I’m not foolish, I’m not oblivious and I’m not going to play dumb, something shady happened in New England on the night of the AFC Championship game. The Patriots violated a policy of the NFL, no matter which way we look at it.
Regardless if footballs were deflated or not, the Patriots should be punished. At best, the ball boy who took the footballs into a private bathroom broke a rule and the Patriots should be fined for that.
At worst? The Patriots did deliberately try and deflate footballs and, as a result, cheat. That’s worse, and it likely does deserve a suspension or worse for the parties involved. Anyone with any common sense, Patriots fan or not, knows that.
Here’s the thing, for the NFL, this is no longer about PSI, it’s no longer about being factually correct or doing what is right, it’s about sending a message.
I don’t care how much you hate the Patriots, like I mentioned about them doing something wrong, you just can’t deny that this is, on some level, a personal battle now between the sides.
Equipment Violation:
Okay, let’s go back to the actual issue at hand here, the deflated footballs. By definition, this is an equipment violation, a gameday violation. Now, there is no set punishment for this, but the most common punishment is a $25,000 fine.
This happens all the time. The San Diego Chargers were fined $20,000 for using ‘stick-em’ on footballs back in 2012, an issue that falls into the same category.
This past season, the Vikings and Panthers were caught heating footballs on the sideline during a meeting between the teams in Minnesota. The reaction was totally different, and the NFL did not make a stink out of this issue. This, like deflating footballs, is tampering with the ball, yet there was no issue from the NFL or fans on it.
In 2009, the New York Jets attempted to use unapproved equipment to prep the kicking balls before their game against, yes, the Patriots. An employee of the team was suspended, but the kicker faced no discipline, in fact no players did.
The kicker, like Brady, was probably aware of what was going on and stood to benefit from the act, but nothing happened to him. The NFLPA mentioned that in their lawsuit, filed earlier this week. The precedent was set with that case.
These are just a few examples, but there are plenty of others out there. If you take the time to look, you’ll find countless violations that are similar or worse to this. The results were either warnings or fines for those involved.
The Cell Phone Saga:
Tom Brady destroying his cell phone is an extremely suspicious and fishy act, there is no debating that. This reminded me a lot of Aaron Hernandez, who did the same thing right before he was arrested back in 2013.
NOW, don’t get carried away, I am NOT comparing the two situations, I’m just saying it looks bad. Brady destroyed his phone before meeting with investigators, and that looks bad no matter the spin.
If Brady’s response to it, which came out on Wednesday morning, ends up being true, then this becomes a bit of a non-factor. That said, we may never know the truth. Regardless, it’s an act that looks bad from this angle.
Here is the quote from Brady regarding the phone.
I replaced my broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER my attorneys made it clear to the NFL that my actual phone device would not be subjected to investigation under ANY circumstances. As a member of a union, I was under no obligation to set a new precedent going forward, nor was I made aware at any time during Mr. Wells investigation, that failing to subject my cell phone to investigation would result in ANY discipline.
Last thing on this cellphone issue, the fact is, it had nothing to do with the investigation. Brady was asked to turn the phone over, but never actually required to do so. Ted Wells had no problem with that, this is a massive detail that is seemingly always forgotten.
The Wells Report:
The Wells Report was meant to be independent, but let’s not kid ourselves, it wasn’t fully an independent investigation. Was it a total witch hunt that was predetermined? Sure, that’s possible, but let’s leave fantasy world for a second here, because that is a highly unlikely scenario.
Most likely, Ted Wells was told by the NFL what to look for and what was suspected. His job was to find it if it was there. The NFL owners clearly have had enough of the Patriots pushing the line, and they wanted Wells to find anything that would allow them to send a message.
Wells, however, could find nothing concrete on this. Instead, we are now dealing with circumstantial evidence and no hard facts. Instead of “Tom Brady did it” we have statements like “It’s more probable than not Tom Brady knew”. Think about that for a second.
Could you imagine your boss saying you more probably than not knew of something and therefore you are getting in trouble for it, with no proof? You’d be angry and you would fight it too.
