Tom Brady Suspended by the NFL
Feb 4, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; A New England Patriots fan holds a cardboard cutout of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (not pictured) during the Super Bowl XLIX-New England Patriots Parade. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
The defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots will be without franchise quarterback Tom Brady for the first for games of the 2015 season. The NFL announced Monday that he has been suspended without pay for four games for violating the NFL policy on the integrity of the game.
The team will also be fined $1 million and will forfeit a 2016 first-rounder and 2017 fourth-round selection in the NFL Draft. This after independent investigator Ted Wells found that Brady was at least knew what was going on with the deflation of Patriots game balls used in the AFC Championship Game against the Colts.
Commissioner Roger Goodell gave NFL Executive President Troy Vincent the go-ahead to impose discipline on Brady. In the process, Vincent made it clear that Brady’s lack of cooperation with the league’s investigation was a factor in the punishment. This was much more harsh of a penalty than it was for Spygate and Spygate decided two competitive Super Bowl wins.
This deflate-a-gate thing wasn’t as advantageous as the Patriots killed the Colts anyway. And it was a dumb call by Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Caroll that decided who won the Super Bowl. I want to give credit to head coach Bill Belicheat, I mean Belichick for all the different ways he found to win a lot of ball games.
But with all this cheating going on, it’s hard to as we don’t know what he’s doing and not getting caught for now. Either way, I don’t even think the four-game suspension on Brady does much to derail the Patriots. They’ll start 2014 second-round pick Jimmy Garoppolo and they might mess around and go 4-0.
A lot of players from the St. Louis Rams and Carolina Panthers felt like the Patriots knew everything they were going to do as a result of Spygate.
The NFL should consider taking away a couple of those Championships.
They strip medals for cheating!
This is about the integrity of the game, isn’t it?