DeMaurice Smith: ‘Deflategate made it absolutely clear the league will do anything to win’

With one game left in Tom Brady’s suspension for the Deflategate scandal, NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith is reflecting on the impact the league’s punishment  of perhaps its biggest star.

In Smith’s view, while the NFLPA’s defense of Brady fell short, the process exposed the NFL’s determination to come out of top when it chose to take on the New England Patriots’ quarterback.

‘Fought the fight for a player that I know that was wronged’

“We fought the fight for a player that I know that was wronged,” Smith told Tom Pelissero and Mike Nolan on the End Zone. “If any player had any illusion that the league would lie and cheat and do anything to win — and they would do that not only for the journeyman player but also for the star quarterback — Deflategate made it absolutely clear to every player in the National Football League that when it comes to the level of dishonestly, the league will do anything.

“And that’s an important lesson. … I think Deflategate, probably the only good thing out of it is that it did lay bear the level of dishonesty.”