singaporesoxfan said:
Brady's PR strategy in the initial stages (granted, he had more important things on his mind then) and the post-Superbowl period didn't do anything to help non-Pats fans' public perception. Since Brady's fight now is driven by his desire to preserve his reputation in the face of baseless allegations, it seems like a more aggressive, rather than reactive, PR strategy could have helped with that reputational impact at the start. Right now we've reached the "where do I go to get my reputation back?" part of the scandal: sadly, I doubt even a successful ruling in favor of Brady leads to total vindication. Yes, the hits to his reputation came about because there was a combination of biased anti-Patriots media, people operating in bad faith, and the lack of understanding of science - but that should all have been assumed when figuring out how to respond early on.
Exactly.
Brady's, and the Patriots' failure to fight back in the court of public opinion has contributed to them being in this position.
Moreover, their failure to fight back against the trumped-up "Spygate" charges over the past decade has also contributed. People are fooling themselves if they Brady and Kraft can put their fingers in their ears and just focus on the field.
Reputation matters. Brady and the Patriots should have hired good PR reps 10 years ago to run a rehabilitation strategy. And they certainly should have done so 6 months ago.