NFL Notes: Tom Brady, Ray Rice, Dolphins, & Raiders

Tom Brady

Ron Borges of the Boston Herald mentioned that he believes Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s decision to accept the penalties handed from DeflateGate came after a conversation with HC Bill Belichick.

According to Borges, Belichick and Kraft came to the conclusion that QB Tom Brady wasn’t being completely honest with them about his knowledge of the deflated balls.

“Belichick never believed [Brady’s] story, from what I was told,” Borges said on Sports Tonight (Via The Sporting News). “Because they all know. Why do you think all those retired quarterbacks, the Troy Aikmans of the world — Troy Aikman is about as nice a guy as I’ve ever met in football — nobody’s backed [Brady]. Nobody, not a single guy. Why do you think that is? Because they hate Brady? No. Because they’re not stupid. They know nothing’s done with those balls that the quarterback doesn’t want done.”

Ray Rice

• Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun reports that former Ravens RB Ray Rice has completed his pretrial intervention program, and his domestic violence charges could be dismissed by a judge in New Jersey today.

Dolphins

• Joel Corry points out that Ryan Tannehill‘s new six-year contract extension will free up $4.515 million in available cap space for the 2016 season.
• However, the Dolphins will now have an NFL high of $158.065 million in 2016 cap commitments with Tannehill’s new contract factored into their cap.

Raiders

Raiders owner Mark Davis says that sharing a stadium with the 49ers just isn’t going to work for them. Davis also stressed that they wouldn’t be any less important if they were to share a stadium with the Chargers in Carson.

“There’s not going to be a No. 1 team and No. 2 team” in Carson, Davis said, via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle. “There’s going to be two No. 1 teams, if in fact that’s how it happens. We’re designing it together. We’re making all the decisions together, . . .

“San Francisco did a phenomenal job of getting something done in California — on their own. To finance a stadium and get it built. And you give them a lot of credit. But it’s not a Raider type of area. It’s just not going to work for the Raiders.”