We all know the story of Tom Brady and the footballs.   My personal opinion is that the NFL should step up and send a message to the Patriots and suspend Tom Brady for the 2015 / 2016 Season.

So listening to sports talk radio, and reading some stuff on the web,  I have heard it all from the Tom Brady supporters  – “There is no true evidence that he knew anything”, “So what if he told the equipment managers to deflate the football, is no big deal”, “Why does anybody care?”.

In simplest terms – He purposely tried to circumvent the rules that were agreed upon.    If he liked the footballs  a certain way, there are a few things that he could have done within the guidelines of the rules.   Just like baseball pitchers who scuff up balls once they have been put in play (And if they go too far the balls are removed by the umpires), he could  squeeze and roll the footballs on the ground before the game, or maybe even jump up and down on them to get them to feel better.  He could hold the balls next to the superheaters or super coolers to see if heating / cooling them makes them feel better.   Between games, he could tell his coach or owner that he likes the balls a little less inflated, and who can he talk to in the league offices about possibly getting the rules altered.   Instead he worked with the equipment managers to purposely try and get around the rules.    Rules that are part of the game and agreed upon by all team to make sure the game is fair to all teams.

I understand that all team  and players are always trying to circumvent some rules or regulations (They all eventually get caught and fined).   But when you then act like it’s no big deal or pretend like everybodys doing it so why can’t I, you deserve to be suspended just to prove to others that this will not be tolerated.

I head a few people say that the NFL can’t suspend him for more than 1 or 2 games because of previous suspensions to players like Ray Rice or  Greg Hardy.   Look at it this way.   If somebody who works for a bank gets in trouble with the law (outside of work) – i.e. they get caught drunk driving, the bank my reprimand them but more than likely they would keep there job.  But if they got caught fixing the books and skimming some money for their own, they would most likely be fired.    I doubt the “Hey the bank has lots of money so whats the big deal”, or “Everybody takes a few dollars here and there” would go over well

Bottom Line – He knowingly tried to cheat and needs to be suspended.   And the suspension needs to be significant to send a message that cheating is not to be tolerated

Side Note – Funniest thing I heard was when somebody called Evan Cohen the morning and called him out for defending Bill Belichick (How can you expect Bill to know everything that goes on with the team and the equipment?) while a while back he killed Dolphins coach Joe Philbin (“He’s the head coach, should know everything ,  and should be fired for what happened with the Dolphins and Richie Incognito).   Evan had no reply, went to a commercial break and then never mentioned this again.   Just goes to show how hypocritical and closed minded most people are.