New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has been handed a four-game ban without pay by the NFL for his role in 'Deflate-gate', the league announced on Monday.
Brady will be able to participate in all off-season, training camp and pre-season activities, including pre-season games. But he will have to sit the regular-season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers and will not be eligible to return until New England's week five game at Indianapolis.
The Patriots were also fined $1 million and will forfeit their first-round draft pick in 2016 and a fourth-round pick in 2017 for their "violation of the playing rules and the failure to cooperate in the subsequent investigation," a league statement said.
“We reached these decisions after extensive discussion with Troy Vincent and many others,” commissioner Roger Goodell said in the statement. “We relied on the critical importance of protecting the integrity of the game and the thoroughness and independence of the Wells report.”
From a football perspective, the punishment affects the AFC East race. The Patriots' backup quarterback is second-year player Jimmy Garoppolo, who has thrown 27 NFL regular-season passes.
The last time a team other than Patriots won the AFC East was 2008, when the Miami Dolphins won the division in a year Brady was injured the first regular-season game and missed the rest of the year.
Off the field, the controversy headed toward its conclusion — likely pending an appeal — when independent investigator Ted Wells' report, released last week, found that it was "more probable than not" that Brady "was at least generally aware" footballs were purposely deflated before the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts. The Patriots, who won the game, 45-7, and disputed the findings.
What was left to be determined was what punishment Brady and the Patriots might face from Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations, although that missing piece hardly kept the controversy from continuing to drive a national conversation among the media, NFL teams, current and former players and, of course, comedians.
Over the weekend, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, in an email to Boston.com, said that the league had yet to reach a decision on a punishment for Brady's role in allegedly deflating footballs during the Patriots' AFC Championship Game against the Colts, and that a headline in Sunday's New York Daily News' — "Tom Brady will be suspended by Roger Goodell for role in 'Deflate-Gate', announcement expected next week" — was wrong.
At the same time, as Brady was speaking only briefly while others were defending him or completely dodging 'Deflate-gate', the issue continued to percolate.
Legendary Dolphins coach Don Shula, serving as a guest of honor at the team's 50th season celebration, reminded the crowd that he became the winningest coach in NFL history without gaining any illegal advantages.
"Our record in those 50 years was always done with a lot of class, a lot of dignity, a lot of doing it the right way," Shula said in his speech, via ESPN.com. "We didn't deflate any balls."
Even before Well's report, as far back as January, Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana placed the blame solely on Brady. Whether Monday's announcement will tarnish Brady's legacy can't be known at this point, but clearly he was affected by not cooperating in the 'Deflate-gate' controversy.
According to Pro Football Talk, his refusal to fully cooperate with Wells' investigation meant that under the NFL’s Policy on Integrity of the Game & Enforcement of Competitive Rules he was considered conduct detrimental to the league. The rule states, “Failure to cooperate in an investigation shall be considered conduct detrimental to the League and will subject the offending club and responsible individual(s) to appropriate discipline.”
In terms of punishment, longtime CBS newsman Bob Schieffer, a big baseball fan, could not help but reminisce Sunday on "Face the Nation" about how cheating was an everyday part of that game and once caught, players' actions would be dealt with in the midst of the game. His solution to make sure 'Deflate-gate' never happens again seems so obvious, it's a wonder the NFL has not adopted it already.
The results of Wells' investigation and subsequent punishment could be seen damning to an organization that is not nearly far enough removed from Spygate to find itself in the web of another cheating scandal.
While the gains associated with a deflated football are debatable and have been disputed by some of the game's legends since the Colts pointed a finger at the Patriots, the optics of such a strategy — whether broad-based on narrow in focus — are damaging.