Tom Brady suspended four games, Pats fined $1M and lose two draft picks
- Thread starter Little Red Wagon Repairman
- Start date
Great QB, I was a fan for a while until he became a David Beckham wannabe with the hot girlfriend trying to always be stylish to the point that it just becomes ghey. Fuck the metrosexual QB and bring back the days of Ken "The Snake "Stabler drinking a Budweiser at practice and tossing footballs with one hand and holding a beer in the other.
I think he got off easy actually.
I think he got off easy actually.
That's what Gisele said.
Too little too late should have happened right after the colts game.
I will say roger the dodger has gone nuts again the rule is in black and white $25000 fine???
I will say roger the dodger has gone nuts again the rule is in black and white $25000 fine???
Jagger69
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue
The Pats have been proven to be cheaters on two occasions. Makes one wonder how many other times they got away with it and didn't get caught.
That said, there's a fine line between cheating and gamesmanship. In baseball, any chance to bend the rules to get an edge is considered normal (stealing signs, the neighborhood play, etc). Still, NE has enough of this type of history to be severely punished for their indiscretions and I think this is it. Look what happened to the Saints a couple of years ago. The Pats stole the championship from the Rams in 2001 so I say this is just instant kharma. Fuck the Patriots.
That said, there's a fine line between cheating and gamesmanship. In baseball, any chance to bend the rules to get an edge is considered normal (stealing signs, the neighborhood play, etc). Still, NE has enough of this type of history to be severely punished for their indiscretions and I think this is it. Look what happened to the Saints a couple of years ago. The Pats stole the championship from the Rams in 2001 so I say this is just instant kharma. Fuck the Patriots.
The Pats could easily go 1-3 in those 4 games. Of course they could run the table once he comes back. I think that the NFL should have made it 6 games to at least put the playoffs in doubt. Screw the cocky turd burglar. They have a history of cheating and if they weren't one of the "high TV ratings" teams something would have happened a long time ago.
John_8581
FreeOnes Lifetime Member
I think Tom Brady should have been suspended longer. Like six to eight games. The fine and loss of draft picks is okay.
Unfortunately, NFL writers are not like their brethren baseball writers of the BBWAA. When the time comes after their retirements, these writers will make Tom Brady and Bill Belichick first time ballot honorees in Canton. If this was MLB, all of this would play a role and keep them out of Cooperstown for a very long time. However, NFL writers will put them on their ballots.
The NFL is a joke.
Unfortunately, NFL writers are not like their brethren baseball writers of the BBWAA. When the time comes after their retirements, these writers will make Tom Brady and Bill Belichick first time ballot honorees in Canton. If this was MLB, all of this would play a role and keep them out of Cooperstown for a very long time. However, NFL writers will put them on their ballots.
The NFL is a joke.
Ace Boobtoucher
Founder and Captain of the Douchepatrol
Too much has been made of this. It's not like they allowed four Americans to die in Libya. Wait, the people responsible for that haven't faced any repercussions so the Pats and Touchdown Tom are being treated worse than incompetent State Department officials and also worse than terrorists. The priorities in America are beyond fucked up. It's also bullshit that this gets more coverage than the domestic violence, drunk driving, traumatic brain injuries and poor financial planning plaguing the NFL.
This is the same fucking league that, during the month of October, forces its players to wear pink accessories in conjunction with the Susan G. Komen foundation. One of the most crooked fucking charitable organizations in the country. For every dollar made off licensed pink NFL apparel, roughly three cents makes its way too the research and prevention of the disease. The rest goes to the shield. That's pretty fucked up. More fucked up than a couple equipment managers letting some air out of balls.
Should they have been punished? Probably. Should it have been this severe? No.
This is the same fucking league that, during the month of October, forces its players to wear pink accessories in conjunction with the Susan G. Komen foundation. One of the most crooked fucking charitable organizations in the country. For every dollar made off licensed pink NFL apparel, roughly three cents makes its way too the research and prevention of the disease. The rest goes to the shield. That's pretty fucked up. More fucked up than a couple equipment managers letting some air out of balls.
Should they have been punished? Probably. Should it have been this severe? No.
Remember back after the Baltimore game last year, when answering a question Brady was stating how Baltimore should have "read the rule book" when they were complaining about the cheapness of New England's trick plays? Wow, karma's kind of a bitch. :1orglaugh
The punishment isn't just for breaking the rule, it's also for the coverup and lying about it. If they had just come clean right away I don't know if they could have gotten anything other than a $25,000 fine, but they didn't. (They might still have gotten more considering a member of the organization actually sneaked into the official's room.) Under the rules that allows them to do pretty much what they feel is fair. Now whether it will hold up in arbitration is another thing. I sort of think the punishment is a little harsh. I would have probably went with a one or two game suspension.
I will say I don't think there is any reasonable way that Brady didn't know about this. He's played at multiple levels of the sport and has played with footballs there were properly inflated. Somebody that micromanages things like he does just has no way not to notice something like that, and the text messages between the other two people make it pretty clear what happened if one uses common sense. I also wouldn't be surprised at all if a lot more people in the organization knew about it other than him and the other two equipment people, but there is no proof of that.
