It’s hard to live in the United States of America and not
know what’s going on with the New England Patriots. The NFL recently handed down a harsh
punishment to the team and quarterback Tom Brady for what’s commonly referred
to as “Deflategate” as the Patriots defeated the Colts 45-7 in the AFC Championship
game this past January while using under-inflated footballs.
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| Associated Press |
After attorney Ted Wells had concluded his investigation and
his 243-page report was released, NFL Executive Vice President of Football
Operations Troy Vincent came down hard on New England as he fined the franchise
1,000,000 dollars, forced the Patriots to forfeit their 2016 first-round draft
pick and 2017 fourth-round selection, and most importantly suspended quarterback
Tom Brady for the first four games of the 2015 season.
Starting in January after the allegations initially leaked
Brady has repeatedly denied any notion that he requested for underinflated
balls. After Vincent handed down the discipline, Brady and his agent Don Yee
haven’t capitulated and have formally appealed the suspension.
Much has been made this week about whether or not this will
tarnish the legacy of Brady. For some,
Brady is a lying cheater and will always be viewed as such. Others point to the score of the AFC
Championship game and choose not to care about the pounds per square inch of
the footballs because it wouldn’t have made a difference. I’m somewhere in between but the latter does
not hold much weight in my mind.
Just because the game was a blowout should not dismiss the
fact that Brady and the Patriots broke an NFL rule. So what would really be the
best way for Brady to save his legacy of a potential black mark? I don’t
believe appealing and dragging things out is the appropriate course of
action. Anyone that lies about breaking
the rules isn’t going to win over any supporters, especially if he has a chance
to appeal any discipline like Brady is doing, and nothing is overturned in
court. Now perhaps the suspension will get reduced by a game or two but I’d be
surprised if it was totally wiped out like some within Brady’s camp believe
will happen.
I like to make the analogy to baseball and the steroid era.
By no means am I equating taking performance enhancing drugs with deflating
footballs, but look at some of the baseball players that were implicated during
the steroid era and how they chose to handle the situations. Alex Rodriguez repeatedly denied any usage
for years and was eventually suspended for the entire 2014 season. He didn’t exactly win any supporters
throughout the process and now even Yankee fans view him in a negative
light.
On a much smaller scale, Andy Pettite admitted immediately
after being accused of using human growth hormone that he did it. In my eyes, and I’m sure many others feel the
same way, it’s easy to move past Pettite’s situation because of the way he
handled it. Whereas Rodriguez’s was
dragged out and the longer things went on the more supporters he lost.
Maybe it isn’t the best analogy, but I have a hard time
believing Brady’s legacy wouldn’t be in better shape if he didn’t just own up
to his mistake. Everyone could move on.
It’s hard to really believe Brady is telling the truth when he says he
did not request for under-inflated footballs and if he had just admitted to
making a mistake and the organization quietly accepted the punishment this
would all be over. Instead, his legacy
could very well wind up with a hefty asterisk attached to it in the eyes of
many fans.
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