This guy’s a homer, but he raises some legitimate points IMO, particularly about the veracity of the experts hired by the league:
Again, to me the big thing is that the team was cleared. That there’s a suspicion about Brady doesn’t matter much to me because I’m not related to him.
Today one of the sports radio stations had people record their conspiracy theories on their app. Some were hilarious, including one long one that traced the blame from Bridget Moynihan to the Illuminati.
In terms of Brady, I’m curious to see what happens because he’s denied fault and is making clear he won’t go down without a fight, meaning a suspension = war.
In terms of the team, since they won the Super Bowl, odds of them returning were terrible. Odds of making it back to a Super Bowl are always lousy and both teams, NE and Seattle, only made it because of one-off plays, with Seattle’s being a fluke and NE requiring an INT in the endzone against Baltimore. BUT I’d say this kind of thing actually makes NE’s chances better unless there’s some huge penalty on Brady and he accepts it.
If you are a Jacksonville Jaguars fan… my condolences.
His very first practice, and he goes down for the year with a torn ACL Number 3 overall… ouch.
Jon Stewart on Brady:
^^^ That was hilarious! I saw it earlier today.
So I was watching the Cavs-Bulls game tonight (great game by the way) and in the middle of the second half, out of nowhere, the ESPN basketball announcer goes on a rant about the Wells report - saying that it was a joke, that it basically said that they have no idea what happened, and railing about how can you ruin someone’s reputation based on a report that has nothing of substance in it. I have no idea who the announcer was or why he got onto football, but all I could think was, “Amen, brother!”
@teriwtt, yes, so funny.
Just so the Patriot patriots know, it’s satire. He’s not serious. His last words were the best. 
Have to correct something I said; I learned from the paper today that the more probable than not language is in the NFL’s discipline guideline so it acts as a finding of guilt. That was the first reference I’d seen which explained why that term was used rather than blather about what it means.
The piece also looked at past penalties for equipment violations. All were fines except for Sammy Sosa in baseball for using a corked bat. The piece also noted Sean Payton’s suspension but I think that misses the point that investigation found clear evidence Payton knew about the bounty program and then that he’d instructed people to cover it up.
I did read a funny joke about the possibility that they used a Magic 8 Ball to conduct the investigation . . . “signs point to yes” 
Haven’t gone back to parse through the report, but if this story on Pro Football Talk is accurate, then all I can say is wow, just wow. I wonder whether Wells (based in NYC) is a Jets fan or a Giants fan.
I ran over here to see if people’s heads were exploding but they must have already exploded as there’s no comment. My local guys both think the whole thing is a goofy comedy of errors and they feel like Goodell must have sat around watching TV all weekend to gauge the level of public “outrage” before deciding what to do. They’re having a lot of fun with it, though. Brady will appeal and it will be reduced to 1-2 games I think.
Now they’re calling is “tomfoolery”
So the letter from the NFL says that Brady did not cooperate fully and did not turn over texts, emails and voicemails as the equipment guys did. That implies that there were incriminating messages contained therein. Forget, for the moment, all the questions about how many ball were tested and how and when. The text record seems to suggest that the equipment guys were “doctoring” the balls for Brady and it isn’t hard to imagine why Brady refused to cooperate. They had to suspend him at that point.
I caught the end of the report on the news. Why was the team fined if they supposedly, according to some in this thread, were ‘cleared’?
Although there is little or no direct proof of his involvement, it is absurd to think that anyone would have done this without his consent - it was too deliberate and too easily noticeable by those handling the balls. And then when he was caught, he did everything he could to make it worse. It was minor, but just so flagrant!
Well, the upper management was cleared of direct involvement, but the equipment staff were still involved, and considering the history they considered this like a repeat offense - if they didn’t learn to respect the rules the last time, the punishment keeps getting ratcheted up until the message sinks in or Belichick quits!
I assume the team penalties are to send a message about “the integrity of the game”. In other words, for show.
If I were Brady, I’d not only appeal but I’d look into more, whatever that could be, from releasing information about his interview (which his agent says they have) to suing.
But again, I don’t really care. The loss of a 1st round draft pick is too bad but NE picks late. They won. Odds of winning again this year are very low and I would not be surprised if this doesn’t make the team stronger over the year. (Though I can’t understand what they’re doing with the secondary.) With a backup QB, they play Buffalo and Jacksonville, teams they should beat anyway. Maybe they’re 2-2 or 1-3. They were 2-2 last year and won. They were 1-3 in 2001 and won.
I think the Report shows how poorly the NFL actually conducts its operations. They don’t check balls. They don’t write things down. They had employees (NFL employees) taking balls and selling them (which resulted in a non-kicking ball being “introduced”). They couldn’t even manage to test all the Colts balls and no one even noted which gauge was used so there’s no real way to say the balls were actually deflated.
