Jeff Howe On Brady's Appeal, Garoppolo's Bad Day, Butler's Absence
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Herald's Jeff Howe joined Toucher & Rich on Friday morning, initially to talk about the plan for Tom Brady's upcoming appeal process.
Howe wrote this week that Brady should take his appeal as far as it can go, and he explained Friday why getting the suspension completely eliminated from the record is important to the quarterback.
"He's not going to win over the people who already think he's guilty right now. I don't think it's about those people. I think it's about what his legacy means in the history books years and years and decades from now," Howe said. "What are people going to read about Tom Brady when they are trying to research or come up with an argument 50 or 100, whatever many years from now? When they stack up the best quarterbacks, are they going to read that Tom Brady was involved in some sort of cheating scandal? They're not going to be able to put it into context, they're not going to be able to laugh about DeflateGate the way that some of us around here are. They're just going to look that he was taking air out of footballs, and they're not going to know what it was all about.
"So, as far as Tom Brady needs to take it to get rid of that suspension, clear his name, and save his legacy, I think that that is something that he should absolutely be willing to do."
Howe also explained that Brady's choice of attorney in Jeffrey Kessler is a sign that the quarterback is prepared to fight tooth and nail.
"If you're going to have a half-hearted effort, you're not going to bring Jeffrey Kessler into the equation. So I think Tom Brady is gearing up for a full fight here, as far as it needs to go. Nobody really thinks that Roger Goodell is going to completely eradicate the suspension at the hearing, so I think it has to go to the court system."
In actual football matters, Howe reported that Jimmy Garoppolo had perhaps his worst practice day as a pro this week at OTAs.
"Tough day for Jimmy. It was the worst day the media's seen him have at practice, really since the beginning of August of last year. He's come a long way since he was throwing interceptions literally to Ty Law on the sidelines at Gillette Stadium in practice, but yesterday was not a good day. He threw five interceptions in [roughly] his last 26 or 31 passes. It was a complete mess in the two-minute drill, he threw four interceptions I think in 25 passes.
"Brady was marching up and down the field on one side of the practice fields and scoring touchdowns and having his way with it," Howe continued. "He completed 14 of his first 15 passes, the only incompletion was a drop. Meanwhile, you've got Jimmy Garoppolo on the adjacent field, and he's throwing interception after interception.
"You just saw a guy who was a little bit rattled," Howe said. "These things are going to happen for him. He doesn't really have a whole lot of quality in-game experience. Very little. He's going to make mistakes. I think there's a hype machine surrounding Jimmy Garoppolo, and that's fine. The kid's played very well through the opportunities that he's been given. But yesterday was a very real reminder that he is nowhere near Tom Brady's realm."
Howe then talked about the secondary, noting that Logan Ryan has looked good and Bradley Fletcher hasn't really shown much positive or negative thus far. Malcolm Butler, meanwhile, remains absent.
Howe said that nobody has yet been able to find an answer as to why Butler is not present for OTAs.
"Every reporter is trying to find out, but nobody's gotten any answers," Howe said. "He could be hurt, he could be missing it because it's a voluntary workout -- I highly doubt that. There's probably an injury there, but we just don't know. We haven't seen him."
This development made Rich Shertenlieb quite concerned.
"I don't like this," Rich said. "It reminds me of the Jonas Gray situation. Jonas has this amazing game, and then he oversleeps and he falls out of favor. I don't know, I'm getting a little nervous."
Jon Wallach reminded Rich, "It's June."
"Listen," Rich said, "once you're on [Bill] Belichick's crap list, it's a long, long time to get off that. I think we've all learned that."
Listen to all of Howe's talk with Toucher & Rich below:
