A one year suspension would cost Brady $7,000,000.
The NFL fine for breaking the rule is $25,000.
There is no justification for fining Brady 280 times what the rule book says the fine is..
There are those that say the real reason for the suspension is that Tom Brady snubbed Obama when the Patriots were feted by Obama at the White House and Brady was a no-show.
morals clause for better or worse but certainly within the NFL’s power.
I think that is silly.
Most likely the NFL is just bowing before the firestorm of the Mob (and the Mob regularly does dangerously destructive ignorant things, as our Founding Fathers noted).
The NFL had a choice of letting the blame fall on someone associated with the Patriots, or on the league offices and officials. They chose someone outside who they could string together an argument that could appear at least plausible and focussed on that, rather than on the consistent examples that the rule was never really adhered to or considered important in regards pressure, and that there was evidence out there that the officials not only disregarded the rule, but participated in violating it.
The NFL was fortunate that there were no more home games, and thus no alternate examples after the hysteria began.
Agreed. The penalty should be what the rules say not what the lynch mob wants.
Rush made a good point on Friday. This smells like a set up because Brady pissed off the wrong people and the Pats were too successful.
Did something happen to the balls? Quite possibly. Did the investigation, flawed to the extreme, manage to provide solid proof that Brady or the Pats organization directed events. No.