Even the greatest of legends tend to have some stains on their careers when you look closely enough. And in the case of Tom Brady, there’s certainly more than he would like to attest to. From the infamous tuck rule to the Spygate debacle, there’s no shortage of ammunition for Brady’s haters, although none of them are likely as popular as Deflategate.
The scandal had everything that a conspiracy theorist could ask for. Secret conversations, smashed cell phones, and an internal investigation that, at times, seemingly contradicted itself. Things were so out of hand, in fact, that some were even willing to go to jail on Brady’s behalf.
A group of Barstool Sports employees, which was led by Dave Portnoy himself, staged a sit-in protest at the NFL’s headquarters in New York City. They had hoped to speak to the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, to advocate for the innocence of their beloved Brady. The only thing they got, however, was arrested.
One of the perpetrators, John Feitelberg, recently sat down with former New England Patriot Julian Edelman to share his side of the story, and suffice to say, he has no regrets.
“Me and Hank [Lockwood] shared a cell, and I was just snoring like a son of a b*tch,” Feitelberg recalled. “I probably slept the best I’ve slept in 10 years. It was a long day of protests.”
Afterwards, Edelman couldn’t help but ask the golden question. “Did anyone take a sh*t?” “First thing that Hank did,” Feitelberg proclaimed.
While that certainly seemed to make for a fun podcast story, Edelman did also feel the need to notify Barstool’s finest that Brady himself was not at all impressed by their stunt. “I can specifically remember sitting next to Tom, like, ‘Did you see these guys get arrested for you?’ He goes, ‘Yeah. What a bunch of idiots.’”
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As we all know now, however, their poorly planned protest was far from a success. Brady would go on to receive a four-game suspension, while the Patriots would receive a fine of one million dollars and were forced to forfeit their 2016 first-round and 2017 fourth-round draft picks.
When asked about whether or not he would be willing to go to jail for his former quarterback, Edelman explained that, “If someone was trying to get after my guy, I’d put some hands on some dudes. And if that gets me arrested, that gets me arrested. Early in my career? I’m going down. 2019? I don’t know. I’ve got a trust planned and sh*t, dude.”
Thankfully, Edelman never had to worry about that, and unlike the Barstool employees, he was able to get the recognition of Brady without having to risk a stay in the slammer. If anything, let this simply serve as a reminder not to let your friends, nor your boss, talk you into doing anything reckless.
After all, Portnoy did manage to conveniently leave his own employees behind just before the police arrived that day.
