Deflategate penalties announced

Submitted by 1464 on

Wow.  My CBS app popped up with this -

Brady suspended 4 games.  Pats lose two draft picks, one a first rounder.  Pats also fined $1 million.

That's... heavy handed.

MichiganExile

May 11th, 2015 at 7:03 PM ^

I'm sure it is probably true that many, if not most, players use some sort of illegal substance, but are there many cases of players testing positive and receiving no penalties? The only one I can recall is Richard Sherman a couple years back. He won his appeal because of the way his positive sample was held and processed prior to the positive test result. 

MichiganMAN47

May 11th, 2015 at 6:47 PM ^

Everyone who touched the ball was also "probably generally aware. " The refs, the center, the running backs, and wide receivers were probably also generally aware.

This is just a giant PR move by the NFL to appease the haters. They have no evidence that Brady knew.

BlueInWisconsin

May 11th, 2015 at 6:49 PM ^

The NFL just jumped the shark. I get it guys, you are sooooooooooo serious. I can't believe the commish still has his job. They pay that guy 30 mil a year for what again? Maybe this will be his undoing. I can't imagine the Pats are going to take this lying down.

CoachBP6

May 11th, 2015 at 6:49 PM ^

Brady refused to let investigators look at his phone, what's he hiding that he is so scared of people seeing? The patriots cheat and have cheated several times over the last decade, who knows how many other violations have gone un-noticed. Obviously most people on this blog will suggest Brady is innocent and did nothing wrong. I love Tom Brady, but I don believe for a second that Tom didn't approve of the air coming out of these balls, Tom knew what was going on. To me the punishment is stiff, but the NFL needed to make it so due to the patriots blatant disregard of the rule book. I want to know is what's in toms phone that he's so fiercely against investigators checking it...

CoachBP6

May 11th, 2015 at 8:49 PM ^

With the $$$ they make and the stature they acquire, i get not wanting people to see your personal shit, bu what you're failing to take into account is that anything that oes not pertain to the investigation can no be released or held against him in any way.

Mabel Pines

May 11th, 2015 at 9:02 PM ^

his texts would contain ball inflation info? My point is more that I believe this was a casual "I like it inflated to such and such". and it has been that way for a bunch of years... Not some secretive thing that he would send 100 texts over. I just doubt he texts with the ball guy. Also, what if it says " I hate Gronkowski". or some other team member. He probably wouldn't want people knowing that...

justingoblue

May 11th, 2015 at 6:57 PM ^

I don't really see an upside to Brady handing over his phone to anyone.

I don't have anything close to his money or professional accomplishments, and I would almost certainly refuse to hand over my phone or personal computer to my employer. If I knew termination wasn't an option I can't imagine a scenario where I would.

ats

May 12th, 2015 at 3:56 AM ^

I not handing it over ever.  You assume that no one will ever see anything not related to the investigation but that's not ensurable.  There is no court order involved, there is no protection, its pretty simple.  And you have to hand your phone over to someone in the first place and get it dumped.  Then someone else has to sort through it all and determine what is relavent or not.  And both those people and numerous others would likely be able to make a copy (whether legally OR NOT).  I'm pretty sure a tabloid would pay a pretty hefty penny for a dump of Brady's phone for instance...

ML88

May 12th, 2015 at 10:42 AM ^

Also, with the amount of information that was leaked during the investigation by the NFL, I would be absolutely shocked if they stuck to their "anything not relevant to the investigation can not be used against him or released."

 

kgh10

May 11th, 2015 at 6:59 PM ^

You're not famous, but if you were, would you want to hand your cell phone over to anyone? You have a famous wife, you have children, you have your e-mail and possibly finaicial information on your phone. You would hand your phone over to someone to search it? 

I don't even let my mom look at my phone. 

CoachBP6

May 11th, 2015 at 8:38 PM ^

Thanks for your input, but I could care less what you think. You see things the way you do bc of your bias toward Brady. If you have nothing to hide on your phone why not hand it over? I'm not suggesting Brady has anything bad on his phone, I just thought it was interesting bc if I had nothing to hide I would've given my phone to investigators to prove it so.

jonvalk

May 11th, 2015 at 9:20 PM ^

So you're saying there's a level that you could care less? I'm intrigued. Oh, btw, what team do you root for that Brady has eviscerated? So far, everyone I've heard that isn't a gigantic Patriots hater has said this is the most pathetic display of stupidity by the league in a long time.



Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

JamieH

May 11th, 2015 at 9:26 PM ^

if you ever and I mean EVER get in even the slightest bit of trouble for anything, even if you think you had nothing to do with it, I pray you talk to a lawyer very very quickly or you are going to be screwed to high heaven.  You are like a pig being led to slaughter. 

bronxblue

May 11th, 2015 at 8:05 PM ^

He doesn't want to hand over his phone because it's his own damn phone.  If your boss asked you to hand over your personal phone because he wanted to make sure you didn't have something on it, would you?  I sure as hell wouldn't.  This isn't a "if he didn't do anything wrong he wouldn't care?" situation.  How about the next time Goddell gets called before a judiciary or congressional panel, they ask for his personal phone or computer because they want to see if he talked about CTE, spousal abuse, gamlbing, etc.?  I'm guessing that isn't happening.

This is a myopic comment that highlights just how dumb this whole situation is.

samsoccer7

May 11th, 2015 at 8:21 PM ^

Devils advocate here, but what if he and the other guys just deleted texts they sent each other? Wouldn't that have been smart? What proof could the NFL have of anything then (sorry, not proof, but conjecture)? It's not like they could make a legal argument to get that info.

bronxblue

May 12th, 2015 at 7:13 AM ^

If this was a legal matter with subpeona power, they could go to the phone provider and as for records of texts sent; they might not get the content of the text, but they definitely would have records of when they were sent.  Compare that to what's on the phones and you'd have an idea if they were deleted.  And, of course, the NSA has a couple copies in Utah.  :-)

But yeah, if he had specific texts and deleted them they wouldn't be able to see them, but honestly, I don't blame Brady for not wanting to share regardless.  He's a famous person with many famous friends who value their privacy, and you are being asked by one of the more incompetently-run billion-dollar entities in the world to hand over a phone so that they can "investigate" whether or not some butthurt opponents were right that you underinflated your football a bit.  There is near-100% certainty stuff other than the text messages between those two guys get leaked.

bluebyyou

May 11th, 2015 at 7:02 PM ^

It's the NFL...stepping on their dic*s as usual.  Keeps our minds off of more important matters like CTE, domestic violence and child abuse.

I think Brady is going to one pissed off player come this fall.

Ronnie Kaye

May 11th, 2015 at 7:10 PM ^

Does the NFL really think this is going to make them look "tough on crime"?

I'm ready to just stop watching that whole league. What an abomination.

Jonesy

May 11th, 2015 at 7:30 PM ^

Isn't the fine for this action spelled out in the rules as 25k?  How can they justify any penalty more than that let alone one as ridiculous as this?

Darker Blue

May 11th, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^

There is no way this holds up. This is the NFL using deflategate as a smoke screen. The NFLPA will do whatever they do and get this thrown out by July.

BornInA2

May 11th, 2015 at 7:51 PM ^

He came, he saw, he cheated, he got caught, he lied about it. For the Pats, it's a repeat offense.

Just because he played for Michigan years ago and/or he happens to be good doesn't make put him above the rules.

I have no tolerance for "If you're rich or famous the rules don't apply to you."

This is little different from the Lance Armstrong story, except that he got away with it for years. Then again, who's to say how long the Pats have been doing this?

bronxblue

May 11th, 2015 at 8:01 PM ^

If Tom Brady had been using an elaborate concoction of chemicals to bond together a football while also using an inordinate number of banned substances to enhance this body to have a superior throwing motion, then the Lance Armstrong comparison works.  This is like if Lance Armstrong under-inflated his tires to a slightly lower-than-acceptable range because it helped him grip the road better.

People around here aren't defending Tom Brady because he went to Michigan; they are decrying the stupidity of the NFL and this dumb-ass rule that is going to punish a player nearly as heavily as players who have committed far more heinous crimes.  For perspective, if you are caught using HGH or a similar performance enhancement you get the same punishment, and your team doesn't get a single fine.  

EGD

May 11th, 2015 at 8:28 PM ^

Not to mention that PEDs confer an advantage that competitors can match only by also taking PEDs. I am not convinced that underinflating a football provides any meaningful advantage. But even if it does, it isn't one that carries sinister public health implications.