BOSTON, June 23 (UPI) — Ben Affleck unleashed an epic rant defending Tom Brady and slamming the ongoing Deflategate saga on Bill Simmons’ new HBO sports talk show, “Any Given Wednesday.”
“Deflategate is the ultimate [expletive] [expletive] outrage of sports ever,” the “Justice League” star passionately began his expletive filled speech Wednesday on the show’s series premiere. “It’s so [expletive] stupid that I can’t believe it.”
Affleck, a noted Boston native sports fan just like Simmons, is angry at the NFL’s decision to suspend Brady, the star quarterback of the New England Patriots for four games after they felt he was “at least generally aware” that team staff had tampered with the inflation of footballs used during the 2015 AFC Championship Game.
The actor also explained how like Brady, he wouldn’t hand over his cellphone to the NFL who asked for his mobile device during their investigation.
“I would never give an organization as leak-prone as the NFL my [expletive] cell phone so you can just look through my emails and listen to my voicemails,” he said.
“Maybe it’s just funny, lovely sex messages from his wife. Maybe Tom Brady is just so [expletive] classy and such a [expletive] gentleman that he doesn’t want people to know that he may have reflected on his real opinion of some of his coworkers,” he continued about why Brady may have withheld his cell phone.
“This is a conspiracy of people working inside the NFL who all come from organizations that Tom Brady whipped their [expletive] over the last 10, 15 years,” Affleck explained.
Brady has fought the suspension in court against NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. The athlete filed an appeal for a secondary hearing in May by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a 2-1 decision from April 25 to reinstate his four-game suspension. Should the appeal be denied, Brady’s next step would be to take the case to the Supreme Court.
If the suspension is upheld, Brady will miss New England’s first four games in 2016 against the Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins, Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills. He would be eligible to return on Oct. 16 against the Cleveland Browns.
