Tom Brady - Dirty, rotten scoundrel

They all cheat, he just got caught. 

It's ridiculous that the NFL allows teams to provide their own set of game balls. It's an invitation to these kind of shenanigans. 

ml1 said:

It's ridiculous that the NFL allows teams to provide their own set of game balls. It's an invitation to these kind of shenanigans. 

 If they enforce pregame procedures then I see no problem with it really. Cheaters are going to find a way anyway. 

I was only 99.999% down on professional athletes until this:

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25061154/jerry-rice-admitted-to-cheating-just-days-before-calling-pats-cheaters

You broke my heart Jerry!!!!!

There goes Brady's chance for the Hall of Fame.  I'd be in favor of a life time ban.  Just like Pete Rose.

He was a cheating scoundrel way before this. Didn't he leave his pregnant girlfriend for Gisele? Pretty scummy.

jeffl said:

There goes Brady's chance for the Hall of Fame.  I'd be in favor of a life time ban.  Just like Pete Rose.

 LOL! Really???? He’s STILL one of the ALL time BEST Quarterbacks. As  @GGartrell said, they ALL do it.

“Five years down the road, here’s the reality: Nobody is really going to care about Deflategate, even the people who are the most vehement Brady critics today. Brady won’t be a Pete Rose or Barry Bonds, unjustly kept out of the Hall of Fame because of his own transgressions, he’ll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer and it won’t be close or controversial. Football is a different animal. Perform and all is forgiven.

Second, popping a needle into a football isn’t on the same plane as using PEDs. Who knows how many quarterbacks do the same thing in their careers — notice the conspicuous silence on the matter from the other 31 starting quarterbacks in the league. Since every QB seems to have a different preference on what sort of inflation and feel a ball should have, it’s highly unlikely Brady is the first to order some underlings to mess with his game balls.”

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/05/om-brady-cheater-legacy-wont-be-defined-by-deflategate

Here's Brady's opponent (Andrew Luck) opinion while playing against the Pats in the AFC Championship game.

"I don't know. Things in the media tend to be blown out of proportion a little bit," he said. "It's the nature in where we are today in society. You can't take anything away from them being a heck of a team and they are a good football team."

Luck didn't say whether he had a preference of how a football is inflated.

"Everyone has their preference and our equipment manager sort of handle our footballs in a sense," he said. "I get them as they are, I guess." 

It is known around the league that Andrew Luck prefers his football inflated.

Shouldn't the ref have noticed at some point? If not then it couldn't have been that bad. 

This is akin to George Brett and the pine tar, not to Pete Rose.  It won't keep him out of the HOF.

Dock his pay?   Big deal.   Suspend him for 4 games?  Eh.   You wanna punish him?   Take away his wife for four weeks.   

Cheat.  Liar.   Jerk.  The Patriots will now be stamped with this for years   

Really didn't expect them to go this hard at Brady and the Pats. Maybe the commissioner is growing a pair. 

Are you saying the Commish inflated his balls?  (Sorry.   Too easy.)

GGartrell said:

Really didn't expect them to go this hard at Brady and the Pats. Maybe the commissioner is growing a pair. 

Here's what I don't understand.

If a kid gets caught cheating on an exam, do the teacher and principal say, well, he would have gotten an "A" anyway, we'll just make him sit out a few classes.

No.  The kid flunks the exam and if he's in college he probably flunks the class too - and he could get expelled.

Why is this any different.   

And what about the receivers.  Isnt it easier to catch under inflated balls.  And what about the coach.

I am by no mean a Pats fan but Brady an the Hoodie are still probably the one of the greatest QB\Coach combos ever. Deflategate itself took on a life of itself in this new media age, and obviously with the Pats history and their dominance makes them easy targets.

No QB takes a fresh ball, they are all "modified" in some way prior to game use. Even the K balls(which are the only balls not brought by the team) are allowed to be handled by team ball assistants for 45 minutes prior to game.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/sports/football/eli-mannings-footballs-are-months-in-making.html

According to the Wells Report the PSI readings on the balls taken by two game officials. The 1st officials readings showed that none of the 11 footballs were more than 1.6 PSI below the minimum. The 2nd officials readings showed that only 1 of 11 balls was 2.0 pounds under the minimum. All this in a cold, wet day, where the act of reading with a gauge removes some air.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/06/finally-the-halftime-psi-numbers-are-known/

On top of that the officials used different gauges that showed different readings, and the officials weren't sure which ones gave which readings.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/10/pressure-gauge-discrepancies-undermine-wells-report/

I think the NFL and Goodell just botched this from the start.

