Punishment for Tom Brady
 

Poll to follow.

Hey, I'm honest with my answer. Maybe a fine... that's it.

Execution

HOF ban and lifetime suspension. he should also have to repay all
His playoff bonuses and those wins vacated. His mvp
Awards should also be stripped.

But a 1 game suspension would suffice.

Force him to play for the Jets.

- Jets fan.

He will be lucky to find a job as a trout farmer after the NFL's through with him.

He's tarnished from here on out, but if he gets anything more than a fine I'll be stunned.

Give him the ol' William Wallace.

The Tom Brady lynch mob is collecting their pitch forks and will be out in full force today.

IMO this just strengthens Eli Mannings legacy, Brady can't beat him even when he cheats and lies about it!

I was going to pick 3 game suspension but there is no choice to match that.

He should have to visit the White House.

Yes! YES!!!

I can see him bravely crying out "Deflation.... DEFLATION!!!" as he is torn apart.

I'm disappointed that there's no "Flogging with a Trout" option. Absent that choice, I say 4 games -- 2 for cheating and 2 more for lying about it to investigators.

Season long.

i think Lathum wins the thread with this

Tom has to watch Eli bang Giselle.

:D :D :D

He already made Tom his bitch twice, may as well do the same for his wife.

Finally she'll get to be with someone who has properly-inflated balls.

There is a whole bunch of win here between Lathum's and cartman's posts :D

Hey Gisele, who spanked your husband TWICE in the superbowl and is now going to spank you? This guy is, thats who!

As I said when this was first going down, the punishment should probably depend on how serious the NFL is about the rule. If it ain't no thang, slap him on the wrist since a rule WAS broken, and change the rule afterward.

If the NFL still considers this an integrity-of-equipment issue and is serious about deterrence, come down with both feet, to the extent that 'more probable than not' allows, in whatever form that takes.

I think this is the ultimate question. Any leniency that would have been shown due to seriousness of the rule was thrown out the window when Brady started lying.

More probably than not, they've shown that Brady prefers footballs at a lower inflation level and communicated that to the equipment managers.

What they haven't shown is that Brady asked for footballs below 12.5 psi. And, even though "everyone else does it" is a terrible excuse, they haven't shown any ability to determine what percentage of the footballs comply, period.

In fact, it seems these guys were somewhat used to receiving footballs from the referees that didn't comply in the first place. If they had the impression that the NFL didn't care whether they were underinflated or overinflated, there was reason for that impression. Taking a little air out if the referees added too much might seem like part of their job.

It's up to the referee, before each play, to determine whether the football he spots is a legal football.

I'd imagine we'll see a rules change for next season. A suspension seems overboard.

Says the unbiased Michigan fan. ;)

The correct punishment is to give the Patriots referees that actually do check the balls.

And then inflate them to 18 psi and coat them in vaseline.

He needs to get the QB death penalty, which means playing for the Browns.

Castrate him, then send him to the Browns.

And I thought I was cruel.

He cheated. He knew it.

What's so complicated??? I don't even hate the Pats, but come on.





(I am admitting that I have not read anything in this thread, so there is that)

Wow, our Euro contingent are big softies! ;)

I'm in favor of Brady being punished, but not as what this is -- selective outrage. If they punish him they need to be punishing a lot of other people doing it and they aren't even thinking about doing that. I'll never defend cheating but it's just ridiculous IMO to get exercised about this and pretend the NFL cares about cheating. It's like all the Michigan fans(I say this as a Wolverine) who got all self-righteous about the sweater vest when he got caught.

As I said in previous discussions, it's stuff like this that makes me root more for teams like New England(the Lebron James effect in basketball, etc.) The selectiveness of the response, which has all the appearance of being largely envy-driven, makes me just want them to succeed more.

Who else has been caught deflating balls?

A number of people have come out and said it is common practice. The Phil Simms conversation with Aaron Rodgers where he said he tries to overinflate the balls. Nobody cared. In my opinion, there is plainly and simply no good reason to care about it when Brady did it since nobody cared when Simms reported Rodgers tried to do it.

