Tom Brady’s suspension and the harshest all-time NFL penalties
How does the Patriots’ DeflateGate penalty stack up with punishments from NFL history?
The NFL really makes it very difficult to enjoy football sometimes.
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When it’s not the looming specter of concussions hanging over the league like a dark cloud, it’s various NFL-doled punishments that make no sense, or the increasing appearance that the league does whatever it can to make money no matter the circumstances.
Just take the recent punishment of the New England Patriots in the DeflateGate scandal. This turned into a media circus, but it’s really a simple problem: take the evidence gathered by the investigation, and come up with a punishment that fits the rules. Instead, the NFL blew things way out of proportion, taking away a first and fourth-round pick, fining the team $1 million, and suspending quarterback Tom Brady for four games.
It increasingly seems like the NFL is using the giant wheel from The Price Is Right to determine its punishments. Just take a look at these recent penalties:
Ray Rice (domestic violence): 2 games, later indefinite suspension after release of video of public
Adrian Peterson (child abuse): indefinite suspension
Josh Gordon (marijuana): 16 games (later 10 games)
Atlanta Falcons (pumping in crowd noise): $350,000 fine and loss of fifth-round pick
Cleveland Browns (texts from GM to sideline): Four-game suspension for GM Ray Farmer, $250,000 fine
New England Patriots (deflating footballs): Four-game suspension for Tom Brady, loss of first and fourth-round picks, $1 million fine
Do you see a pattern there? If so, you’re the only one. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the punishments handed out by the NFL under commissioner Roger Goodell. If you’re trying to sense a pattern here, it seems that the NFL believes that marijuana use is eight times worse than domestic violence, and that the fact that Tom Brady “probably” knew about deflated game balls is twice as bad as Ray Rice brutally punching his finacee in an elevator. Makes sense, right?
The upshot of all of this is that the Patriots’ penalty for the so-called “DeflateGate” scandal may rank up with the harshest penalties ever handed out by the league. This week, the Patriots decided to accept the league’s punishment, meaning they will be stuck with these huge consequences. Let’s take a look back at some of those punishments, and compare.
Next: New Orleans Saints, 2010