I also don't buy the reasoning that this didn't have any impact on the game or wasn't a major competitive advantage as that's somewhat irrelevant. For one Brady seemed to think it wasn't irrelevant. Also, if somebody's blatantly breaking the rules in a sport there can't be lack of a reasonable punishment no matter how bad one thinks the rule is. You can't have a small number of people breaking them with impunity when everybody else has to follow them.
The punishment isn't just for breaking the rule, it's also for the coverup and lying about it. If they had just come clean right away I don't know if they could have gotten anything other than a $25,000 fine, but they didn't. (They might still have gotten more considering a member of the organization actually sneaked into the official's room.) Under the rules that allows them to do pretty much what they feel is fair. Now whether it will hold up in arbitration is another thing. I sort of think the punishment is a little harsh. I would have probably went with a one or two game suspension.
I will say I don't think there is any reasonable way that Brady didn't know about this. He's played at multiple levels of the sport and has played with footballs there were properly inflated. Somebody that micromanages things like he does just has no way not to notice something like that, and the text messages between the other two people make it pretty clear what happened if one uses common sense. I also wouldn't be surprised at all if a lot more people in the organization knew about it other than him and the other two equipment people, but there is no proof of that.
I also don't buy the reasoning that this didn't have any impact on the game or wasn't a major competitive advantage as that's somewhat irrelevant. For one Brady seemed to think it wasn't irrelevant. Also, if somebody's blatantly breaking the rules in a sport there can't be lack of a reasonable punishment no matter how bad one thinks the rule is. You can't have a small number of people breaking them with impunity when everybody else has to follow them.
Jagger69
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue
I also find it hard to believe that Belichick didn't know about it. He's a notorious micro-manager so how could something like this have been going on without his knowledge? Highly unlikely.
Ace Boobtoucher
Founder and Captain of the Douchepatrol
Ace Boobtoucher
Founder and Captain of the Douchepatrol
Of course it would be silly to keep handing out light punishments just because mistakes were made in the past with the length of them.
I could also see a the NFL rightfully coming down harder on things that happen or on affect what happens on the field of play all things being equal with severity.
I could also see a the NFL rightfully coming down harder on things that happen or on affect what happens on the field of play all things being equal with severity.
Jagger69
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue
To quote Denzel Washington's character Alonzo Harris from Training Day, "It ain't what you know, it's what you can prove". The Pats got caught and, as D-rock said, Brady lied, tried to cover it up and made it that much worse. Belichick should be suspended as well since precedent was set with the Bountygate scandal a few years back. Goodell suspended Sean Payton with the justification that ignorance is no excuse (if that's the case, he should have suspended himself during the Rice fiasco since he claimed to have had no prior knowledge and therefore let himself off the hook! What a disgrace!). Now, he let's Mr. Sunshine skate while Tom Terrific and those poor ballboys take the fall. John is correct....the NFL is an absolute joke.
Little Red Wagon Repairman
MFOMBSoPGA
They should have the rematch of Ray Rice vs Baby Momma on the undercard of the Mitt Romney/Evander Holyfield war to settle the score.
I kind of feel bad for the equipment people most of all unless they were absolutely totally willing and on board from the very beginning. I can't imagine they were in any good position at all. If they say no then they are pissing off one of the country's biggest superstar athletes and whomever else on the team that was important and wanted them to do it and would have probably lost their jobs, one that's a dream job for most as very few people actually get to work long term with an NFL team in any capacity. If they were honest and came out about it when it started they would have been pariahs in that area and in their own communities, been despised by a gigantic portion of the team's fans until the day they died, and they still probably wouldn't have been believed. If they were caught, as was the case, they are the ones that are going to receive the most blame and take the fall the hardest fall, and could have people on the team making scapegoats of them.
If for no other reason if I was an an important person on the team and I had them do it before things were discovered like this I would confess and take the blame I deserved as it's a gigantic dick move to pull on them just to try and shift all the blame to them to save yourself. They had better of gotten paid way better than receiving some autographed merchandise.
Jagger69
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue
Agree 100% on all counts. Great post.
ChuckFaze
Closed Account
I agree. It should have been 6 games. That would have sent a stronger message. Four games is still too small of a span. It's still a situation from which they can get out.ThatRedWing said:
Hey, if the Cowboys' Greg Hardy will have to stay out 10 games before he can play ... slapping Tom Brady with 6 games would have been about right.
ChuckFaze
Closed Account
Yes ... that was something that immediately entered my mind. If Sean Payton got put on ice for a year via the ignorance is no excuse stance ... why not Belichick?Jagger69 said:
I also don't like that despite whatever all punishments Tom and the Patriots are getting ... they still get to keep their Superbowl Championship. Maybe they should do like in the Olympics where if you get caught cheating, they will fucking take away your medal(s). Likewise with Lance Armstrong.
Not that I'm a big fan of defending Belichick's shadiness, but with this, whether he knew or now, at least he has much more plausible deniability than Sean Payton did. Somebody not knowing what three people in an organization are doing is more believable than a head coach not knowing his own defensive coordinator is going up in front of the entire defense and is offering bounties on opposing teams' players, even more so when he did it multiple times. While I understand for some things ignorance might not be an excuse, there is just no plausible way Payton could claim ignorance in a remotely believable fashion like Belichick can.
