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this whole thing is ridiculous. @mrbee: and I don't think this with tarnish his image in the long run at all.
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I think its a fair punishment but I wish it had been addressed before the superbowl. Obviously there wasn't time in between those games though.
I do wish Ray Rice would have gotten a harsher punishment. He shouldn't be playing in the NFL.
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@Truth Bombs: those pats fans make me embarrassed to be a pats fan! Anyone saying Brady didn't know is a fool. As a pro athlete, you know when the equipment you touch day in and day out isn't exactly as you want it to be!
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Also, I really hope the pats donate the money raised to charity. Nothing like giving money to a billion dollar corporation who doesn't need any more money!!
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@Ra: my thing with Ray rice is that his personal actions don't dirrctly impact the performance of the team. There are tons of players who have made poor and illegal choices off the field but the team hasn't been punished for
It. (clearly pats fans have forgotten about Aaron Hernandez when they bring up the Ravens not being fined for Ray rices behavior.) -
@catomd00: Tom Brady said that he didn't know - that's the worst. C'mon, you knew.
“I feel like I’ve always played within the rules and I would never do anything to break the rules,” said Brady. The three-time Super Bowl winning quarterback said that he understands the “integrity” of the game is in question and that he wants to get to the bottom of what occurred just like everyone else.
“I have no knowledge of anything,” Brady said. He also claimed that he spoke to the Patriots’ equipment staff, and they confirmed that they also didn’t alter the footballs in question. He maintained that the Patriots beat the Colts last week “fair and square.”
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@rachiecakes: yep you've been handling balls for how long?! You can tell. I was a gymnast my entire life. If the bars were a millimeter too close or far apart I could tell. When you do it day In and day out you know!! Especially when your paycheck is on the line.
And this is certainly not the only time those balls have been deflated, just the first time they got caught!!
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@catomd00: except that the pats suspended Hernandez and didn't try to cover what he did making it total different from Ray Rice.
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@Truth Bombs: McNally and Jastremski is the best piece of evidence yet. Haha! I asked my DH about this. He acknowledged that the Patriots probably cheated and Tom Brady has said some dumb things to make himself look bad. His stance is that it is just not that big of a deal and they deserve a slap on the wrist at most because so many of the teams do similar things... Hmmmmmmm... Don't know what I think about that! Sports (college and pro) are so difficult when there are so many violations everywhere - doesn't make it right, but the nature of the times in which we live...
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@plantains: I agree the Pats handled Aaron Hernandez far better than the Ravens handled Ray Rice.
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I think it's fair he got punished. I don't think "everyone is doing it" is an excuse for cheating. They got caught and should face consequences. Maybe this will place more scrutiny on the practice in general, which I think would be good. I've seen a lot of people comparing Brady's punishment to Ray Rice but I'm not sure that's really an apples to apples comparison. What Brady and the Pats did affects the NFL itself, is directly related to the game, and the NFL is solely responsible for doling out any consequences. Rice committed a crime not related to the game that should really be dealt with in the court system. Personally, I wish that Ray Rice had gone to prison but unfortunately the charges were dropped and that didn't happen.
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I don't actually care about football, but the punishment doesn't fit the crime IMO. If the standard NFL penalty for deflating a ball is $25,000 then I don't really get what all this extra fuss is about and it feels like a witch hunt.
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@plantains: I am talking about the many pats fans I have seen wondering why the Ravens weren't fined for Ray rices behavior. They weren't, just like the pats weren't fined for hernandez's behavior. There's also a big difference in a murder charge and domestic violence where no charges have been filed. At the end of the day, the nfl needs to be enforcing the rules of the game and letting law enforcement and the justice system take care of the rest..
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@plantains: I think the reason for the difference in the fine is that the NFL is saying that they aren't punishing them strictly for the act of deflating the balls, they're punishing them for failing to cooperate in the investigation. This goes deeper into that explanation: http://www.sbnation.com/2015/5/12/8588815/the-nfl-punished-tom-brady-and-the-pats-for-lying-not-for-deflating
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@MrsSCB: this is why I think they are being ridiculous. That is his personal phone. They already have Jastremski's Pats issued phone and have both sides of the convo from that phone. Brady not turning over his phone does not constitute not cooperating, he has every right not to hand over his personal cellphone.
I think if the NFL cared about the integrity of the game they wouldn't allow teams to bring their own balls and doctor them in the first place. This reeks of revenge for 'spygate' and I just don't buy that the punishment fits the alleged crime.
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@plantains: That's something that kind of confuses me -- why is there even an opportunity for this? Why doesn't the NFL just provide the balls and have the officials hold onto all the balls when they're not being used -- just eliminate the chance someone could mess with the air pressure. That would seem more sensible to me.
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@MrsSCB: Exactly! I just don't get the whole kerfuffle.
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@plantains: That was my first reaction/question too - the NFL really doesn't control the balls, and just lets each team bring their own? What is this, a pick-up game? Get serious, NFL.
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@MrsSCB: @plantains: @yoursilverlining: I found this on Wikpedia. Interesting that Brady was so involved with the rule change.
"Prior to 2006, NFL custom was for the home team to provide all of the game footballs. In 2006, the rules were changed so that each team uses its own footballs while on offense. Teams rarely handle a football used by the other team except after recovering a fumble or interception. Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots (along with Peyton Manning, who was quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts in 2006), argued for the rules change for the express purpose of letting quarterbacks use footballs that suited them.[4]"
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@lawbee11: Hmm, that is an interesting coincidence...I also don't really get the idea of "letting quarterbacks use footballs that suit them." Shouldn't they all just use the same ball to make sure everything is even and fair? I don't know, this whole thing is so weird!
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@lawbee11: @MrsSCB: I saw that too which makes the whole thing even more ridiculous IMO. Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and others lobbied to be able to do this NFL said yes and now they are acting like they had no idea this was an issue and that they care about the integrity of the game? No. They care about big plays and high viewership numbers.
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