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There can no longer be any doubt — “Deflategate” is not about football. It is about a national affliction — one of the seven deadly sins: Envy. “Envy: the feeling of wanting to have what someone else has.” Exactly. And it’s made unhinged haters out of a lot of you outside New England. Tom Brady took a helicopter to Salem State University. “Arrogant!” detractors from across the country shouted. Collectively, Americans have not been so fixated on a helicopter image since the fall of Saigon.

...The Patriots have no one to blame for this but themselves. They have been arrogant and defiant from the start — demanding apologies when none were deserved, ignoring Goodell’s orders of full cooperation and obstructing Ted Wells’s investigation... Why did Wells find it “more probable than not” that the Patriots tampered with the footballs? Forget the science, which has giant holes. It’s because the Patriots couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer Wells’s legitimate and unbiased questions. Why did McNally slip out of the locker room with the bag of footballs without Walt Anderson or another official as his escort? Why did McNally...

Nothing short of suspending Tom Brady and Bill Belichick for the 2015 NFL season would satisfy many New Orleans Saints fans for the New England Patriots' involvement in Deflategate. The NFL announced Monday a four-game suspension for Brady and several other sanctions for the Patriots for the intentional use of deflated footballs last season. Some penalties levied on the Patriots organization were harsher than what the Saints received in the bounty scandal.

The National Football League suspended New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for four regular season games without pay "for conduct detrimental to the integrity of the NFL," the league announced Monday afternoon. The league also announced that the team—which won the Super Bowl earlier this year—would be fined $1 million and forced to forfeit its first-round pick in the 2016 draft and its fourth-round selection in the 2017 draft.

Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter · 2m 2 minutes ago Filed to ESPN: Tom Brady suspended four games, Pats lose 1st round pick in 2016 and a 4th in 2017, and team fined $1 million, per source:

Tom Brady will be the highest profile player ever suspended in the 96-year history of the NFL. Roger Goodell's decision is expected to be announced next week and it is no longer a matter of if the NFL commissioner will suspend Brady, but for how long he will suspend him. In conversations I've had with several key sources who always have a good sense of what goes on at 345 Park Avenue, there is little doubt Goodell considers Brady's role in DeflateGate a serious violation. The NFL is convinced, according to sources, that connecting all the dots of the evidence...

The fallout from the “Deflategate” report released Wednesday remains very much up in the air (sorry), with most informed opinion pointing to at least a several-game suspension for quarterback Tom Brady. The media coverage of the report has focused largely on the highly-qualified language of its conclusion (“more probable than not” that Patriots staff cheated, and that Brady “was at least generally aware”), rather than on the far more damning details of the report. Patriots (and Brady) apologists like to point to this language as an indication that the report doesn’t meet the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard of proof,...

The Deflategate report did not reach a concrete conclusion, and investigators say Tom Brady is partially to blame. While Brady agreed to be questioned, he declined to hand over pertinent texts and emails despite the requested communication being “limited to the subject matter of our investigation,” the report said. “Our inability to review contemporaneous communications and other documents in Brady’s possession and control related to the matters under review potentially limited the discovery of relevant evidence and was not helpful to the investigation,” the report continued. Investigators still obtained some text communications between Brady and the equipment managers they say...

Wednesday's release of the Ted Wells Report brought with it a conclusion that it was "more probable than not" that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was "at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities" regarding the deflation of Patriots game balls. Brady's agent, Don Yee, issued a response Thursday, obtained by NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport. "The Wells report, with all due respect, is a significant and terrible disappointment. It's omission of key facts and lines of inquiry suggest the investigators reached a conclusion first, and then determined so-called facts later. One item alone taints this entire report. What...

A report commissioned by the NFL has found that there was "no deliberate attempt" by the New England Patriots to deflate game balls to gain an advantage over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Champsionship game—but that a Patriots locker room attendant and equipment assistant "participated in a deliberate effort to release air from Patriots game balls after the balls were examined by the referee." The report by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP also said "it is more probable than not that Tom Brady...was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities." Brady denied knowing anything about deflated balls.

