RingPats

Hahahahahahahahaha man, I underestimated the NFL. That’s a biggie.

4 game suspension – ooooh nice
2016 1st rounder – On par with Spygate, seems fair
2017 4th rounder – lol that’s kinda random
(does Dr. Evil Impression) 1 MILLION DOLLARS – okay, that’s actually a big fine even if it still won’t make a dent

I think a lot of the outrage over the extent of the punishment is by people who aren’t taking into account that this is the second offense. I was pretty stunned by the extent of it but mostly because I didn’t think the NFL had the balls. Spygate was a first rounder, 500k fine for Belichick and 250k for the Pats. This is twice the dollars and an extra pick, honestly it kind of makes sense. The only real new part is the suspension, which I think mostly resulted from Tom’s attempts to cover up and lie about it. The lies in his press conference, then he refused to give investigators his phone. I thought the phone thing was fishy but not unreasonable, but when I found out he basically had permission to offer them only parts of his phone, that he could effectively censor what he wanted, and he still denied it. Ooof. Those are the actions of someone who has something to hide and thinks he’s gonna get away with it.

So honestly, I’m okay with the punishment. It makes more sense than it initially appears to, at least for me. A lot of haters think the NFL was too weak, that this called for an entire season off, to which I can just laugh. Seriously? A year for this? Are you nuts? Second offense or not, cheating or not, these are deflated balls. This isn’t a bounty system to injure players for profit. These are saggy balls. It’s not worth a year off. I won’t comment on Patriots fans who are still convinced they are being persecuted and are convinced that Kraft, Brady and Belichick are golden gods who simply cannot do anything wrong (Which is funny, because they usually embrace the EVIL EMPIRE jokes when they aren’t being accused of anything). Patriot fan tears are the best part of this whole stupid mess and it’s delightful. For the rest of eternity we will get to make cheater jokes to forever torment them. Brady will forever have doubters, even if he is still one of the best ever. He’s just not unquestionably one the best ever anymore, because now we all have questions.

cry
Edit: This might be conspiratorial of me, but part of me wonders if the NFL came down so hard as a future negotiation tactic. If they bring a big punishment now, and the Patriots win the appeal process, the NFL can reduce to punishment but it’ll still be a pretty big punishment because it started so high.