is gone.

Hillary’s missing emails are temporally related to the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, resulting in the deaths of four Americans. Brady’s text messages may be related to footballs being slightly softer than normal, giving the Patriots an advantage against the Colts. The underinflated footballs however did not result in the deaths of any Americans or relate to any issues of national security. And Tom Brady didn’t blame a cartoon or video for the underinflated footballs.

Instead Hillary’s emails may have represented communications relating to the escalating security concerns at Benghazi and requests for assistance. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the two month email gap coincided with Hillary’s aide, Huma Abedin, also known as Mrs. Carlos Danger, receiving “a special exemption that allowed her to work both as a staff member to the secretary and in a private capacity for Clinton and her husband’s foundation.” It would be interesting to know what Mrs. Danger was emailing about and to who. Never mind the obvious conflict of interest of her raising money for the Clintons and representing the US Secretary of State.

Lois Lerner was working busily at the IRS, targeting tea party groups applying for nonprofit status. She also “lost” a few emails. Actually more than just a few. 24,000 emails  according to Congressional testimony. Ms. Lerner’s computer apparently “crashed,” much like Tom Brady’s cell phone.

What happened to Lois Lerner? She retired from the IRS with a six figure pension worth almost $4 million.

What happened to Hillary Clinton? She is on a glide path toward her party’s nomination with a high probability of being the next U.S. president.

What happened to Tom Brady? He was suspended for the first four games of the NFL season. He will be eligible to play week six against the Indianapolis Colts. The NFL’s best quarterback and four-time Super Bowl champion will spend a month on the bench. And endure a healthy dose of wrath from the sports media.

No wrath for Hillary. Instead her media allies explain and excuse her lost emails. The New York Times blames “a broader confusion and slowness throughout the government as federal agencies struggle to catch up with the digital age.” Will ESPN say the same about Brady’s lost messages?

Despite the vastly different consequences for these three individuals over destroying evidence, there are some similarities too. Tom Brady gave a press conference after his suspension was upheld. His comments were Clintonesque. “I am disappointed.” “I did nothing wrong.” “I have never written, texted, emailed to anybody at anytime, anything related to football air pressure before this issue was raised at the AFV Championship game in January.” “We turned over detailed pages of cell phone records and all the emails that Mr. Wells requested.”

Does this Clintonian defense sound familiar? “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” “I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never.” “These allegations are false.”

Not only is Tom Brady a good quarterback, but he is also a good politician. Forget the Patriots playbook, Brady is using the Clinton playbook for this current game. But unfortunately for him, the suspension stands. For Hillary, no suspension, no scrutiny, and a pathway to the nomination and beyond, all paved in clever lies and first rate pass protection from the major media.

Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter.