Comments from a radio interview with ESPN reporter Sal Paolantonio became a national story over the weekend when the NFL insider said Ravens Owner Steve Bisciotti would be upset if Commissioner Roger Goodell reduced the four-game suspension on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
Bisciotti released a statement denying Paolantonio’s claims Sunday, and the ESPN reporter went back to the airwaves Monday morning to clarify his initial comments.
“I think he’s 100 percent right to put the statement out because he hasn’t put any pressure on Roger Goodell, and he hasn’t talked about ‘Deflategate’ at all, publicly or privately from what I was told,” Paolantonio said on Baltimore 105.7’s Norris and Davis show. “Reports up in New England were that I said owners were pressuring Goodell. Everybody just heard it. I never said that owners were pressuring Goodell. But what I said about Steve Bisciotti, I shouldn’t have even said that because it’s pretty clear when you read his statement that it sounds like he doesn’t care what the commissioner does. He just wants the commissioner to act.
“I was wrong to say what I said because clearly it sounds like Steve Bisciotti doesn’t care. And what I was able to find out pretty clearly, is that the owners are not pressuring Roger Goodell, at all. So I never should have reported that. And the other thing too, is that it wasn’t a report. It was just me talking on a radio station. It was my opinion and it was speculation.”
Paolantonio told San Diego’s Mighty 1090 Friday that some AFC owners would not be pleased if Goodell reduced Brady’s suspension that resulted from the “Deflategate” investigation.
“You’re angering some of the hardcore owners out there,” Paolantonio said. “I know who they are, and I’m going to name them right now – Jim Irsay of the Colts, Steve Bisciotti of the Ravens, and others in the AFC who believe that the Patriots have gotten away with murder for years, and have not been publicly punished properly.”
After the radio interview, Bisciotti issued a statement saying, “I have not and will not put any pressure on the Commissioner or anyone representing the NFL office to take action in what everyone is calling 'Deflategate.'"
