TALK ABOUT Deflatriots

If Brady is suspended for Week 1, Pats will be missing 36% of Super Bowl starting lineup

Tom Brady has always covered up for Bill Belichick’s inability to surround him with elite talent.

In the 13 years that Brady has been the starter — not counting 2008, when he tore his ACL in the first quarter of the first game of the season — the Patriots have been to six Super Bowls, winning four, and have won the AFC East 12 times and missed the playoffs just once.

Belichick did his best coaching job in 2008, winning 11 games with Matt Cassel at QB, one year after putting together one of the best teams in NFL history when the Patriots had the first 16-0 regular season. New England was 11-5 with Cassel, but missed the playoffs on tie-breakers for the division and wild-card.

The DeflateGate national nightmare moves Wednesday to U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman’s chambers for settlement hearings. Brady and Roger Goodell are advised to find a middle ground and compromise on their own on the out-of-whack four-game suspension because it’s likely neither side will be happy if they leave it up to the judge.

The Patriots are defending Super Bowl champs and they need Brady now more than ever. This is not the same team that beat the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.

Darrelle Revis signed with the Jets. Brandon Browner signed with the Saints. That’s the best corner in the league and one of the best No. 2 corners. The Pats had a verbal agreement not to pick up Revis’ $20 million option, but then Belichick didn’t make a competitive offer to keep him as a free agent.

Defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, a leader in the locker room who clogged up the middle of the defense, didn’t get his option picked up and signed with the Texans. Nickel corner Kyle Arrington was cut. Running back Shane Vereen, who caught 11 passes in the Super Bowl, signed with the Giants as a free agent. Left guard Dan Connolly retired.

Six starters from the Super Bowl are no longer with the team. Running back LeGarrette Blount was suspended for the season opener Sept. 10 against the Steelers for a violation of the substance abuse policy when he was with Pittsburgh a year ago.

If Brady doesn’t get his suspension vacated, he will miss the opener against the Steelers, too. That makes eight out of 22 starters, an astounding 36% turnover, just seven months after the Super Bowl.

Brady emerged as a star in his second year in the NFL, but he was coming off starting every game his final two years at Michigan. This is Jimmy Garoppolo’s second year, but he played at Eastern Illinois, and he’s not as far along as Brady was in his second year.

Even if Brady has to sit the first four games — against the Steelers at home, the Bills on the road, the Jaguars at home and the Cowboys on the road — and New England starts off 1-3, there will be enough games remaining for Brady to catch up in the flawed AFC East.

RELEVANT REX

Rex Ryan is having quite a summer. He jumped out of an airplane in Niagara Falls — not into the falls, although I wouldn’t put that past him — from 12,500 feet with the Army’s Golden Knights before camp opened. Of course, he allowed a national TV reporter and crew to film him just to make sure everybody would get to see how brave he was. Last week he ate a couple of dog biscuits in a charitable endeavor for Paws In The Park after being challenged by a local television station. Ryan is tucked away in western New York and is doing his best to stay relevant. The Ice Bucket Challenge swept the country last summer. Even though Bills owner Terry Pegula accepted Ryan’s challenge and ate one biscuit himself, I don’t believe the Dog Biscuit Challenge will catch on, which shouldn’t stop money being donated for a great cause. Ryan and his wife have two rescue dogs and two rescue cats. One other note: When Ryan was with the Jets, he was eating much more desirable “goddamn” snacks.

YOUNG PITCH

Bill Polian and Ron Wolf were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend in the first year of the contributor’s category. Next year, one contributor will be picked and then two more in 2017. I’m one of the 46 HOF voters, but a sub-committee of nine of the 46 (which I am not a part of) selects the contributors that we vote on. I felt strongly that former Giants GM George Young, who built two Super Bowl champions and then went on to be the No. 1 football man in the league office, should have been in the first group. In fact, the category should have been named for Young, who passed away in 2001. Young took over a franchise in 1979 that had not made the playoffs since 1963. The Giants won their first Super Bowl in his eighth season at a time before free agency when it was much tougher to turn teams around. Young also conducted weekly meetings with Wellington and Tim Mara when the coowners were not talking to each other. I’m hoping the nine-person committee picks Young next year. Seeing her husband in the HOF was so important to Young’s wife, Lovey, but unfortunately she died a couple of years ago.

SAD IN SAN FRAN

The 49ers gave Aldon Smith so many chances, but he blew it and they released him after he was arrested last week for driving under the influence, hit and run (on a parked car) and vandalism charges. “It’s a sad day,” rookie coach Jim Tomsula said after the Niners cut Smith on Friday. “This is a day that doesn’t have anything to do about football.” It was Smith’s fifth legal problem since the Niners drafted him in 2011... The 49ers are going to be really bad. First, they pushed out Jim Harbaugh. Then Patrick Willis, Chris Borland, Justin Smith and Anthony Smith retired, Frank Gore signed with the Colts and Michael Crabtree signed with the Raiders. They made the Super Bowl in 2012. Now they will be a last-place team.

L.A. STORY

The NFL has called a special meeting for Tuesday in Chicago to update owners on the Los Angeles situation. The Rams, Chargers and Raiders are all in contention to be on the move. One consideration: Goodell will hold a news conference at the end of the meeting, one day before he is due in court for a settlement conference in the Brady case... The meeting will be at the same hotel where Goodell was voted in as commissioner in 2006 in much less complicated times... Brady, by the way, has not spoken to the media in training camp. He usually talks the first or second day. Surely, his lawyers have advised him not to talk until his legal case plays out. Players are required to speak to the media once a week and after games. I doubt Goodell will fine him. It will be interesting to see if Brady talks after the Patriots’ preseason opener Thursday night in Foxborough against the Packers.

SCRIPT OF IT

The league didn’t want the transcript of Brady’s appeal hearing on June 23 to be made public. The NFLPA did. Judge Berman last week released the 457 pages.

When Goodell denied Brady’s appeal on July 28, he indicated that Brady’s testimony was not credible regarding the content of his increased phone calls and texts with assistant equipment manager John Jastremski the day after the AFC title game.

Goodell in the ruling: “The sharp contrast between the almost complete absence of communications through the AFC Championship Game undermines any suggestions during the three days following the AFC Championship Game that the communications addressed only preparation of footballs for the Super Bowl rather than the tampering allegations and their anticipated responses to inquiries about the tampering.”

Brady’s actual testimony about one of the phone calls: “I don’t remember exactly what we discussed. But like I said, there was two things that were happening. One was the allegations which we were facing and the second was getting ready for the Super Bowl.”

Either Goodell didn’t believe or listen to anything Brady said, or like Ted Wells, he had his conclusion and then built his case. The release of the transcripts didn’t work to the NFL’s advantage. Based on Brady’s hearing, how can Goodell conclude that Brady testified that he didn’t discuss the issue of deflated footballs with Jastremski and the controversy swirling around the Patriots?

Brady consistently and emphatically denied in two hours under oath that he ordered the footballs to be deflated or that he had any knowledge of how the footballs tested under the minimum 12.5 PSI.