Blog Post #9- Deflategate

     After the 2014 AFC Championship, a controversy involving the air pressure in the footballs used by the Patriots came about. This problem is known as deflate-gate. The New England Patriots have been accused of deflating the footballs used during the victory (45-7) over the Indianapolis Colts for the AFC Championship title. Deflated footballs are liked more by quarterbacks because they are much easier to grip, throw, and catch. The accusation has been argued over by thousands of fans. Many agree that the footballs were deflated on purpose and in a cheating manner. On the other hand, others do not see the evidence as reliable to find the team guilty.

   The accusation in the Wells Report, the report stating that Brady is guilty, is unjust. There is not one place where it specifically says that Tom Brady deflated or had anything to do with the deflation. Brady stated that he has never spoken to the staff in charge of the game balls and had no way of getting to them o change the PSI.    

   The situation of deflate-gate has been analyzed by many. After consideration, Patriots star quarterback, Tom Brady, has been found guilty of the deflation. The patriots have been fined a million dollars and Brady has a suspension to sit the first four out of sixteen games of the upcoming season. This means that Brady will miss the hanging of the Superbowl banner and the team will most likely suffer at least one loss without their starting star player. It is believed that Brady will get a lesser summon because of the lack of hard evidence against him. The punishment is overall extremely harsh considering that deflated footballs do not affect a teams ability to tackle.

   The problem with this this specific situation is that players that have committed violent and malicious crimes have gotten lesser sentences than Brady. One way that the NFL can resolve the situation is by taking away Brady's sentence or lessen it by a few games.