For the second time under Coach Bill Belichick, the Patriots are caught in a scandal. This time, the NFL gave a harsh punishment to the franchise, which I believe was warranted.
The league claims the integrity of the game is always its main concern. The reason I felt the league needed to hand out a harsh punishment to the Patriots in this case is because the NFL needed to send a message to them and to any other franchise that might be thinking about participating in actions of this nature.
The league has been under a lot of criticism lately for its punishment policies. Many fans and analysts feel because it has been scrutinized so much about its past failures the NFL has been quick recently to place harsh punishments on players.
I do believe the league has been a bit quick-tempered in these last few months. But with “Deflategate,” the league got it right.
When players break the law off the field, there needs to be consequences for their actions because they are held to a higher standard, and breaking the law is unacceptable.
However, one player getting into a bar fight does nothing to the actual game being played on Sunday. A bar fight in no way, shape or form gives a team an unfair advantage against another team.
What the Patriots did was give themselves an unfair advantage over the Colts on the field by deflating balls. The overall perception of the league is in trouble when teams start breaking these types of rules. The worst thing that can happen to the NFL is franchises thinking that they can get away with cheating.
If franchises start thinking it is OK to cheat, the integrity of the game will be lost and the NFL will lose fans. The NFL playoffs are highly competitive and extremely unpredictable at times, which is what makes the NFL so exciting. If fans start believing that teams are getting away with cheating on the field they will start to lose interest and may believe the games are being rigged, which is certainly not true.
Brady’s four game suspension, in addition to the Patriots’ one million dollar fine to go along with the loss of a 2016 first-round draft pick and 2017 fourth-round draft pick, was a message to the fans that the NFL will not tolerate cheating of any kind by any team or player.
I have heard some Patriots fans say that the punishment is unprecedented and should be appealed. Although Brady’s four game suspension may be seen as excessive, the forfeit of a draft pick is certainly not unprecedented.
The Atlanta Falcons were fined $350,000 and forced to forfeit their 2016 fifth-round draft pick for pumping fake noise into their stadium. Deflating balls is a significantly worse infraction, so the Patriots got what they deserved.
