Deflating the Legend

Tom Brady (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is what you get for deflating footballs, even if your team didn't need that kind of help in a game that decided who went to the Super Bowl.

Quarterback Tom Brady was sacked by the National Football League for the first four games of the 2015 season for his role in the controversy that became known as "Deflategate".  His team, the New England Patriots, got fined for a million dollars and lost two top draft picks.  They will not, however, be required to give back the Lombardi Trophy that they won four months ago.

(You'll notice that neither Patriots owner Robert Kraft nor coach Bill Belichick received any kind of punishment.)

The NFL took this action after a report concluded that Brady was aware of what was going on when two of the team's flunkies allegedly let the air out of some of the footballs during the AFC Championship Game in January, which was won by the Patriots 45-7 over the Indianapolis Colts at Foxborough, Mass.  Said flunkies, according to the league, have been suspended without pay indefinitely.

Nobody looks good here.  Not Brady, who refused to cooperate with the investigation and will likely appeal his suspension.  Not the Patriots, whose suspicions by fans outside of New England that this is an organization that plays by its own rules have been confirmed.  And certainly not NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Goodell wants to project the image of an enforcer who wants to rid Dodge City of miscreants, much like U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon used to do on "Gunsmoke".  Instead, Goodell comes across as Deputy Barney Fife of Mayberry (OK, we've been watching too much classic TV.) when it comes to issues more serious than deflated footballs.  Like when players are caught on tape beating their significant others inside a hotel elevator, or taking a switch to the backside of their kids.  Or having to retire too early from the game because of one concussion too many.

It's hard not to feel sorry for Brady.  He and the Patriots have gone to the Super Bowl six times, winning four of them.  He has all those passing records that Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers doesn't have.  He has a beautiful wife (Credit:  Alanis Morrisette) in Gisele Bundchen, who happens to be a supermodel.  And someday he'll be in Canton, enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The NFL is right about the fact that they need to work on maintaining the integrity of the game.  Letting the air out of footballs is not one of them.  As for Tom Brady, he'll survive this the way he always has.  And so will the Patriots, whether fans like them or not.