Tom Brady's Deflategate Punishment? Eight Game Suspension - No Pay!

New England Patriots' "golden boy" Tom Brady, was like a king holding court at Salem State University - the audience full of mindless Patsy homers  and groupies. Typical reactions from these goobers: "He did nothing wrong!" and "This is a conspiracy between the NFL and the Colts!" Right, well hopefully most of those making such claims haven't received degrees.

Alas, the stage setting was not conducive to hard questions by interviewer Jim Gray (who acknowledged the event was scheduled before the Ted Wells report came out), what with random shouts of "We love ya Tommy!" and "We know you're innocent!" ringing out. But Gray, to his credit, at least tried his best.

He noted "there is an in the elephant room " - to which Brady popped, "Where?" And Gray retorted, "You may be the only one that doesn't see it."

When Gray added "You're in the news here, and the Ted Wells report has just been released", the crowd delivered a trademark chorus of homer-style  boos -  acknowledging for any doubters that they were dedicated to denial. Hear no evil, see no evil, and acknowledge no evil.

When Gray asked Brady for his reaction to the report, numerous bobble-headed mutts yelped "Who cares?" laced with other epithets mainly preceded by Fs. Meanwhile, Brady flashed his typical shit-eating grin and said "See,  I can't usually say those things".

When he finally settled down he said "I don't have any reaction since it's only been thirty hours and I haven't had a chance to digest it fully. But when I do I'll be sure to get back to you."

Great escape hatch!  But most of us aren't buying.

One of the Homer Boston Globe sports writers added to those egregious takes, telling anchor Chris Hayes: "Most of us think this is the greatest story about nothing ever."

Well, of course they would, the same as Warren Commission diehard groupies would be convinced any evidence for conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination is the "greatest story about nothing ever".

Why would they believe otherwise with luminaries like Vince Bugliosi and Gerald Posner brainwashing them that way?

But let's return to deflategate. As I noted in a Jan. 22 blog post, this dismissive attitude uncovers an ethical blind spot in too many who also spout nonsense such as:

Cripes! Big deal! The Patriots killed them 45 to 7 ! So without the tampering maybe it would have been 45-14. Who cares?".

Which totally misses the central point:  cheating to gain an unfair advantage irrespective of the outcome, while destroying the integrity of the game itself - risking fan alienation similar to the PED effects in major league baseball.   It doesn't matter if the final score was 70-7 or even  200-7, it is the principle  and the intention that we are about here.  Did it break a rule or not? If it did it demands a sanction.

Other claims aggregate around the:  "It was just gamesmanship,  not cheating" trope. Somehow merely changing the word to a euphemism renders the nefarious act innocuous.  The cheaters thereby become merely winners in disguise if they're  prepared to use their talents in innovative ways.

Those who peddle the gamesmanship meme are so inured to PR and media junk food, they are no longer able to discern flatulence from significance. They can no longer see principles - other than as expedient hostages to money and profits that accumulate for "winners".  No thought of how the integrity of the game  has been seriously been eroded. Further, what's the message to students, for example?  That cheating is ok just as long as they think of it as "gamesmanship".  I can take this illegal calculator into my trig class when it is explicitly forbidden.

"I ain't cheatin' just gamin' the system!"

This brings us to the penalty the NFL ought to level on Brady after finding, via the Wells report, that he "probably knew about the deflated footballs".  One sportscaster interviewed last week on CBS Early Show didn't mince words, asserting a mere fine would be a joke. "He could pay a hundred thousand fine right out of his pocket!" 

He stated that a suspension would be the only penalty worth anything, and indicated all eyes will be on the NFL to see whether they treat if flippantly - like Brady and his Patsy homers at Salem State - or seriously as a threat to the game's integrity.

What magnitude of suspension? He said "eight games" or half the season, with which I agree.  ESPN's Keith Olbermann didn't hold back while airing his grievances against Tom Brady last Thursday, saying the Super Bowl-winning quarterback should be suspended a year for his role in Deflategate and his mishandling of the scandal.

"They need to suspend Tom Brady for a year -- one day for the inflation, 364 days for everything else," he said in his commentary during his ESPN2 program. "Everything else" would encompass Brady's refusal to turn over emails, text messages, as well as his flippant takes including before (media day)  and after the SuperBowl.

Olbermann earlier zeroed in on the "innocent until proven guilty" defense of Brady's father:

"In a courtroom you're innocent until proven guilty. Everywhere else, like in a private company like the National Football League, or even in a government, 'probable' is plenty. Ask Richard Nixon. Ask Dan Rather. Ask Pete Rose."

Bingo! 

