Before I say anything else, I want to be clear about one thing: I don't care that much about Deflategate. I really don't. I had a dentist appointment on Tuesday and I sat in a chair for 30 minutes while the hygienist scraped and poked my teeth. The TV was tuned to ESPN and Mike & Mike in the Morning was on (but neither Mike nor Mike was there - they both had people filling in for them). For the entire half hour, Deflategate was the only topic of discussion, and it was obnoxious. Even if part of this post reads like I'm getting worked up about this, I'm not. I just don't care. It's baseball season. I'm more interested in that.
Having said that, I also don't like cheaters. We can talk about how much Brady actually cheated, and whether or not it really impacted the game (spoiler alert: nope). We can talk about how other QBs do it, and how difficult the rule is to enforce. All that's find and dandy, but when we're done talking about all those things, there will be something that's still true: Brady cheated. What's also true? He lied about it.
I don't know if a four-game suspension is the "right" amount of punishment for him or not. See paragraph #1 about how much I care. But our brother, Jase, had a very interesting proposal. The NFL should suspend Brady not just for four games, but for four postseason games. The cheating took place during the AFC Championship game. Brady sits out the first four games of the regular season, then comes back in Game 5 and leads his team to the postseason once again. His cheating is forgotten. But if he were allowed to play the full regular season knowing that he would be forbidden to compete in any playoff games or the Super Bowl, that would be a real punishment.
Maybe what he did wasn't that egregious. Maybe other guys do it all the time. It definitely didn't contribute (much) to the sound thumping they put on the opponent in that game.
But none of that matters.
Imagine describing the situation to your kids. Do you really want to say to them, "Cheating shouldn't really be punished as long as you're not cheating too much, or if all the other boys cheat too"?
The NFL ought to make it hurt Brady. I'm not sure four games will do that.
Go ahead. Your turn now.
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