4 Games, a Million Bucks, First round Pick

[vmax]

and a 4th round 2017 draft pick.

 

 

 

NEW YORK (AP) -- The NFL suspended Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady for the first four games on Monday for his role in a scheme to deflate footballs used in the AFC title game. The league also fined the Patriots $1 million and took away two draft picks, including next years' first-round choice.

The NFL also indefinitely suspended the two equipment staffers who carried out the plan, including one who called himself "The Deflator."

The league cited the integrity of the game in handing down the punishment five days after a report said Brady "was at least generally aware" of plans by two Patriots employees to prepare the balls to his liking, below the league-mandated minimum of 12.5 pounds per square inch.http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/nfl-suspends-brady-4-games-for-deflated-footballs/ar-BBjDJUx?ocid=iehp

Edited May 11, 2015 by vmax

[tsylvester]

He will appeal no doubt, and based on past history with appeals, win....... They came down hard on them, so Goody can keep his "respectability", now go check those linemen for vasiline on the backs of their jersies and stick-em on the gloves of the receivers..... fine them accordingly as well....

[dc.]

Win will likely mean a minute reduction. But he could also lose for his lack of cooperation with the investigation, " sorry but this is what you get for ignoring it until now "

[cravnravn]

Good couldn't happen to a nicer guy and team

[vmax]

[papasmurfbell]

He will appeal no doubt, and based on past history with appeals, win....... They came down hard on them, so Goody can keep his "respectability", now go check those linemen for vasiline on the backs of their jersies and stick-em on the gloves of the receivers..... fine them accordingly as well....

But when Goody looses each time it shows he has zero authority.

[thundercleetz]

I hope Brady wins his appeal. Pats play the Steelers week 1. I don't want them to get off easily. Ideally, the Pats losing their first rounder and being fined $1M is just fine. The fourth rounder in 2017 is almost to afflict public shame and to ensure no one forgets about Deflategate.

 

Two things here, Kraft swore up and down the Pats did nothing wrong and would want an apology from the league. Either Brady lied to Kraft for him to say that, in which case Brady surely has a problem with not only the NFL but with Kraft too. Or, Kraft was in on the lie.

[tsylvester]

I hope Brady wins his appeal. Pats play the Steelers week 1. I don't want them to get off easily. Ideally, the Pats losing their first rounder and being fined $1M is just fine. The fourth rounder in 2017 is almost to afflict public shame and to ensure no one forgets about Deflategate.

 

Two things here, Kraft swore up and down the Pats did nothing wrong and would want an apology from the league. Either Brady lied to Kraft for him to say that, in which case Brady surely has a problem with not only the NFL but with Kraft too. Or, Kraft was in on the lie.

 

 

 

I wonder what Kraft will do about the draft picks since Goody didn't do anything to the other two owners who swinddled people, one convicted, the other settled out of court....

[thundercleetz]

@RavensInsider: Robert Kraft statement: 'Tom Brady has our unconditional support. Our belief in him has not wavered.'

 

I wonder what's going on here?

[JPPT1974]

Pats should had been sued more than $1M. That is just chump change to them.

[cravnravn]

Hopefully Tammy wins his appeal just for week 1, nothing would be finer then a ravens victory and a Stealers loss.

[tsylvester]

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,” the statement reads.

 

 

 

Yep, this should be interesting. Kraft and Goody were good buddies, wonder if they will reamin that way? It was Kraft who pushed to keep Goody.....

[dc.]

The team has no way to challenge the punishment. Only players can challenge their punishments on these things.

 

And while people say, "they came down hard on the organization," we also have to step back and say that the employees involved are a part of the organization. Their behavior is the responsibility of the organization at large and the organization at large takes on some share of the burden of the failures of any individual member.

[deeshopper]

The team has no way to challenge the punishment. Only players can challenge their punishments on these things.

 

And while people say, "they came down hard on the organization," we also have to step back and say that the employees involved are a part of the organization. Their behavior is the responsibility of the organization at large and the organization at large takes on some share of the burden of the failures of any individual member.

 

And it is the organization's second offense...that we know of.

[OneManCypher]

I can't believe you people think this punishment was harsh, They cheated and won the superbowl HELLO, you take there trophy from them, Brady will get 2 games , this is light. You hit there salary cap, take there trophy and take draft picks then that would be harsh but also appropriate.

[papasmurfbell]

I am assuming Goody likes being paid tens of millions of dollars a yr. That is why he wont do that.

[ForceEight]

The team has no way to challenge the punishment. Only players can challenge their punishments on these things.

 

And while people say, "they came down hard on the organization," we also have to step back and say that the employees involved are a part of the organization. Their behavior is the responsibility of the organization at large and the organization at large takes on some share of the burden of the failures of any individual member.

That's not true. The team has every right to appeal, as well.

 

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/12/patriots-could-pursue-an-appeal-of-their-own/

[thundercleetz]

For the record, I don't think what Brady did was bad at all. If a legal football has a range of X PSI to Y PSI and Brady likes his footballs closer to X than Y, he tells the equipment staff to deflate the balls. I don't know anything about football pressures, but if the balls come in a little below X weight, no big deal IMO.

 

The problem here is Brady lying. If Brady was innocent and had nothing to hide, he'd have released his statement of what happened. From the text messages, there does not seem to be much room for Brady to be innocent. It would truly take some sort of extraordinary circumstance for Brady to have had no knowledge of what was going on.

 

And it goes back to the cell phone. Any sort of appeal, or legal proceeding, is going to require that cell phone to be handed over.

