The NFL Punishes The New England Patriots and Tom Brady

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Last week, we posted the story about the investigation into footballs being deflated in the first half of the 2014 AFC Championship Game to give the Patriots' offense a competitive edge. The investigation listed Patriots employees John Jastremski and James McNally as the guilty parties with Patriots quarterback having "some knowledge" of Jastremski and McNally's actions.

Yesterday, the NFL issued their punishment to all 3 men and the Patriots organization. McNally and Jastremski have been suspended indefinitely without pay by the Patriots. Neither man is will be able to be reinstated without prior approval from the NFL and IF either man is reinstated, they essentially are not allowed to do their respective jobs. So if you want to read between the lines a bit, unless the Patriots want to hire these two under a new job, the two of them were basically fired.

Tom Brady will be suspended for the first 4 games of the 2015 regular season for conduct detrimental to the integrity (or what's left of it) of the NFL. This, of course, means Brady will be able to join training camps and preseason games.

The Patriots were fined $1 million and forfeit their first round draft pick in 2016 and their fourth round pick in 2017. The reason for these penalties were for the violation of the playing rules and for the failure to cooperate in the subsequent investigation.

As I stated in the original article, I thought fines were the likely conclusion for McNally, Jastremski and Brady with the possibility that McNally and Jastremski would be fired. I wasn't expected a multiple game suspension for Brady and I definitely wasn't expecting that severe of a punishment for the Patriots organization.

The longer I thought about it, I agreed that maybe the Patriots should be punished seeing as how they were organizational employees and the office needed to be held responsible for the people they hire. The loss of draft picks for the next two years were surprising but the biggest surprise was Brady's four game suspension. A four game suspension on Brady seems a bit harsh for someone that had "possible" knowledge of any wrongdoing. I guess the fact that it took place in a high profile playoff game carried more weight than if this happened during a regular season game. That's really the only explanation I can come up with as to why Tom Brady is getting double of what Ray Rice's suspension last year for domestic assault. Sure, domestic assault is now an automatic 6 game suspension but that only seemed to happen after public outcry and unwanted media attention. It makes you really wonder where the NFL's priorities are.

As you would expect, Tom Brady will be appealing the suspension.

Leave it to the NFL to make me want to take the side of the alleged cheater.

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