An N.F.L. investigation has found that “it is more probable than not” that New England Patriots personnel intentionally deflated footballs to gain an advantage in the A.F.C. championship game last season, and that Tom Brady, the Super Bowl most valuable player, was probably aware of it. No penalties have been announced. The long-awaited report into so-called deflategate, released on Wednesday, concluded that it was probable that Patriots personnel were “involved in a deliberate effort to circumvent the rules.” The report said that Jim McNally, a locker room attendant, and John Jastremski, an equipment assistant, released air from the footballs. It...

Protests have been going on all week (after) Air Force veteran Michelle Manhart, was briefly detained during the flag-trampling protest for taking the flag and refusing to return it. Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress told the Valdosta Daily Times that thousands of people who "just want to come down here and support the American flag" are expected to descend on Valdosta State University.

New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowsi questioned President Obama’s decision to crack a joke about deflated footballs at a White House event honoring the Super Bowl champions. Gronkowski indicated that the team was serious as the Patriots spent time with Obama in the White House before the ceremony on the South Lawn. “If they would have put some tunes on, I would have done some dance moves,” he joked. When asked if there was any drinking with the president, Gronkoswi said no, but wondered if Obama had a few before he made his joke about deflated footballs. “There was...

The New England Patriots are visiting the White House today to receive congratulations from the president for their Super Bowl XLIX championship. But the team's victory lap in the nation's capital will come without their biggest star. Quarterback Tom Brady is snubbing President Barack Obama and won't be there. A spokesman for the team cited 'prior family commitments' as the reason Brady, 37, can't go. The superstar athlete has been to the White House before. He does have three other Super Bowl rings, afterall. But all the prior championships were under the Bush Administration. February's win was the first for...

BOSTON (CBS) — The Patriots will be honored by President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday, but the MVP won’t be in attendance. According to ESPN’s Mike Reiss and the Boston Herald’s Jeff Howe, Tom Brady will not be present at the White House due to a family obligation. Brady has attended three previous trips to the White House, in 2002, 2004 and 2005. The quarterback earned Super Bowl MVP honors for the third time in his career when he threw four touchdowns in a 28-24 win over the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. There’s no reason to...

FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) - Former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez has been found guilty of first-degree murder. He has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A Massachusetts jury on Wednesday found Hernandez killed Odin Lloyd on June 17, 2013. Lloyd was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee. He was found shot six times in an industrial park less than a mile from Hernandez's home. At the time, Hernandez had a $40 million contract with the Patriots. Hernandez's lawyer acknowledged during closing arguments that he was there when Lloyd was killed. But he pinned...

Just U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E !! (HatTip Gateway Pundit) In “honor” of his meeting with China Ambassador Cui Tiankai, Washington Governor Jay Inslee has posted the Chinese flag between the American flag and the state flag at the capitol building in Olympia. Hat Tip State Rep. Elizabeth Scott On Saturday – A small group of people arrived at the capitol in the morning and removed the Communist flag. They were assisted by an officer from the Washington State Police. Video, courtesy of activist Maria Bosworth.

In “honor” of his meeting with China Ambassador Cui Tiankai, Washington Governor Jay Inslee has posted the Chinese flag between the American flag and the state flag at the capitol building in Olympia. Hat Tip State Rep. Elizabeth Scott On Saturday - A small group of people arrived at the capitol in the morning and removed the Communist flag. They were assisted by an officer from the Washington State Police. Video, courtesy of activist Maria Bosworth.

The New England Patriots are for same-sex marriage. So are the San Francisco Giants. The reigning baseball and football champions, along with baseball's small-market Tampa Bay Rays, are among the thousands of businesses, religious groups, advocacy organizations and politicians who are filing legal briefs at the Supreme Court in support of gay marriage. The Patriots play in Massachusetts, the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry, and the Giants represent a city that is notable for its gay and lesbian community. Rays president Brian Auld said it was important that his team stand up, as well. "We're a small...

Big business has come out in favor of same-sex marriage. Exactly 379 corporations and employer organizations urged the Supreme Court to strike down state bans on gay marriage, according to a friend-of-the-court brief obtained by The Huffington Post. The document was expected to be filed late Thursday morning. “Employers are better served by a uniform marriage rule that gives equal dignity to employee relationships,” reads the brief, filed by global law firm Morgan Lewis. “Allowing same-sex couples to marry improves employee morale and productivity, reduces uncertainty, and removes the wasteful administrative burdens imposed by the current disparity of state law...