Tom Brady has won four Super Bowls, two MVP’s, been to ten Pro Bowls, and led the league in passing yards twice. All of these accomplishments were in some doubt before due to the spygate scandal of the early 2000’s, now they all have giant asterisks next to them following the publishing of the Well’s report this week.

The report concluded that Tom Brady was “generally aware” of the footballs that were being deflated by the Patriots’ equipment managers. That’s essentially as far as Wells could go in saying that Brady did it without rock solid proof of him doing so. Despite his lack of a “smoking gun” there is plenty of circumstantial evidence pointing right at Brady. there are phone calls between him and the equipment manager directly following the the accusations becoming public. There are even text message exchanges where Brady says “ You good Johnny boy?” and “FYI … Dave will be picking your brain later about it. He’s not accusing me, or anyone … trying to get to the bottom of it. He knows it’s unrealistic you did it yourself. …”.

If the above messages don’t paint Brady in a negative light then you’re either delusional, a diehard Patriots fan, or both. Tom Brady is now, and forever shall be remembered as a cheater. That is possibly the worst thing to be labeled as a professional athlete. Countless athletes names have been tarnished by the cheater label, Lance armstrong, Barry Bonds, and Alex Rodriguez to name a few.

Brady can no longer be in the discussion for the greatest all time following the accusation. Everything he has ever done, EVERYTHING, now has a shadow of doubt cast over it. His first three Super Bowls are all tainted by Spaygate. How hard is it to put up massive passing stats when you know exactly what the defense is going to do? All his big passing stats and MVP’s are now tainted.

He really shouldn’t even be considered the best Quarterback of his generation anymore. Say what you want about Peyton Manning’s playoff struggles but at least everything he’s accomplished isn’t under scrutiny, and if you think about it the two Super Bowls Brady went to when there wasn’t a cheating scandal taking place (that we know of) he lost. So maybe if the Patriots had never cheated Brady wouldn’t have been so much more successful than Manning in the playoffs. Mannings is already superior to Brady in all passing statistics to begin with, all Brady had was an advantage in the postseason which must now be discounted.
Tom Brady will now forever be remembered as a cheater and the victim of punchlines. His Patriot teams will be remembered less for their dominance of the early 2000’s, but instead as a group of cheaters who swindled their way to the top.