Brady gets suspended for 4 games

[Daydream Nation]

I am surprised at some people's outrage over this. This has been commonly done over the years. Hell, basketball teams have done this many times to slow down high-dribbling opposing point guards. Aaron Rodgers has already admitted he likes to over-inflate his balls.

Let's face it, this will get reduced on appeal. Goodell has a history of screwing up his justice and this is just an over-reaction to his botching of the Rice case.

[rainydrinkwater]

Agent weighs in on an appeal.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/20...1O/story.html#

“The discipline is ridiculous and has no legitimate basis,” Yee wrote. “In my opinion, this outcome was pre-determined; there was no fairness in the Wells investigation whatsoever. There is no evidence that Tom directed footballs to be set at pressures below the allowable limits. In fact, the evidence shows Tom clearly emphasized that footballs be set at pressures within the rules.

[Kofax]

I think it's a ridiculous suspension and makes the league look like even more of a joke. This is double the suspension that was initially given to Ray Rice!! And they have far less evidence!! Unbelievable!

1) You're letting teams handle, use and provide their own footballs for games. What other sport does that? Of course teams are going to push the boundaries. You set it up for this.
2) Does anyone honestly think that no other team in the league is doing something similar or pushing the boundaries in another area? You think Brady is the only one to have ever deflated or overinflated a game football? If you do, you're dreaming. Ultimately if you're not cheating and pushing the boundaries, you're not trying. If the league doesn't like this behaviour, provide the ball yourselves.

I can't see this suspension or penalty being upheld upon appeal given they don't have any actual evidence Brady did anything, other than he was 'more probably than not at least generally aware of what was going on'. You're going to convict someone on that statement??

Edit: Some additional food for thought that discusses this better than I could and provides some specific examples. I know I'm coming off as a Patriots fan here, but I don't actually have any allegiance in the NFL and hate the Red Sox and Bruins in sports I actually follow, so no Boston connection either. I just feel this is such a stupid discussion and the NFL is blowing it up for their own reasons.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nf...233900364.html

[2014olympicgold]

Countless QBs have said they’ve done stuff like this before. If it was RG3, or even like Tannehill who got caught doing this, it wouldn’t be as big as a deal.

The NFL should have instantly changed the rule that teams provide their own balls. Have 24 balls provided by the league at XPSI and that’s it.

Brady was punished for lying, not the actual act. The actual act punishment was the 1st rounder, and 4th (or 3rd, can’t remember) rounder. That’s fair. Wasn’t the Steelers punished a pick because the coach was on the field for the punt return? This is a fair punishment.

Let’s go through every MLB team that was in the Conference finals and strip the teams who had players that got caught with roids. And if you don’t think teams know about this, you’re lying to yourselves. Pretty freaking noticeable when someone is on roids.

[Axeman33]

https://twitter.com/PerSources14/sta...44927936163840

Tom Brady's 4-game suspension costs him $1,882,352 in salary. Patriots' fine is $1M. So team actually makes $882K...but still loses plenty.

[rataylor22]

Errbody comparing suspension to the Ray Rice suspension like that should be the standard we hold all suspensions too, forgetting the fact that eveyrone knew that was a ridiculously low number, and also forgetting the fact that the suspension was changed to "indefinite". Saying the two are in any way relatable or comparable is illogical.

[Kofax]

Errbody comparing suspension to the Ray Rice suspension like that should be the standard we hold all suspensions too, forgetting the fact that eveyrone knew that was a ridiculously low number, and also forgetting the fact that the suspension was changed to "indefinite". Saying the two are in any way relatable or comparable is illogical.

The point is not to relate the two suspensions in regards to the actions by the offending party, but to highlight the NFL's history of horrible decision making regarding suspensions it has handed out, and how many times those have been changed upon appeal.

[Bomm Bastic]

This whole thing just smacks of Goodell trying to throw a dog (us) a bone. It just doesn't make any sense. Brady should have been punished, but this is way too excessive.

First, did not the report find no wrong doing on the part of management? Why are they losing a first rounder and being fined $1mil? As far as I know this is not a cumulative-based punishment (ie for past transgressions as well as deflate-gate).

Brady's first rule violation and he gets 4 games?? I think one would have sufficed. If his act were so egregious as to warrant a four game ban, he should have been banned from the super bowl.

[rataylor22]

This whole thing just smacks of Goodell trying to throw a dog (us) a bone. It just doesn't make any sense. Brady should have been punished, but this is way too excessive.

First, did not the report find no wrong doing on the part of management? Why are they losing a first rounder and being fined $1mil? As far as I know this is not a cumulative-based punishment (ie for past transgressions as well as deflate-gate).

Brady's first rule violation and he gets 4 games?? I think one would have sufficed. If his act were so egregious as to warrant a four game ban, he should have been banned from the super bowl.

Because they didn't co-operate at all with the investigation.

[TheWhale]

Sean Payton was suspended 1 year for ignorance with "Bounty Gate". No surprise that an organization seen as a repeat offender (and they are), received the penalty they did for "deflategate". Brady getting 4 games seems excessive but the penalty for PED use is 4 games as well. The NFL, sees them both as cheating. I think if you are going to penalize for either, the punishment should be the same.

[Kofax]

Because they didn't co-operate at all with the investigation.

Except that they did. Almost completely.

"the Patriots provided substantial cooperation throughout the investigation"

That quote is an actual excerpt from the report. The only instances where the organization did not co-operate was allowing a 5th (5th!!) interview of McNally as they thought five was excessive given the guy was a part time employee and has a full-time job during the offseason. Brady did not provide e-mails or text messages (so you can target him, but not the organization).

In addition, the following statement is also a quote from the report:

"We do not believe that the evidence establishes that any other Patriots personnel participated in or had knowledge of the violation of the Playing Rules or the deliberate effort to circumvent the rules described in this Report. In particular, we do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Patriots ownership, Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick or any other Patriots coach in the matters investigated."

The NFL is literally doing whatever they think the public wants to hear regardless of the actual findings from the report or the fact that they don't have any hard evidence of Brady being involved, and even then, the quote from the report is:

'more probable than not he was at least generally aware of what was happening'.

In addition, there is already precedent for footballs having been tampered with during NFL games!! In 2012, the Chargers were caught rubbing down footballs with a towel containing an adhesive substance. They did not initially cooperate with the league investigation, but eventually gave in. And their punishment? $20,000 fine. But this didn't receive any fanfare, and it wasn't the Patriots, so the league did next to nothing about it.

Ultimately the heads of the NFL are worse than the NHL department of player discipline and how they hand out their suspensions! Their handling of this situation is laughable.

[Bomm Bastic]

Keep in mind also we're talking about a game that ended 45-7 and the PSI in question was approx two-one-hundreths shy of "legal" range while Blount rushed for 148 yards and 3 touchdowns

[metaldude26]

I think this is dumb but pretty amazing how close my guess for punishment back in January has turned out to be: http://forums.dobbersports.com/showt...hlight=deflate

Four games for Belichick, $500,000 fine and a first round pick is my guess.

Just got the suspended party wrong.

[Zorro]

Brady won't lose any cash, Kraft will make sure of that!!

How does Bellichek get off Scott Free??

[Bomm Bastic]

Oh it's a fight now. Check it http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...gate/27355955/

Goodell being called as a witness would apparently prevent him from ruling on appeal.