So, let's see.  You smash your wife in the face and get arrested and you get a two game suspension.

You play with slightly deflated balls with a lot of questions about exactly what happened and how the pressure was even measured and you get a four game suspension, your team loses two draft picks, and your team is fined $1 million.

Goodell really does not understand optics.

Sure, Brady and Hoodie and Kraft are pretty iffy characters.  But that is not a good reason to treat them disproportionately.  This appears more vindictive than meting out justice.

sarahzm said:

Here's what I don't understand.

If a kid gets caught cheating on an exam, do the teacher and principal say, well, he would have gotten an "A" anyway, we'll just make him sit out a few classes.

No.  The kid flunks the exam and if he's in college he probably flunks the class too - and he could get expelled.

Why is this any different.   

And what about the receivers.  Isnt it easier to catch under inflated balls.  And what about the coach.

 IMHO, this is the equivalent of a kid cheating on an exam by using a no. 3 pencil instead of a no. 2.

Train_of_Thought said:

sarahzm said:

Here's what I don't understand.

If a kid gets caught cheating on an exam, do the teacher and principal say, well, he would have gotten an "A" anyway, we'll just make him sit out a few classes.

No.  The kid flunks the exam and if he's in college he probably flunks the class too - and he could get expelled.

Why is this any different.   

And what about the receivers.  Isnt it easier to catch under inflated balls.  And what about the coach.

 IMHO, this is the equivalent of a kid cheating on an exam by using a no. 3 pencil instead of a no. 2.

Really?

The team apparently didn't think so. If its so trivial, not even giving an advantage, then why bother to deflate? They felt deflating gained them and advantage, something that was not allowed by the rules.

In other words - cheating.

BG9 said:

Train_of_Thought said:

sarahzm said:

Here's what I don't understand.

If a kid gets caught cheating on an exam, do the teacher and principal say, well, he would have gotten an "A" anyway, we'll just make him sit out a few classes.

No.  The kid flunks the exam and if he's in college he probably flunks the class too - and he could get expelled.

Why is this any different.   

And what about the receivers.  Isnt it easier to catch under inflated balls.  And what about the coach.

 IMHO, this is the equivalent of a kid cheating on an exam by using a no. 3 pencil instead of a no. 2.

Really?

The team apparently didn't think so. If its so trivial, not even giving an advantage, then why bother to deflate? They felt deflating gained them and advantage, something that was not allowed by the rules.

In other words - cheating.

 The Colts didn't lost that game in the 1st half when the balls in ? were in use, nor did they lose the game to Brady's arm. They lost the game to Blount's legs and his 166 yds rushing & 3 TD's, and to the 28 unanswered points in the 2nd half when the balls in ? were not even in use any longer.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (The Borowitz Report) – In what football insiders are calling an unexpectedly severe punishment, the National Football League has sentenced the New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady to a year with the New York Jets for his role in the so-called Deflategate scandal.

The punishment drew howls of protest from Patriots fans and management, with many calling it the harshest in league history, but N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell defended the decision as “a necessary deterrent.”

“We need to send the message that this league has zero tolerance for cheating,” Goodell said. “We believe that a year of playing quarterback for the Jets sends that message loud and clear.”

Brady was reportedly in a state of shock when he heard the news of his punishment. He later met with reporters in a hastily called press conference during which he frequently seemed on the verge of tears.

“I am going to fight this decision with every fibre of my being,” Brady said. “This is America. You can’t force a person to play for the Jets.”

At a sports bar in Manhattan, the reaction to the impending arrival of the Jets’ longtime nemesis was muted. One Jets fan observed, “Look, Brady’s a dick, but even he didn’t deserve this.”

^^ chortle ^^

@prerakk77, well said in both comments.

IMO, it sounds like Goddell is trying to severely punish the Patriots after the uproar of mistakes made in the Ray Rice case.

He FAILED!

Here are some of the comments from Twitter referencing back when Goddall first gave R. Rice a 2-day suspension..

"Suspend Brady. Go ahead. But you know a worse integrity problem? A commissioner displaying willful ignorance during a domestic violence case."

"If only NFL players that beat their wives got as big a punishment as Brady did for deflating some footballs #DeflateGate."

From Brady’s agent Tom Yee.

"The NFL has a well-documented history of making poor disciplinary decisions that often are overturned when truly independent and neutral judges or arbitrators preside, and a former federal judge has found the commissioner has abused his discretion in the past, so this outcome does not surprise me. Sadly, today’s decision diminishes the NFL as it tells its fans, players and coaches that the games on the field don’t count as much as the games played on Park Avenue."

