BOSTON (CBS) — According to the new DeflateGate book, Tom Brady could have avoided his NFL suspension if he had just been willing to throw two Patriots equipment staffers under the bus.

In an excerpt from “12: The Inside Story of Tom Brady’s Fight for Redemption” initially shared with ABC News and later found on page 158 of the book, Brady offered a compromise to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. The quarterback offered to pay a $1 million fine instead of serving a four-game suspension, despite insisting on his innocence.

That offer was nearly satisfactory for Goodell, but not fully. Goodell “demanded that Brady state publicly that former Patriots equipment guys [John] Jastremski and [Jim] McNally had purposely tampered with footballs, even without [Brady’s] knowledge.”

According to the book, Brady refused the offer.

The book quoted Brady as saying this to NFLPA director DeMaurice Smith: “There’s no way I’m gonna ruin these guys for something I believe they didn’t do.”

Jastremski and McNally ended up being suspended by the Patriots, at the request of the NFL, according to reports. The NFL at first denied making such a demand but later sent out a release stating that both men had been reinstated. Neither employee has really been seen publicly since then, and neither has made any public comments regarding the matter. The authors of the book — Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge — said they were unable to get in contact with either McNally or Jastremski while conducting research.

In September of 2015, when Brady had temporarily won his fight with the NFL and had been cleared to play to start the year, he expressed feeling sympathy for the uncertain statuses of McNally and Jastremski.

“I certainly feel terrible for them that they’re not able to be with us right now,” Brady said in September 2015.