New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady’s suspension for his involvement with under-inflated footballs during the AFC Championship against the Indianapolis Colts was upheld by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday.
There was speculation of whether the suspension would be reduced from 4 to 2 games in the weeks before Tuesday’s announcement.
Reaction from Twitter was almost instantaneous.
https://twitter.com/TorreySmithWR/status/626107349057585154
When Goodell announced the final verdict, he cited new evidence that emerged, that was on the day of March 6, the day he was being interviewed with Ted Wells and his investigative team that Brady told his assistants to destroy the cell phone he had been using since November. Even though Brady was aware of the fact that investigators requested text messages he had sent and the NFL said that he destroyed the cell phone. Furthermore, the league said that in the four month period the phone was in use, Brady sent and received close to 10,000 text messages but none can be retrieved.
The fact that Brady destroyed the phone was brought to the attention of the NFL on June 18 was not confirmed until his appeal hearing on June 23. Goodell said in the league’s statement that Brady “went beyond a mere failure to cooperate in the investigation and supported a finding that he had sought to hide evidence of his own participation in the scheme.”
During settlement discussions, the union requested that the record of Brady’s appeal would be sealed so that in the NFL’s view, the information that Brady destroyed the cell phone would never become public, a league official informed ESPN.
Brady was first suspended on May 11 after Wells’ investigation found that it was “more probable than not” that Brady intentionally deflated footballs during the AFC title game vs. the Colts and that that Brady was “at least generally aware” of the rules he had broken. The Patriots were fined $1 million and were stripped of a first-round pick in the 2016 NFL draft and a fourth-round pick in 2017.
NESN.com Patriots beat writer Doug Kyed analyzed team owner Robert Kraft’s response to the ruling and what could happen from this point forward.
I want to see the best in whatever sport play by the rules and not cheat but it is impossible to catch every single instance in which an athlete tries to bend the rules. In hockey, fans see instances in which players hit another player on the opposing team without the puck, which is against the rules. I’m not sure if the result would have been different had the footballs used by the Patriots not been under-inflated.
The Patriots were clearly the better team when they played the Colts in mid-January and of course it is very difficult to bet against Tom Brady in the playoffs at Gillette Stadium. Since January 2002, Brady has a record of 14-3 at Gillette Stadium in the postseason, there is that belief that he will find a way to come through when the stakes are high especially in Massachusetts.
I’m neutral towards Brady and I am not much of a fan of his head coach Bill Belichick, but both of them are the greatest QB/coach combination that football fans have seen in the 21st Century.
The media tends to sensationalize stories that do not mean that much like this especially on days where there is not much news in the sports world in a given day/week/month and it often applies outside the sports world.
One issue I have with the commissioner’s ruling is how he handles certain players when they get suspended. In May 2014, Greg Hardy, Defensive end of the Dallas Cowboys was arrested for domestic violence after being alleged to have assaulted his former girlfriend by grabbing and throwing her into furniture going as far as to even threaten to kill her.
In April, Goodell suspended Hardy for 10 games and earlier this month, an arbiter reduced his suspension to four games, which is the same amount as Brady got. On July 15, Hardy was found guilty of assaulting a female and was sentenced to 18 months probation. Imagine if the NFL had focused more of their energy on a player who did something much more serious like Hardy did? This is a big reason why Goodell’s reputation has been at least somewhat tarnished. You can make an argument that Brady should have been suspended for more than 4 games but the league needs to crack down more on a player like Hardy, who was convicted of domestic abuse.
Hardy should have been suspended the entire season and not the same amount of games that Brady got. Yes, Goodell’s reputation as commissioner will likely not be viewed favorably with the ‘Deflate-Gate’ controversy, but I argue that his image is tarnished even more when a domestic abuser is basically let off scot-free.
The NFL needs to get their priorities in order or else, we will see more people come out to call for Goodell to resign. The NFL should instead fight to keep Hardy’s suspension at 10 games. In any sport, participants will bend the rules as mentioned earlier, but it is impossible to catch every instance in which someone bends the rules in their favor. For instance in MLB, will batters get suspended for 4 games or more for every time they have part of their foot outside of the chalk in the batters box?
Part of this is the fact that Brady has won 4 Super Bowls and some are doing everything possible to discredit a Quarterback that will be in Canton shortly after his NFL career comes to an end.
ryanhackman1026 