Don't the referees handle the footballs after every single play?  The game was close when the supposedly underinflated balls were being used.  In the second half, when the "properly" inflated balls were used, Brady lit up the Colts to the tune of 45-7.

The Ted Wells report is laughable.  The referee, who knew before the game there was a question concerning under inflation, can't recall what he did or what gauge he used to measure them. And the two gauges came up with different measurements!

Aaron Rogers, a pretty successful QB, says he likes his footballs overinflated.  Is he going to get suspended?

This is overkill.  Goodell is trying to make up for giving Ray Rice a two game suspension for knocking his fiancé unconscious and then dragging her lifeless body from an elevator.

They should give him a 15 yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct or throw him from the next game.    It was cheating just like holding is cheating. 

notupset said:

They should give him a 15 yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct or throw him from the next game.    It was cheating just like holding is cheating. 

 Actually, along with the 10 yard penalty for holding, the play is negated.  Therefore, if we take that approach, the Patriots should be stripped of their title.

• Sean Gregory @seanmgregory
 

Tom Brady and his people haven’t exactly carried themselves with aplomb during this whole Deflategate episode. Earlier this year, in a pre-Super Bowl news conference, Brady tried to deflect the seriousness of New England’s alleged air pressure tampering during January’s AFC title game by bringing terrorists into the conversation. That’s never a good idea. (“This isn’t ISIS,” Brady said. “You know, no one’s dying.”) Brady refused to hand over any text or email records during attorney Ted Wells’ investigation, even though Wells was prepared to let Brady’s lawyer control the production of such records—a layup for the defense if there ever was one.

Also, it sure seems like Brady sold out a powerless locker room lackey when he told investigators that he did not even know the identity of Jim McNally, the man accused of carrying out the deflation deed. And Brady’s agent called the flaws of Wells report, which concluded that the Pats star was likely “generally aware” of the deflation scheme, “tragic.” Again, never a good idea introducing such a word into a discussion on psi.

So it’s tempting to cheer the comeuppance of Tom Brady, the all-too-perfect quarterback of the NFL’s most villainous team. The NFL suspended him Monday, without pay, for four regular season games, while fining the Pats a million bucks and taking away the team’s first-round draft pick in 2016, and fourth-rounder in 2017. But please resist cheering the NFL’s sentence. Because it’s ridiculous.

For what it’s worth, I’m not from Boston, and not a Pats fan. But while you and I may bet that Brady did at least tacitly sign off on puncturing the footballs, the evidence in the Wells report directly trying Brady to Deflategate is thin. Wells largely bases his conclusion on the fact that Brady made a bunch of phone calls to equipment assistant John Jastremski after the controversy went public; Brady had not called the guy in the prior six months. Were they getting their stories straight? Maybe. But is it plausible that Brady was just insanely curious to find out what Jastremski knew, given the story was spiraling out of control, and many people were labeling Brady a cheat? Totally.

Instead, he gets to be the tough guy. He’ll even stand up to Tom Brady, darnit, and teach him a lesson. It’s actually pretty easy to pick on the cool kid. You don’t come across as a bully. (Brady’s agent said Monday evening he will appeal the penalty.)Bottom line: this penalty is convenient for the NFL. So what if Roger Goodell peeves off Pats fans, and even Brady? If he had let Brady off easy, on the other hand, he’d have to hear howls from other team owners, the press and millions of fans across the country that he was just protecting Pats owner Robert Kraft—Goodell’s most visible defender during the Ray Rice mess—and the NFL’s biggest star.

“Your actions as set forth in the report clearly constitute conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the game of professional football,” NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent wrote in a letter to Brady. The NFL always nails sanctimony. This is a sport that all but ignored a public health crisis—head injuries—or decades. Confidence leaked long ago.

Brady deserves a little stain on his “legacy” for this. After all, Joe Montana didn’t need deflation. Let the sports bars say he’s a fraud. But don’t keep him on the sidelines to send a hollow message, when you just don’t have the goods.

definitely dislike Brady but this just seems trivial to the point of obscurity.  I wish it was something bigger.

He's one of the great QBs of all time who happens to be a jerk. 

I am not a football person, so this may be a dumb question. If the game ball is slightly under-inflated or over-inflated, wouldn't BOTH teams be equally advantaged or disadvantaged? They are both using the same ball.

Regardless, his punishment is a future with cognitive impairment.