I’ve been saying for a long time that Roger Goodell is not a good manager. I take this as more evidence of this: he doesn’t seem to have paid any attention at all to the basics of how game day runs. But he acts like the big guy by handing out suspensions.
I read a report today that stated that when there was an independent investigation of how the Ray Rice incident was initially handled, the NFL officials who were questioned refused to turn over their personal cell phones.
Double standard perhaps???
This really is a bizarro world. After months of the press around the nation calling for Brady’s head, Goodell gives the mob what they’ve been screaming for - Brady’s head. Except now they’re calling the punishment ridiculous (which it is) and screaming for Goodell’s head. Gotta love the mob. They’re never satisfied.
Time Magazine: “Why the Tom Brady Suspension is Ridiculous”
http://time.com/3854906/tom-brady-nfl-suspension-deflategate-patriots/
Sports Illustrated: “NFL’s Punishment for Brady, Pats Shows League’s Lack of Perspective”
http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/05/11/nfl-suspends-tom-brady-deflategate-punishment-patriots
Yahoo Shutdown Corner: “Five Reasons Why the NFL Got the Deflate-Gate Punishment Dead Wrong”
MSN: “Goodell Fumbles Again in DeflateGate Mess”
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/miller-goodell-fumbles-again-in-deflategate-mess/ar-BBjDi1P
Washington Times: “Tom Brady’s Suspension More Outrageous Than the ‘Crime’ Itself”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/11/snyder-tom-brady-deflategate-goodell-patriots/
ChicagoFootball.com: “Patriots’ Punishment is a Farce”
http://chicagofootball.com/2015/05/11/hub-arkush-patriots-punishment-is-a-farce/
Mediaite: “Goodell Sacking Brady with Overboard Suspension About Much More Than Deflated Balls”
I’ve intentionally omitted linking to the stories in the Boston press, which is, of course, blowing up. But as usual, David Ortiz has summarized things most succinctly:
David Ortiz on Tom Brady suspension: “They [F’d] up on that one.”
7:13 PM - 11 May 2015
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However, for all the talk of Goodell being incompetent and reactionary, nobody here seems to think that Brady didn’t actually conspire to take air out of the footballs then try to cover it up. Even amongst those who feel like there would be no advantage to a lower psi and that the investigation didn’t prove that there were issues, people seem to agree that Brady tried to cheat (even if they feel that the rule is stupid), was flip and cavalier about it, tried to cover it up, lied to Kraft and threw the locker room guys under the bus. Maybe he doesn’t deserve 4 games for that but he still doesn’t come out smelling like roses.
As I said, I intentionally omitted links to the press from New England, and certainly the press outside of New England (and even some in New England) have simply been assuming Brady’s guilt from the start. So no doubt that he doesn’t come out of this smelling like roses. But it’s really a function of what your presumption is. If Brady’s guilty until proven innocent, which seems to be the standard outside New England, then he’s guilty. Because he certainly hasn’t proven his innocence. If Brady’s innocent until proven guilty, then he’s innocent. Because they certainly haven’t proven his guilt.
I think in part, the press (and the fans of other teams) would like to believe he’s guilty, as he seems to have too perfect a life and too much success. There’s clearly a whole lot of schadenfreude going on here. There’s also an assumption that if Jastremski and McNally were deflating the footballs (which still hasn’t been proven of course, but let’s assume for the sake of argument that they were), Brady had to have known. And an assumption that Brady would have turned over his cell phone if he didn’t have something to hide.
I can understand the thinking on both, though I can also think of innocent explanations for both. Brady made his preference for softer footballs well known (including yelling at Jastremski about the overinflated footballs that were used in the Jets game). Is it really beyond belief that Jastremski and McNally would have stretched the rules to implement his known preferences without telling him what they were doing? And is it really beyond belief that Brady didn’t want the contents of his private cell phone splashed all over the media even if there was nothing incriminating on it relating to deflated footballs?
Anyway, unless Brady and his agent can come up with proof of his innocence in his appeal (or otherwise), the guilty until proven innocent crowd will remain convinced of his guilt (and even if they do come up with proof of his innocence, many will still remain convinced of his guilt). And that will tarnish his reputation, fairly or unfairly. But I find it telling that even much of the guilty until proven innocent crowd seems to think that the NFL went way overboard with the punishment. And that the punishment had little to do with the “crime”, particularly given that until now, the NFL really didn’t seem to care a bit about ball inflation, and everything to do with making Goodell look “tough” and deflecting attention away from all his other missteps. But it’s ending up looking like just one more misstep.
That said, it does still have everyone talking about football in the offseason. So at least the NFL has accomplished that much for itself.