NFL And Tom Brady Need To End Deflategate Story For The Sake Of Football Fans

(Greg M. Cooper/USA Today)

Since January, the world of the NFL (and ESPN) has been dominated by the Deflategate “scandal” involving four-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady. It all started when the Indianapolis Colts noticed that the game balls were softer than normal during the AFC Championship Game and alerted officials. The Patriots blew out the Colts 45-7 in game that was really over by halftime as New England moved on to Super Bowl XLIX where they defeated the Seattle Seahawks. Before that much anticipated game however, there was something that the media was talking about and it wasn’t the Legion of Boom against the Patriot offense.

It was the charge from the Colts about the under inflated balls. According to a report from ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, 11 of the 12 balls from the AFC Championship Game were 2 PSI below the limit for the game. That story, which Mortensen said he received from NFL sources, opened the floodgates and the story began to gain stream. Brady had a press conference which comedians around the world were chuckling at because of the subject matter. Bill Belichick gave us a science lesson on PSI and atmospheric pressure and invoked the name of Marisa Tomei’s character in “My Cousin Vinny” during his press conference. It was Super Bowl week and the only thing people cared about was deflated balls.

Those events led to the NFL suspending Brady for the first four games of the 2015 NFL season. Being that this was the first time this has ever happened in the league, the suspension was to set a precedent for similar situations in the future. However Brady got four games for reportedly deflating footballs but Greg Hardy got his suspended reduced to just 4 games for a domestic violence case. Of course Brady appealed the suspension and after what seemed like endless hours of talking, the suspension was upheld by Commissioner Roger Goodell and now we have Brady, the NFL Player Association and the league going to court and/or trying to settle the case of deflated balls.

Can we all just agree that this story is officially played out? There was talk from jaded Patriot haters that Brady and his team should vacate their newly won World Championship. Others said that Brady should miss the entire 2015 NFL season and/or be banned. Of course those were the crazies talking so no one took those statements seriously. Looking at the penalty that was levied by the NFL and by former NFL player and current NFL Vive President of Football Operations Troy Vincent, not Roger Goddell as many believes, it seemed as if it was fair according to what was reported in The Wells Report.

While The Wells Report seemed to have put Brady in a bad light, it never really implicated Brady directly. While Jim McNally (officials’ locker room attendant for the Patriots) and John Jastremski (an equipment assistant for the Patriots) were implicated and Brady’s name mentioned by the two men, there was never a smoking gun that put Brady in the crosshairs. The result of the reports stated that Brady “more probable than not that Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski involving the release of air from Patriots game balls.”  What that means I have no idea.

So now we have added intrigue after the transcripts of Brady’s marathon appeal hearing was released on Tuesday. Nothing major seen in those transcripts except that Brady answered many questions with one word answers and that he receives free phones which makes it easier to destroy his phones on a regular basis. I’m just irritated that he gets free phones because that iPhone 6 is pretty cool but it’s like $600 but I digress. The whole reason behind the suspension it seems is because Brady would not release his phone and records to investigators which shows guilt in their eyes. Now both Brady and Goddell are ordered to meet on August 12^th in an attempt to settle this feud.

Both parties look ridiculous at this point. Brady’s reputation is already tarnished a bit in the eyes of fans outside of New England. The Patriots look like the team that cheats and finds loopholes at every turn going back to the Spygate situation a few years. Robert Kraft going petulant child after the Brady penalty was upheld, even after accepting the team’s penalty of a $1 million fine and the loss of two draft picks, smells of sour grapes.

The NFL has bigger issues as they are using the Brady situation to make up for their botched judgments in the recent Hardy, Ray Rice and Ray McDonald cases. They are also looking at this case and almost penalizing Brady for the past transgressions of the Patriots and he is taking the hit for the whole team. The NFL are taking Brady to the woodshed for something that I’m pretty sure happens in every locker room in the league, with the difference being that Brady got ratted out but a team that he carves up on a pretty regular basis.

The settlement talks coming up are also comical. The NFL wants four games off for Brady. Brady and his team want no suspension. The NFL is willing to reduce the suspension to two games but Brady needs to admit guilt which is never going to happen. I see the last resort to make amends as this…Brady and Goddell in a Steel Cage, deflated ball on a pole match at WWE’s Summerslam in Brooklyn in three weeks.

Here’s hoping that this thing gets settled and finalized soon. Both parties petitioned that the case is ruled on before the start of the NFL season and it will. One party will not be happy with the result, whether it is settled or a judge makes a judgment on the case. I’m sick of keeping tabs on this case and it’s just getting tiresome and pointless. Everyone is the villain here and there is changing that.

Can we just talk about football now?