Bill Simmons Accuses Stephen A. Smith of Leaking Anti-Tom Brady News for the NFL

After Stephen A. Smith criticized Tom Brady on Wednesday, Bill Simmons accused him of leaking anti-Brady news for the NFL.

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Complex Original

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On Wednesday morning, Tom Brady learned that an appeals court is not going to overturn the four-game suspension that he received as a result of his alleged role in #Deflategate. It finally seemed to put a period on the never-ending #Deflategate saga, and after hearing the news, many people outside of the New England area celebrated the fact that the scandal is finally over. That included ESPN reporter Stephen A. Smith, who took to Twitter to express his opinion on the appeals court ruling and to take some shots at Brady in the process:

His remarks didn't sit well with his former ESPN coworker Bill Simmons, who has been critical of Stephen A. in the past. He waited about a day to respond, but on Thursday, Simmons jumped on Twitter and accused the First Take talking head and other ESPN employees of being puppets for the NFL. Simmons suggested the league has used reporters like Stephen A. to leak negative Brady news stories over the last 18 months:

While he didn't point out any specific examples, Simmons' allegation may be a reference to the report Stephen A. released in July 2015 about Brady allegedly smashing his cell phone before the NFL could investigate it in the immediate aftermath of #Deflategate.

However, for the sake of fairness, we should point out that, in October 2015, Smith did say that he believed the NFL was going too far in their pursuit to punish the Patriots quarterback. At the time, he told WEEI in Boston, "There does come a point in time where I believe you need to cut your losses, and I think this is one of those times." Later, he added: "If Brady is not on a football field playing football because Roger Goodell and the NFL couldn't let go of the issue of deflated footballs in the AFC Championship Game more than 10 months ago, I think it's an absolute travesty."

Stephen A. has not responded to Simmons' accusation at this time. But after responding to Stephen A.'s tweet, Simmons continued to express his frustrations with the latest #Deflategate news:

And assuming Brady's suspension stands for good this time, this probably won't be the last you hear from Simmons on this subject.

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