NFL can’t spell out praise for Tom Brady’s rival without ‘PSI’

Tom Brady has seemingly taken it from every angle since investigator Ted Wells concluded he was probably aware of the ball tampering operation known as Deflategate. Is the NFL taking its turn?

On Thursday, the league’s official Twitter account sent out a link to a Q&A featuring NFL coaches discussing what makes a franchise quarterback. The tweet, accompanied by an image of Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, seems innocuous — until you read the first letter of each word , a la an acrostic poem.

Coincidence? Maybe, but given it was the Colts allegations that sparked the investigation, some in the sports world were skeptical.

“I’m really actually shocked that anyone would even be asking about this,” NFL Network spokesman Alex Riethmiller told the Indy Star. “Really? Just three words.”

Want more NFL shade? A day earlier, NFL.com analyst Bucky Brooks dropped a ranking of the league’s top quarterbacks entering the upcoming season, with an asterisk next to Brady’s name.

“The controversy adds to the notion that the Patriots’ long-term success has been fueled by various misdeeds,” Brooks writes. “While there isn’t a proven correlation between deflated footballs and Brady’s on-field performance, the fact that another scandal is hovering over the Patriots certainly clouds the evaluation.”

Brady may yet get his four-game suspension reduced, but right now, he sure can’t win.