Whoa!
Four games?
One million dollars?
A first- and a fourth-round draft pick?
Really, Roger Goodell?
A little excessive, don’t you think?
Yes, Tom Brady should have been disciplined for his role – however big or small – in Deflategate, the overblown controversy involved under-inflated footballs in New England’s 45-7 AFC championship game victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
But the NFL’s discipline went way beyond what seems reasonable.
Brady, one of the most recognizable faces in the NFL, a four-time Super Bowl champion, has been suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2015 season.
The Patriots were fined $1 million and must forfeit a first-round draft pick in 2016 and a fourth-round pick in 2017.
All this for taking the air out of the ball?
Well, not entirely. In addition to violating the league’s playing rules, the Patriots were penalized for “failure to cooperate in the subsequent investigation.”
Brady, meanwhile, was hammered for “conduct detrimental to the integrity of the NFL.”
Integrity?
That’s something that the NFL has been lacking lately.
This is the same league, the same commissioner, that suspended Ray Rice for just two games after he KO’d his then-fiancee in an elevator. It wasn’t until the videotape emerged showing the extent of Rice’s vicious actions that the NFL and Goodell reacted with a harsher penalty.
Brady is being punished because he didn’t cooperate with the independent investigation. He didn’t turn over his cellphone for inspection He’s also being punished because Ted Wells, who investigated the matter, didn’t believe he was telling the truth.
He’s being punished so severely because the NFL is overreacting to the fallout of its bad rulings with Ray Rice and others.
Brady is being punished although there’s nothing in the Wells Report that specifically says he cheated, that he specifically told ball boy Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski – both suspended indefinitely by the Patriots – to take the air out of the balls. There is no definitive proof that Brady had anything to do with it, nor is there any definitive proof that McNally – who called himself “the deflator” in text messages to Jastremski – actually did it before the AFC championship game.
Then again, the NFL’s standard of proof is “more probable than not.” And the investigators determined it was “more probable than not” that they deflated the balls and that Brady knew.
The Patriots are being punished because the NFL accepted the Wells Report finding that the club did not cooperate, that it wouldn’t allow a fifth interview with McNally, who mysteriously took the game balls from the referee’s room after they had been certified without the knowledge of the referees – and then disappeared into a men’s room with the balls for 1 minute and 40 seconds.
There are many who feel the penalties are as harsh as they are because of the Patriots’ reputation.
And they wouldn’t be wrong.
Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president, says as much in his letter to the club.
Citing the factors that went into the discipline, he wrote, “The first is the club’s prior record.”
That would be Spygate, in 2007, when the Patriots were caught videotaping visiting coaches on the sideline. In that instance, Coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 and the team fined $250,000 while forfeiting its first round pick in the 2008 draft.
What would have been an appropriate punishment?
A one-game suspension, at the most two.
That would have sent a message to the other players in the league – who you can be sure were watching this closely – that no one is above the rules, even one of the greatest players in the league’s history.
But the NFL didn’t want to look weak this time.
And in doing so, it whiffed badly again.
It’s more probable than not that Brady will appeal.
And the likely outcome of that is that his suspension will be reduced.
But his reputation will never recover. For all his success, Brady’s name will always be associated with breaking the rules.
If the suspension sticks, Brady will miss the first four games – home to Pittsburgh in the season’s nationally televised opener, at Buffalo and Rex Ryan, home to Jacksonville and at Dallas.
Brady’s first game back from suspension would be at – ta da! – Indianapolis.
That would make for an interesting return, don’t you think?
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