Gisele's Hubby Slapped With Suspension, Patriots Fined a Cool Million

And a draft  pick. Via Hot Air: NFL hands down 4-game suspension for Tom Brady, Pats get fined $1M

When the DeflateGate report emerged, it offered a somewhat-qualified condemnation for star Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, concluding that he was at least “generally aware of the tampering.” Brady refused to fully cooperate in the probe, but the investigators found text messages between the two equipment managers that strongly suggested Brady not only kept tabs on the cheating, but also incentivized it. Still, at the time I was skeptical that the league would take action against one of its most bankable stars. “Brady should be penalized as well,” I wrote, “but don’t expect the league to sideline one of its biggest stars over something like this.”

He gave them signed game balls, worth plenty on the souvenir market. No word on their inflation level.

Looks like I was wrong:

Tom Brady, the star quarterback of the New England Patriots, was suspended for four games after an investigator concluded he was probably aware that team personnel let air out of footballs for a playoff game.
“Quarterback Tom Brady will be suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2015 regular season for conduct detrimental to the integrity of the NFL.” the league said in a statement Monday afternoon. “Brady may participate in all off-season, training camp and pre-season activities, including pre-season games.”

So yeah, he's kind of getting rapped on the knuckles by the nuns and being told to go forth and sin no more.

The punishment extends to the whole team, and especially the two men who conspired to manipulate the footballs. Both of them are now indefinitely suspended from the league, which means they’re not just looking for new jobs but new careers. The Patriots didn’t come out of this unscathed:

The league also fined the Patriots $1 million and took away two draft picks, including next years’ first-round choice.
The NFL also indefinitely suspended the two equipment staffers who carried out the plan, including one who called himself “The Deflator.”

The picks are from next year’s first round and 2017’s fourth round. The official NFL statement suggests that the lack of cooperation into the probe was a factor in determining the punishment.

A million bucks? Probably not a real big deal in the overall economics of the Patriots. Hell they probably save that on Brady's salary during the suspension.

A few people seem to be concerned that the NFL is taking these huge monetary penalties against Brady and the Patriots based on a standard of proof that seems to be "more likely than not" that Brady "was generally aware of the tampering" is a standard of proof (50.1%) much lower than is required for conviction of a crime, "beyond reasonable doubt":

Ostensibly, this burden requires that a trier of fact (judge, jury, arbiter) is fully satisfied and entirely convinced to a moral certainty that the evidence presented proves the guilt of the defendant. There is essentially no room for wavering or uncertainty; the trier of fact believes the evidence to be precise, indubitable, and leaves one with an inescapable conclusion of certainty. Whereas, in a civil trial, a party may prevail with as little as 51 percent probability (a preponderance), those legal authorities who venture to assign a numerical value to “beyond a reasonable doubt” place it in the certainty range of 98 or 99 percent.

This is true, but the NFL is not a criminal court, it is an employer, and as such it should be able to act on a much lower standard of evidence than near certainty. Certainly if a bank were pretty sure somebody was stealing from them, they would have the right to fire someone, or as would be more similar to this action, move them to a lower paying job where they had less access to money.

Nobody except a few conservative hate mongers seems to care that the Obama administration, college administrators and feminists are demanding that colleges be allowed to

Anyway, it will be real shame for Tom to be force to be the house-husband for four weeks, and rely on Gisele's paltry income (estimated at 47.5 million) to cover the bills.

It's a much bigger deal for the two equipment people who have apparently been banned from football for life. As a plumber once told me "Shit don't flow uphill."

I hope Brady takes care of them.

Wombat-socho puts up "Rule 5 Sunday: Last Dance In Washington" on time and within budget.