We may never know for certain if there was a deal struck between Patriots owner Robert Kraft and commissioner Roger Goodell prior to Kraft officially accepting the NFL's Deflategate punishment at the owners meetings in San Francisco.
But anyone who's talking is saying that no such wink-wink agreement exists.
Patriots sources told Insider Tom E. Curran that there's no back-room deal in place, and on Wednesday Goodell faced a room full of reporters and shot down the notion that he would go easy on Tom Brady during Brady's appeal of his four-game suspension as a result of Kraft's retreat.
Of course, the first rule of back-room deal club is that you don't talk about back-room deal club. Even if something had been hatched between Kraft and Goodell, that's one story that could never be leaked. If it was, the NFLPA would run, not walk, to court howling "collusion!"
Giants co-owner John Mara joined the nothing-to-see-here chorus in an interview with the New York Post. A quid pro quo between Kraft and Goodell "doesn't exist," Mara said.
It wasn't the potential of a reduced suspension for Brady that encouraged Kraft to give up his fight, Mara explained. An appeal or a lawsuit against the NFL just wasn't in the cards.
"I believe [Kraft] ultimately accepted the penalties," Mara said, "because he knew he didn’t have anywhere to go."
New England Patriots
Mara -- who said that Goodell has "the overwhelming support of most of the owners" -- agreed with Kraft, however, that the Wells report had its flaws.
"I’m sure everybody believes there were certain things that maybe could have been done better, but overall, the league did what it was supposed to do," Mara said. "There was a situation brought to its attention, it has an obligation to investigate it and come up with findings, and the commissioner has the obligation to impose discipline if he thinks it’s necessary. That’s the way it unfolded, and so now we’re moving on."