N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell insisted on Wednesday that the New England Patriots’ owner, Robert K. Kraft, had decided on his own not to appeal the N.F.L.’s punishment for underinflated footballs and rejected the notion that it was part of a deal to eventually reduce the four-game suspension of Tom Brady.
Goodell also said he was looking forward to hearing Brady’s version of the events when the appeal of his suspension is heard at an unspecified date.
Goodell said that Brady could provide new information — his telephone text messages, for example — that might, in the words of Goodell, “be helpful to us in getting this right.