Deflated! Tom Brady Suspended for 4 Games

11 May, 2015

The NFL came down hard on the New England Patriots on Monday for their role in Deflategate, suspending star quarterback Tom Brady, for the first four games of next season and fining the franchise $1 million.

The NFL also said the Patriots will forfeit their first-round selection in the 2016 draft and a fourth-round pick in 2017 for using under-inflated footballs in last season’s AFC Championship game.

“The discipline is ridiculous and has no legitimate basis,” said Brady’s agent Don Yee, adding that the quarterback will appeal the suspension. The Patriots did not immediately comment on the announcement.

Ted Wells, an attorney hired by the NFL to investigate the allegations, said in a 243-page report that it was “more probable than not” that Patriots personnel “were involved in a deliberate effort” to circumvent rules by using deflated footballs in the team’s 45-7 win over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC championship game.

An underinflated football would likely give Brady a better grip and allow him to throw longer and with more accuracy, especially in the chilly and wet conditions the Colts and Patriots played in to determine who would go to the Super Bowl.

The suspension and fine were considered severe compared to previous NFL sanctions and carried greater weight by being levied against one of the most popular players in the league and the Super Bowl champions.

“In my opinion, this outcome was pre-determined; there was no fairness in the Wells investigation whatsoever,” Yee added.

The $1 million fine ties the largest ever for a team in the NFL, equaling the amount the league ordered San Francisco 49ers owner Edward Debartolo, Jr. to pay in 1999 after he pleaded guilty to a felony for his role in a Louisiana gambling scandal.

Brady has a guaranteed base salary of $8 million for the 16-game 2015 NFL season. If the four-game suspension with no pay is upheld, Brady will miss games against Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Jacksonville and Dallas. Ironically, his first game back on Oct. 18 would be against the Colts.

Vincent, the NFL’s vice president of football operations who handed down the sanctions, said he was influenced by the Patriots’ 2007 Spygate scandal and the lack of cooperation by Brady and the Patriots.

“We relied on the critical importance of protecting the integrity of the game and the thoroughness and independence of the Wells report,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.

Although there was no smoking gun, the Wells report, which took nearly four months to complete, found Brady and two members of the Patriots’ equipment staff were all likely culpable.

“The footballs were intentionally deflated in an effort to provide a competitive advantage to Tom Brady after having been certified by the game officials as being in compliance with the playing rules,” Vincent said in a letter to the Patriots concerning the punishment.

The team told Goodell last week that Patriots employees John Jastremski and James McNally, who were linked to the scandal, have been indefinitely suspended without pay by the club, the NFL said.

Reuters

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