But will the NFL deliver a serious punishment, even after venerable Dolphins' coach Don Shula weighed in on how bad the deflategate  perfidy was - saying his perfect 17-0  (1972) team never had to resort to such hijinks?

I don't know. But whether that happens or not, New England's legacy will be tainted as will Tom Brady's - the same way Barry Bonds' legacy has been. (With an asterisk * beside his home run record).   This is the lesson that needs to be brought home to the kids who follow football, as well as other sports. 

Cheating never pays!

Hal Bodley is Right: Hank Aaron Is the Only Genuine Home Run King

55-year baseball writer Hal Bodley, on 'Morning Joe' today to advertise for his new book, 'How Baseball Explains America' deserves kudos for telling it like it is regarding the slimeball, Barry Bonds, and why only Henry Aaron merits being the Home Run King. When asked about how he would "contextualize"  the 1990s and the "PED era" especially Barry Bonds surpassing Aaron's HR record, Bodley didn't mince words. He sated emphatically that Bonds' HR records needs to be asterisked (*). He can't be allowed to just own the top record in baseball without qualification.

Most fans know San Fran fave Barry Bonds used steroids for years to build up muscle mass, just so he could overtake the greatest slugger of all time: Henry Aaron.  Honest baseball observers were astounded as Bonds morphed from a guy of more or less average muscle mass to something resembling the Hulk.  It didn't take a physician to realize something was rotten in the city by the bay and it wasn't days old fish in the markets.  At least the last Hall of Fame vote kept this miscreant Bonds out, as it should in perpetuity,  see

http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2014/01/08/baseball-hall-of-fame-vote-how-much-will-barry-bonds-lose-by/

Why the hell poison the Hall of Fame and its creds by allowing this punk in? Just to appease Giants' fans? Sorry, there aren't enough of them and those who back Bonds need to be ignored. Baseball, in a life or death struggle with NFL Football for the soul and interest of the nation, needs Bonds like it needs.....well....Ebola!  He's a blight on the sport as much as all the other MFs that used PEDs and soiled the game.  Hell, they've probably done as much damage to the game as the 'Black Sox' scandal back in 1919.

 As for the HR record, I still regard all Bonds' homers over 500  as bogus while Aaron retains the actual - real record (755). I mean, Aaron earned it!

In 1954, Aaron came to the Milwaukee Braves (after they moved from Boston in April, 1953) from Jacksonville in the Sally League.  While living in Milwaukee at the time, both Aaron and Eddie Matthews (3rd base slugger) both became household names as multiple TV spots announced the stellar names and featured interviews. One afternoon, in early April, 1954, my dad came bolting through the door hollering: "You have to see this!"

We all gathered round, 4 kids and mom, to behold a Kelloggs' Corn Flake top with two names scribbled on top in black ink:

'Eddie Matthews' and "Henry Aaron"

"They were at the A&P!" Dad blurted. "And all I had was this cereal box to get their autographs! Sorry!"


From then I followed the Braves and Aaron religiously, watching baseball games nearly every Saturday.  I also did what kids at the time usually did, trade (or flip) for the best TOPPS Baseball cards in order to collect as many of the Braves as possible. Eventually, ending up with most in the 1954 series.

The World Series in 1957 marked the pinnacle of the Braves' sojourn in Milwaukee, as they beat the New York Yankees four games to three, with the last game in Milwaukee. Aaron was sensational, collecting 4 hits in 5 separate Series games and hit .333.

When Al Downing tossed up the ball that Aaron served up for home run 715 in Atlanta, all original Braves' fans cheered, and couldn't understand how or why rednecks in the South would send him hate mail for besting Ruth's record.  We had to believe that it was all about racial hate, and the crackers just despised Aaron because he was black. They couldn't handle him bypassing a great white man, Babe Ruth.

Bonds besting Aaron, of course, is totally different, since Bonds resorted to steroids to put on muscle mass to enhance his homer rate. Aaron, using only his God-given talent and powerful (8")  wrists, did it on his own - and often against fearsome hate, detraction from Red state Ruth backers.  Aaron is also the embodiment of the gentleman who's set by example, in contrast to Bonds.

The last game in which I saw Aaron play was in August, 1976,  when Aaron's Milwaukee Brewers played the Oakland As at County Stadium and beat them 4-3 in a hum dinger. Wifey and I saw everything - from a rare triple play, to a balk, inside the park homer, and a full out bench -emptying brawl and player ejection.

Aaron overall probably did more than many players to shape the game and as Bodley points out, that needs to be respected.

At the same time, the game needs to speed up and bring more of the younger generation into the fold. Yes, football (soon to start again) is great too, but baseball is much more part of the core and history of this country and for many of us remains the national pastime.