Payback.
Eight years after Spygate, the 31 other NFL owners and general managers finally got what they wanted Monday. Payback in the form of an overly excessive and severe penalty that will hit the Patriots hard on the field, in the front office and in the pocket book.
How else to explain Monday's gross and ridiculous overreach of a penalty handed down to
Tom Brady and the Patriots' organization?
Four games, $1 million and the loss of two draft picks for taking air out of footballs that a league employee - NFL referee Walt Anderson - was supposed to check before they were ever entered into the game.
It was NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent who admitted Monday that "in 2007, the club and several individuals were sanctioned" for their role in taping signals. Vincent added, "This prior violation of competitive rules was properly considered in determining the discipline in this case."
One rather huge problem with that logic, Troy.
The Wells Report never proved
Tom Brady or the Patriots cheated. It never proved he ordered the balls below 12.5 PSI. It never proved he suggested any Patriots personnel take balls from the possession of Anderson.
If you want to prove a player or team obstructed an investigation, the first place to start is with an independent arbiter, which Ted Wells clearly wasn't. He was hired by Roger Goodell and the owners to draw conclusions in a case they could never make.
Vincent, the former cornerback of the
Philadelphia Eagles, could relate with this metaphor. The league was beaten badly over the top by Brady and the Patriots and Vincent was looking back for a flag for offensive pass interference.
That wouldn't work in a game and it's not going to work in front of an independent arbitrator.
Monday's four-game suspension of the game's greatest quarterback had more to do with catching the Patriots in the act of covering up than the crime itself.
What the NFL proved Monday night is that it's a league completely and utterly without any social and ethical compass. Rather than dealing appropriately with the Adrian Petersons and Ray Rices, they would prefer to hand out their stiffest financial penalty ever for a cheating case they admittedly could never prove based on an investigative report that a first-year law student would be flunked on for poor arguments and vague and unsubstantiated conclusions.
Let's make something transparently clear. Brady was suspended, the team was docked $1 million and lost a first-round pick in 2016 and a fourth-rounder in 2017 because the NFL thinks the quarterback and team obstructed justice.
The NFL wanted to overcompensate for its inept handling of Rice and Peterson. It thinks Brady not handing over his phone led directly to obstruction. That decision by Brady was a wise one given the ineptitude of the report and the gross negligence of the league in handling a case of equipment violations.
This whole act was not only faulty, it was "predetermined" as Brady agent Don Yee pointed out in his response Monday night, minutes after digesting the Vincent statement.
If you're going to claim that
Tom Brady didn't hand over his cell phone or his messages as grounds for obstruction, then Yee can - and probably will - in the discussion point out that several hours of his client's testimony wasn't even included in the report.
That's grossly one-sided. If you're the league, you can't have it both ways.
Sure, the NFL can suspend its superstar four games for not handing over his phone, but anyone who looks closely at how this investigation was handled realizes what Yee points out.
"The Wells Report presents significant evidence that the NFL lacks standards or protocols with respect to its handling of footballs prior to games," Yee writes. "This is not the fault of Tom or the Patriots. The report also presents significant evidence the NFL participated with the Colts in some type of pre-AFC championship planning regarding the footballs.
"This fact may raise serious questions about the integrity of the games we view on Sunday. Sadly, today's decision diminishes the NFL as it tells its fans, players and coaches that the games on the field don't count as much as the games played on Park Avenue."
Boom. Right to the heart. If you're going to assassinate the character of
Tom Brady, we're going to turn the tables and rightly question the integrity of your entire league.
"The NFL has a well-documented history of making poor disciplinary decisions that often are overturned when truly independent and neutral judges or arbitrators preside, and a former federal judge has found the commissioner has abused his discretion in the past, so this outcome does not surprise me," Yee said.
So,
Tom Brady didn't fully cooperate in an investigation that was neither thorough nor independent.
Adding to all of this is the report last Friday that the Colts were a proxy on behalf of others trying to catch the game's "best cheaters."
Brady shouldn't be penalized. He and his representatives should be awarded a legal medal for recognizing a hit job when they see one.
Yee and Brady's representatives will have no problem shredding this case and getting his suspension reduced, if not thrown out all together.
Then, and only then, fans of the most popular sport ever in America can start believing the NFL isn't playing games with the reputation of its biggest stars.
