Brady suspended 4 games

[The Franchise]

I might be in the minority since I'm a diehard Pats fan, but find this almost comical. Plus Patriots lose a 1st Rd and 4th Rd pick next 2 years and a 1 million fine. Wowsers!

I'm sure he will appeal and get it reduced, but for fantasy purposes I wonder how much he gets downgraded or if Gronk and Edleman move down draft boards?

[BillyWaz]

I agree the punishment is very excessive.

You gotta believe that "spygate" and a jealousy of the Pats came into play here as well.

As for your question.....just started a slow draft and Gronk went at 1.12, so it isn't effecting him too much.

[Getpaddled]

Didn't Roger hire a committee that deals with punishments now instead of him? Roger only deals with appeals now?

[BigBlueNation]

I could be wrong, but I think Troy Vincent is somehow responsible for handing out suspensions now. I think this is way excessive. It almost has to be connected to spygate. Brady will appeal, I'm sure. The $1M fine is nothing to an NFL team, but a first rounder next year is pretty severe, plus the 4th rounder in 2017. I can't wait to hear Craft's response.

[Sabretooth]

I'm interested to see how it effect's Gronk's draft position and his stat's the first few game's.

[chriseibl]

Biggest mover down is probably Edelman. Because of Brady's style, it's pretty easy to sit back and watch any of Brady's slot receivers catch 100 passes. It almost affects Brady less than Edelman as it's easier to find a backup QB for a couple weeks.

While Gronk moves down a smidge, I'm more confident in his ability to succeed with any QB.

[The Franchise]

Biggest mover down is probably Edelman. Because of Brady's style, it's pretty easy to sit back and watch any of Brady's slot receivers catch 100 passes. It almost affects Brady less than Edelman as it's easier to find a backup QB for a couple weeks.

While Gronk moves down a smidge, I'm more confident in his ability to succeed with any QB.

I could see any of them dropping if Thursday night doesn't go well. Brown might be locked in as 1st overall pick post-Thursday drafts

[Coltsfan]

It's not very often that a team or player is accused of cheating and trying to alter the outcome of a game. I think this is a different issue than off the field behavior because while a lot of that is in excusable, it's not done with any intent to change the results of a game. It's just somebody being boneheaded and showing lousy judgement. (And yes Rice should have been suspended longer.) But this is twice the NE has intentionally cheated and I can't think of any other team that has been caught cheating these past few years. It's a shame because NE is so good and Brady is fantastic, and I just can't imagine why they think they would need to do something to gain an advantage.

So in my mind it's not about deflating footballs, it's about the intent to try and alter the rules to gain an advantage and knowing that what they were doing is 100% illegal. And I would say the same thing if it were the Colts that did this.


Wayne

[ulbkumn]

Name one team that would not suspend their star player for 4 games, lose 2 draft picks, and pay a million dollars for a Super Bowl Ring. Im not saying that the Patriots cheated when the won the Superbowl or that the deflated balls got them to the Super Bowl. All Im saying is the Patriots go against the spirit of the game. This is not baseball. Last year I watched the Browns put Johnny Manziel in at WR with his back to the field to deceive the defense from thinking he was in on the offensive play. The announcer said that the play was technically an Illegal play because they tried to deceive their formation and against the spirit of the game. When the Patriots played the Ravens in the playoffs this last year they had 6 plays that were legal but not in the spirit of the game. This 6 plays that were used was the very first new rule change this year. The NFL was caught with their pants down when the Patriots used ineligible RBs/Wideouts and had eligible O-lineman go out as WRs. They could not replay this game or give the Ravens the win. And if this would have happened in the Regular season it would have been no big deal because the Refs would have adjusted for later games and given more time to the defense to adjust if this was used again. This brings me back to the point that this was not about deflated balls. It was about the Patriots going against the spirit of the game and the Patriots thinking they above NFL.

[bald is beautiful]

Nelson, it is only the Patriots fans that I have seen get overly worked up about the punishment. It's almost a New England mentality that Brady and the franchise cannot do any wrong.

Most objective observers agree that the Patriots and Brady knew what they were going was wrong. In and of itself, to me this deflation of the balls is not a gross violation of the rules, but it certainly is a violation and they knew it was wrong. New England still would have crushed the Colts that day, but they cheated and they knew it. It's similar to when you and I are speeding by 15 mph over the limit. We knew the rules, but do it anyway. If I get caught, I need to shut up, accept my responsibility and take my punishment.

4 games is excessive, but it most definitely is worse in my mind when he refused to cooperate. If his agent gave him that advice, he ought to be fired. It is a basic Dale Carnegie principle - admit when you are wrong and people get less defensive.