Patriots Brady Gets Slap On Wrist

When it comes to the judgment of the NFL penalties can be swift and sometimes very strong but this time around the NFL has opted to disregard precedent and hand down stiff penalties to the team while slapping the main culprit on the wrist.

Make no mistake, the Patriots fine of $1 million is huge. The loss of a 1st round pick in next years draft and the loss of a 4th in 2017 is huge as well. Yet Tom Brady who was behind this entire mess got a four game suspension? Hold out your hand Tom.

The reality here is that while Bill Belichick escapes punishment of any kind despite the fact that Sean Payton of New Orleans was suspended for an entire season over “bounty-gate” despite no knowledge of the events sends a message that Brady was then the only one behind this scandal. A cheating scandal at that.

There is no one who can tell me that the two equipment guys involved started this. There is no way that those two guys concocted this plan on their own and then presented it to Tom Brady. Make no mistake Tom Brady went to them. That’s why he was willing to sign stuff for them to sell.

The Patriots have suspended both men in connection with this issue. Suspended them indefinitely without pay. In other words the Patriots are saying this is very serious but serious only to the scapegoats and not to Tom. The four game suspension won’t hurt Tom Brady. It won’t hurt the Patriots all that much either.

From this seat, the fact that New England is willing to suspend two members out of three involved in this is similar to how they handled the Spy-gate debacle.  A slap on the wrist for Belichick, and a contract extension by years end.

The Patriots are complaining about this punishment and Tom Brady will likely appeal the suspension but Brady should be suspended at minimum for eight games if not the season. He cheated. The Wells report may not have definitive evidence to support that but in part that could be due to Brady’s non-compliance with the investigation. His failure to turn over his cell phone records. In doing so, Brady blatantly slapped the NFL in the face.  Again.

This isn’t about Tom Brady. It’s about integrity of the game, it’s about precedent and sending the message to the NFL that cheating will not be tolerated. Instead the message has been sent that cheating will be frowned upon and a stern message will be sent.

This is the biggest problem in the NFL, there is no continuity in it’s punishment. No guidelines on what will happen if this happens compared to that happening. Tom Brady should shut his mouth and take his four games. He won a Super Bowl after getting caught. He should be thrilled.

At the very core of this, to me, is two guys are taking a big hit for something they did and that part of the punishment is just. Yet there is, again, no way they came up with this on their own. No way Tom Brady didn’t tell them to deflate the footballs. Yet Tom will serve four games not a very strong message in my opinion.

The Wells’ report may have holes in it but so does the punishment by the NFL.