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The National Football League has come down hard and swift on one of its biggest stars and suspended quarterback Tom Brady for four games to start the 2015 season.
The Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Player was suspended without pay for the first four games for the upcoming season and his team the New England Patriots were fined $1 million dollars. The Patriots will also forfeit two draft choices as a result of their role in deflating footballs used in their AFC title game against the Indianapolis Colts.
In a statement from the NFL, they also announced they were indefinitely suspending two equipment men they believed had deflated 11 of the 12 game balls used by the New England offence. The Patriots will also lose a first-round pick in 2016 and a fourth-round pick in 2017.
The punishment from the NFL was announced five days after the release of the Ted Wells report that found that Patriots personnel deliberately deflated footballs before the AFC Championship Game on January 18, 2015, and that Brady “was at least generally aware” of the violations.
The Patriots knocked off the Colts 45-7 two weeks before defeating the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl.
The four game suspension without pay will cost Brady an estimated $2 million dollars.
The NFL’s Executive Vice president Troy Vincent, a former player in the league, wrote a letter to Brady in which he stated, “with respect to your particular involvement, the report established that there is substantial and credible evidence to conclude you were at least generally aware of the actions of the Patriots’ employees involved in the deflation of the footballs and that it was unlikely that their actions were done without your knowledge.”
Vincent went on to write in another letter to the New England Patriots, “The activities of the Patriots’ employees were thoroughly documented in the report, including through a series of text messages and telephone communications, as well as evidence of a breach in pre-game protocol. In addition, the conclusions were supported by extensive scientific analysis, as detailed in the report.”
The comprehensive 243-page report by NFL’s-appointed attorney Wells said it was “more probable than not” that Brady was aware of plans to prepare the footballs to his liking, below the NFL-mandated minimum of 12.5 pounds per square inch.
The most damning evidence against Brady was his failure to cooperate with the NFL during their investigation and his refusal to turn over his cell phone. There seems to be a clear violation of the “integrity of the game of football” issue.
Brady has repeatedly stated that he did not know about the efforts to deflate the game balls, but Wells’ report found those claims “not plausible and contradicted by other evidence.”
This case is far from over and Tom Brady has stated that he will appeal the decision. One of the NFL’s wealthiest players, it is conceivable that Brady may well sue the league for ‘defamation of character.’
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