Charles Haley, the only man with five Super Bowl rings, feels the heat breathing down his neck from four-time winner Tom Brady of the New England Patriots. When the Talk of Fame Network asked him to compare Brady with his former San Francisco teammate Joe Montana, Haley snapped, “Joe didn’t have to cheat. I’ve lost all respect [for Brady]. When your integrity is challenged in the game of football, to me, all his Super Bowls are tainted.”
Haley elaborated, referring obliquely to Deflate-gate, “You have to say this just didn’t happen overnight. Who wants that shadow over them? I could be wrong. But I realize there were 12 balls deflated and 12 ain’t. Then you’ve got [Patriots coach Bill] Belichick coming on three different times trying to explain it…. You know something is wrong.”
Haley won two Super Bowls with Montana and three with the Dallas Cowboys. The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced on Super Bowl-eve Haley’s induction this summer.
Haley then warned Brady, “This is what Charles Haley believes — it’s going to come back to haunt him one day. If the league doesn’t come down on this guy…. Everybody is talking about it. Nobody believes it was by accident. It is what it is. I’m not going to take any of his Super Bowl rings away from him. But it’s sad that it has to be tainted like it is right now. Hopefully they’ll come out and let us know what really happened. Then all the mystery is gone.”
The NFL is investigating the underinflation of footballs in the AFC championship game between the Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, won by New England 45-7.
During Haley’s second run with the San Francisco 49ers the franchise surrendered draft picks and several hundred thousand dollars to the NFL after the league found that the team had evaded the salary cap.
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