Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
I don’t like the New England Patriots. I never have and I never will as long as Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are with the organization. I believe they are both cheaters, and would not have any of their five Super Bowl titles if it weren’t for some form of cheating.
With the latest accusations known as Deflategate, I was hoping that the NFL would find Brady and Belichick guilty and bring the hammer down on two of the smuggest individuals in all of the NFL. Now that it’s happened and Ted Wells’ report has been released, even I have to admit the four-game suspension for Brady is not justified.
The NFL didn’t do themselves any favors in the beginning by hiring an investigator who has been pro-NFL in the past. If Wells found Brady guilty at all, his findings were going to be scrutinized by all Patriots supporters. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell looked hellbent on nailing Brady and the Patriots to the wall from the beginning, and it seemed he would stop at nothing to find a reason to punish the organization for putting the integrity of the sport into question once again.
There is one glaring problem with Wells’ report. There is no smoking gun. There is no hard evidence that shows Brady specifically told the game ball attendants to deflate the balls after they were inspected by game referee Walt Anderson. There are no text messages, videos or eyewitness accounts to support Wells’ report. It’s all circumstantial evidence. Do I believe that Brady was instructing Jim McNally and John Jastremski to deflate the balls? Yes, there is no doubt in my mind that Brady was a part of this; I think everyone should admit that much, but unfortunately, there is no proof. Wells’ use of the phrase “more probable than not” will be the telltale phrase that allows Brady to win his appeal.
The other issue in this situation that needs to be addressed is Goodell’s abuse of power. Goodell has never been consistent in how he hands down punishment. Sometimes guys with drug offenses will receive three games, sometimes zero games, sometimes six games. It took the Ray Rice situation for Goodell to finally come up with a domestic violence suspension system after he was originally going to give Rice a two-game suspension, even though Rice told Goodell he punched his fiancee in the face and only stiffened the punishment after the public outrage from the video being released. Going with Goodell’s original thinking, he thinks Brady deflating footballs is more egregious than Rice punching his wife in the face? There’s no consistency, and Goodell needs to find some or he may be paying for it with his job.
Brady and the Patriots are cheats; I will believe that for the rest of my life. But in the court of law you can’t punish someone without strong evidence, and the NFL failed to find any in their investigation. The lack of facts, in addition to lawyer Jeffrey Kessler joining Brady’s legal counsel team, will help Brady be successful in his appeal. Kessler has won many high-profile cases against the NFL, including the Freeman McNeil case which helped to establish NFL free agency, the Rice suspension appeal, Belichick’s suit against the New York Jets in federal court to free him from his contract and now this one.
For fans like me who root against the Patriots in every game they play, it looks like the defending Super Bowl champions will have Brady for all 16 games in 2015. It’s fine though; the Patriots push the limits on everything they do, and eventually they will make a big enough mistake that there will be historical consequences.
Jason Fletcher is a MLB Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JasonFletcher25, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google+.