Lastly, Jeff Pash, an employee of the NFL, actually edited the Wells report before it came out, so let’s not kid ourselves here and say it was completely independent, it wasn’t.
The Lies From The NFL:
Remember that report in January that 11 of the 12 footballs were under-inflated by two pounds each? Yeah, that was a complete and total lie by a source to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, who never even took the time to correct his monumental mistake.
Remember when the NFL said that Brady “lacked cooperation” throughout the entire process? Yeah, that’s a lie too. Ted Wells himself said that Brady was “totally cooperative”
There are more examples of this throughout the case, like how the NFL said earlier this week that Brady destroyed evidence by destroying his phone.
I know I touched on this above, but Brady offered his phone records up in this, and the NFL had the phones of every Patriots employee it asked for, AKA anyone who could have helped Brady deflate footballs.
Lastly, an investigator for the NFL said that the phone “wasn’t necessary to the case” and Ted Wells said “he didn’t want or need it.” Interesting how now all of a sudden this phone is a big deal….
Are the Patriots trustworthy? Their history would suggest you can’t exactly trust everything they say, but the NFL is arguably worse. Throughout the entire case the league has put out smoking guns to win the PR battle, and it has worked.
However, if you take any ounce of time to go back and read what is being put out there, you can see critical factual flaws in what the NFL is saying. You best believe that will comeback to bite them at some point.
The Patriots History, It Matters:
I mentioned the Patriots history, and it’s something very relevant that just cannot be ignored. Whether or not you like the Patriots, you know they have a reputation as cheaters. It’s not by accident either, the Spygate case rocked professional sports back in 2007.
The Patriots have been fined and have lost draft picks for a variety of different reasons, but none was worse than Spygate. Unfortunately, that likely played a factor in this decision. Once you earn a certain reputation, it is hard to shake that.
The Patriots certainly do not deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to this stuff. What happened in Spygate was wrong, and therefore this group of coaches and this owner will always be suspected of things, that’s just how it is.
I’d imagine owners, like Woody Johnson of the Jets, have had their eyes on Belichick and the Pats for years because of this. I’m not complaining about it either, because they brought that extra attention on themselves years ago.
Who Is Right, Who Is Wrong?:
It’s pretty hard to say who is right and who is wrong in this case. Honestly, I think the fair thing to say would be that both sides are wrong here. The Patriots had SOMETHING go on in that locker room, while the NFL has handled this worse than the WWE handles things.
If the Patriots had simply admitted something went wrong and handled it the day after the AFC Championship, they likely would have received a team fine and the story would have been dead by the Super Bowl. Instead, they got into a measuring contest and prolonged this whole thing.
The NFL, meanwhile, has handled this completely wrong. They’ve made things up along the way to cover their tracks, and made a key mistake. They came down heavy on a team and a player with no concrete evidence that anything actually went down, it was a pure reputation penalty.
There was no precedent to suspend Brady, to fine the Patriots that much or to take away a first round draft pick. The NFL did this because they wanted to send some sort of message, because Goodell wanted to look good after he royally screwed up Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy.
Both parties are wrong, and in all honesty, both parties look like ten year olds fighting over absolutely nothing.
After all, that’s exactly what this is, a fight over nothing.
Final Thoughts:
Deflategate has been the dumbest sports story of my lifetime, it really has. The Patriots likely did something wrong here, but the NFL is acting like the old Soviet Union in terms of their discipline. The league has spread lies and, quite frankly, went over the line with their rulings.
They’ve alienated one of the most powerful owners in the game and beat-up THE poster-child of their sport, it’s hard to imagine Tom Brady ever respecting this league again. That’s an unfortunate loss for both sides.
In the end, we are likely going to court. If the NFL loses, they’ll look foolish for the fourth time in a year, while if Brady loses, he’ll have faced a suspension for such a little act that might have never even happened. It’s just going to end ugly no matter what.
Both sides would do well to settle on this before court and get back to what is important, football. Unfortunately, the NFL is more concerned with making the month of August look more like “Mean Girls” than camp season.
We wait for the next step.
The Gillette Stadium Gallery Gods 