New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft wised up and took his punishment from the NFL. Will Tom Brady do the same?

Stories continue to unfold putting the Patriots quarterback in an unfavorable light in his appeal of the four-game suspension the league handed him for his involvement in Deflategate.

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Brady is accused of directing two former Patriots equipment personnel in deflating footballs, and the issue became public after the AFC Championship game, in which officials discovered that all of New England's footballs were underinflated at halftime.

Current Buffalo Bills quarterback and former Patriots backup Matt Cassel became the latest Brady associate to throw suspicion on Brady's proclamation of innocence through his refusal to talk about the controversy with reporters, according to ESPN.

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When asked about Brady's four-game suspension, Cassel replied, "I'm really not going to get into that," Cassel said. "Obviously that was a league decision and it's something that the league came down with a ruling and we're going to go out there and play against whoever's going to be out there on the field."

But surely Cassel had knowledge about the way Brady prepared footballs for NFL games.

"I think it's the same everywhere," he said. "I think we all have a say in what balls we want and all that stuff and that's about the extent that I'll go into that."

As long as Brady intends to appeal his suspension, these kinds of stories will continue to surface until his case is heard. And even if he is successful in getting his four-game penalty reduced, his popularity will continue to take hits.

So far, he doesn't seem to care. And that gives reporters the green light to keep digging.