I'm disgusted with Brady's lack of integrity here, I just don't buy for a second that it is in any way unique.

So who else has been caught with deflated balls?

As far as I know, nobody. I don't think that's close to the most relevant question though.

I'm not sure what the most relevant question is at the moment, but it's hard to claim selective outrage when afaik only Tom Brady has been the only one caught with deflated balls.

I am a Miami Dolphins fan and I love to watch Brady play.

I think the NFL has an issue if they just brush this under the rug. This is a league that has made tremendous leaps in popularity due to fantasy football, so much so that I believe rule changes for more offense are a direct result of that popularity. But, I think that could be damaged if people believe that cheating occurs on a regular basis and that there in no ramifications for that cheating.

Isn't the same thing said about most of these "scandals"? We know that bounties were placed on the heads of players and no one cared until Buddy Ryan put a bounty on a kicker. Then, we stopped caring until the bounty was placed on Brett Favre. I know people have issues with the deflated balls/ bounties comparisons so how about this one. We know in baseball that pitchers will deface the baseball if they get the chance yet, when a specific pitcher is caught, that pitcher is the big cheat.

Brady is not unique. Neither was Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda. They just got caught.

Brady isn't getting hammered for the crime, he is getting hammered for the way he acted after, and rightfully so.

+1


(FWIW, it feels great to just post "+1".)

Know what would be interesting? Say the suspension is decided to be 1 game - it should be for 1 playoff game, not a regular season game.

I'm on the suspend Brady and make it hurt (not one or two games. If you are going to suspend someone for texting for four games, this deserves that as well) That said, no, not the playoffs.

The comments I've seen everywhere truly amuse me. (and I'm sure MY comments amuse others as well)

Stuff like:

More probable than not is not a smoking gun. (yeah, it is, read the report)
It's so small it doesn't even matter (OK, then why did he do it and why is he lying about it?)

They won the game by 40, he dominated the second half with inflated footballs - Anyone who thinks Brady is going to become Mark Sanchez with fully inflated balls is a true hater. But you can't say cheating is ok as long as you win by 40. Lying about it is ok if it didn't make a difference in the game? Ummmmm. . . hell no. Just no.

It was a sting operation - You don't have to worry about a sting operation if you don't cheat. It's pretty simple.

The NFL won't do anything, it's the Patriots - Give me a break. They could have swept this under the rug had they chose to. Given Kraft his apology and wiped it clean. The NFL is not in bed with the Patriots. That's utterly ridiculous.



Brady lied and Brady cheated. I don't know how anyone can argue the points if you read the report. Fine and suspend him and put this to bed. Make it crystal clear to the Patriots that there is no more chances. Nothing funny with injury reports, nothing funny with video cameras, nothing funny with footballs. Stick within the rules of the game or the next time you will truly see a hammer of epic proportions. Enough of the garbage.

Rodgers didn't say he tries to over inflate the balls.

He does say that they push the limit on inflation, and sometimes try to go over a little to see what the refs will let them get away with. And that's fair enough - it's the officials job to throw those balls out, and if they don't then you get to play with them.

But there's certainly nothing to suggest Rodgers conspired to over-inflate the balls after the officials had judged them to be properly inflated.

If I was a Pats fan I'd be really worried that random Rog was going to make him sit an entire season.

I think you're misreading my answer to the poll. The NFL's suspensions are the softest in the world of sports. Almost everywhere, a doping penalty is 1 or 2 years, the NFL suspends player for just a month for the same misbehavior. Playing around with balls hardness, it's just not important enough of an issue to get me worked up about and in comparison of other violations, it should be punished as such, with a 'much a do about nothing'. Admittedly punishing the biggest name in the game is a signal that the NFL technically disapproves of this behavior, in the end it feels to me that Tom Brady will be scapegoated for something that's most likely done by the majority in the business.

He did the crime; he should do the time.