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Its official! Robert Kraft’s New England Patriots will have to do without the services of Tom Brady for the first 4 games of next season. The star quarterback was suspended yesterday by the NFL for his part in the “Deflate-gate” scandal.
The Patriots were also fined $1 million by the league and will have to give up a first round pick in 2016 and a fourth round pick in 2017.
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Some sports commentators, however, fully expect Brady to appeal and for the suspension to be reduced. They point to the fact that New England is set to Play Dallas in next year’s fourth week and that the television networks will put pressure on the league to ensure that Brady will not miss that game.
It all started back on January 15th, when the Patriots blew out the Indianapolis Colts by a score of 45 to 7 in the AFC Championship Game. The score was so lopsided that it was ridiculous to think that the Patriots would have needed to cheat to win the game.
But as soon as it ended there were allegations that the Pats had deflated some of the footballs that the team used when on offense to less than regulation size. This helps both a quarterback and his receivers to better grip the ball making it easier to catch. This is why it is against the rules to take air out of the balls.
The question now is, “how will this affect Brady’s legacy?” He has won 4 Super Bowls and is definitely one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. The sad part of all of this is that Brady never had any reason to cheat. So if he did, then his legacy will surely be tarnished.
Brady will join the ranks of Barry Bonds, Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson who will never make it into the baseball Hall of Fame in spite of their having had some of the greatest careers in that sport’s history.
Mr. Kraft continues to give unconditional support to Brady. He released a statement which read, in part, “Despite our conviction that there was no tampering with footballs, it was our intention to accept any discipline levied by the league. Today’s punishment, however, far exceeded any reasonable expectation. It was based completely on circumstantial rather than hard or conclusive evidence.
“We are humbled by the support the New England Patriots have received from our fans throughout the world. We recognize our fans’ concerns regarding the NFL’s penalties and share in their disappointment in how this one-sided investigation was handled, as well as the dismissal of the scientific evidence supported by the Ideal Gas Law in the final report.”