 

One more thing, the league had knowledge of the deflated balls prior to the Colts game. The league could have been more strict in its regulation that week. Or issued a warning to both teams stating they were going to pay close attention to ball pressure. The league could have prevented this from becoming an issue.

[tsylvester]

I can't believe you people think this punishment was harsh, They cheated and won the superbowl HELLO, you take there trophy from them, Brady will get 2 games , this is light. You hit there salary cap, take there trophy and take draft picks then that would be harsh but also appropriate.

 

 

And what do you want done with the records of Jerry Rice, who admitted to "cheating" by using stickem on his gloves after the rules were changed. Or any number of other teams who won super bowls while their offensive linement used vasiline on their jersies?

 

 

In each of their Super Bolw victories, the other teams had plenty of chances to win, even at the end of games. While a deflated football is easier to throw, hold, etc, we do not know for sure, exactly how far below the limit the footballs were because the officials at the game/games in question, did not write down the weights....http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/29/nfl-didnt-log-the-psi-of-each-patriots-football/

 

 

 

What was the precise PSI of each of the 12 footballs the Patriots’ offense used in the AFC Championship Game? We’ll probably never know.

NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino confirmed today that the NFL didn’t log the exact PSI of each football. According to Blandino, when officials inspect footballs to see if they’re properly inflated, they simply approve them or disapprove them.

In other words, although the Patriots did play with under-inflated footballs, the NFL hasn’t kept detailed records of whether those footballs were slightly under-inflated (which could be the result of a change in temperature) or significantly under-inflated (which would indicate that someone purposely let air out of the footballs).

 

 

 

So, as many have said, he is being punished for not being completly forth right, honest, more so than "cheating". While the NFL doesn't need a body for proof of a crime for punishment, they do need far more evidence to remove titles and records, even if they would go that far. To the best of my knowledge, the Chicago Black Socks were the only team to have records removed because of cheating, and that was a long time ago and a different sport.

[thundercleetz]

Interesting point from Weinman

 

@KenWeinmanSport: Interesting point re #DeflateGate http://t.co/fqLide4fol

[dc.]

That's not true. The team has every right to appeal, as well.

 

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/12/patriots-could-pursue-an-appeal-of-their-own/

Fair. I had heard on ESPN,I thought, that they had no recourse.

[dc.]

Cleetz, the only issue I have with your thoughts - though I largely agree - is that Brady played a rule on getting the rules changes to allow qbs/teams to priced their own balls. And i may well be wrong but I thought I heard he even had some influence on what is appropriate PSI. Just follow the darn rule.

 

In baseball, this is like using an underweight bat. The limits are there for a reason.

[papasmurfbell]

http://nesn.com/2015/05/report-jim-mcnally-was-willing-to-be-questioned-over-phone-nfl-declined/
So why is it when the league never tries to get all the info in these investigations?

[tsylvester]

no up roar when the;

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikings/post/_/id/11218/nfl-aware-of-game-ball-incident-during-panthers-vikings

 

 

 

12/01/2014 The Minnesota Vikings played their coldest home game in 38 years on Sunday, when they beat the Carolina Panthers in 12-degree temperatures at TCF Bank Stadium.

As both teams dealt with the freezing temperatures, Fox cameras showed sideline attendants using heaters to warm up game balls, which is against league rules. NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said Monday morning on NFL Network that officials warned both the Vikings and Panthers not to heat up the balls during Sunday's game, and would remind teams this week not to heat game balls.

"You can't do anything with the footballs in terms of any artificial, whether you're heating them up, whether it's a regular game ball or kicking ball, you can't do anything to the football," Blandino said.

 

 

nor when:

 

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000091683/article/san-diego-chargers-fined-20k-by-nfl-in-towel-case

 

 

 

11/7/2012 The NFL announced Wednesday that the San Diego Chargers have been fined $20,000 for attempting to conceal the use of grip-improving "sticky" towels during an Oct. 15 game against the Denver Broncos.

Despite that, the NFL determined the Chargers didn't violate any rules simply by using the towel.

 

Here's the NFL statement on the matter:

"Following a review of the San Diego Chargers use of towels that included an adhesive substance in an October 15 game against the Denver Broncos, the NFL has determined that the club did not violate a competitive rule by use of the towels.

"However, NFL game officials are charged with protecting the integrity and competitive fairness of the games and club staff members, like players and coaches, have a clear obligation to cooperate in this effort and comply with the direction of game officials. As a result of the failure of club staff to follow the directive of a game official to immediately surrender the towels when directed to do so, and to attempt to conceal the towels, the Chargers have been fined $20,000.

"In order to ensure that products that may have a possible competitive effect are given appropriate review and testing, our office -- after consultation with the Competition Committee -- has advised all clubs that the use of towels or other products that contain any type of adhesive substance is now prohibited on game days until further notice."

 

 

 

So $20 k for trying to "cover up" the "crime that was not a crime in the Chargers case, but no draft picks taken from them.

 

In the Vikes' case, nothing was done, even though they were caught, "red" handed... Keep it up Goody, you will soon be out of a job.......

[tsylvester]

http://nesn.com/2015/05/report-jim-mcnally-was-willing-to-be-questioned-over-phone-nfl-declined/

So why is it when the league never tries to get all the info in these investigations?

 

 

I don't see their proof that the NFL could have had a 2nd/follow-up interview with McDeflator, not even a quote from him. So is the "media" making something up again?