Fansided

Tom Brady’s four-game suspension was the right move

By Jack Crosby

Feb 1, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) reacts after throwing an interception during the third quarter against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 1, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) reacts after throwing an interception during the third quarter against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports /
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The NFL threw the book at Tom Brady on Monday and it was absolutely the right thing to do

Very few times can we ever look the the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell and say they got something right in terms of handing out punishments. But on Monday, with the news that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has been suspended the first four games of the 2015 season, we absolutely can look at them and give them a nice thumbs up gesture collectively.

As part of the punishment for the Patriots and their role in DeflateGate, the four-time Super Bowl winning quarterback has been told that he has to stay at home for the first four games of the season. Some will say that this was too much, while others will say that it’s not even enough (there were some that expected him to miss half the season at eight games.) However, 1/4 of the season missed is just right and it sends a good message.

That’s the theme of all this really: Sending a message.

Tom Brady is one of the highest-profile players not just in the NFL, but in all of sports. After the findings were released last week from the 136-page Wells Report on DeflateGate and Brady was more or less implicated, Roger Goodell knew that he had to drop the hammer on the star. Given punishments that he’s handed out to smaller-profile players in the past, if he let Brady off easy after what was found in that report, the outrage would have been immense and it would have just been another black eye on he and his league. On thing we know for sure in all of this is that the NFL does not need another bout of poor-decision making that leads to bad publicity from any angle.

Did the findings in the Wells Report specifically peg Brady as guilty in all of this? No. But there was just enough in there to warrant sitting four games at home. Hell, had Tom Brady cooperated with the investigation and handed over his phone, and it was found that, yes, he was indeed guilty of having the footballs deflated for his own personal gain, then we’d be talking about eight games…or possibly more.

But in the grand scheme of it all, given what was released in the infamous Wells Report under a week ago, four games where Tom Brady has to sit at home with Gisele is just right.

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