Greeson: NFL sends message with Patriots' penalties

In this Jan. 18, 2015, file photo, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady looks to pass during the first half of the NFL football AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts in Foxborough, Mass.
In this Jan. 18, 2015, file photo, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady looks to pass during the first half of the NFL football AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts in Foxborough, Mass.

The NFL dropped its fully inflated punishment on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots for the DeflateGate mess.

The league suspended Brady for the first four games of the 2016 season and took away a first-round draft pick in 2016 and a fourth-round pick in 2017 from the Patriots. The Patriots also were fined $1 million.

The decision drew a tidal wave of reviews on social media. Our favorite was from New York Times writer Richard Deitsch, who tweeted, "Man, Roger Goodell really hates Bill Simmons." (Bill Simmons, of course, is the ESPN columnist who was suspended after he called Goodell a liar. Simmons also is an unapologetic Boston sports homer. Well-played, Richard.)

We are OK with the suspension of Brady. Four games seems fair considering the league has to be about its rules first and foremost. If this rule is not important, take it out, but knowingly breaking the rules to gain an advantage in a sport that has to be about an even playing field is a serious offense no matter how minor the act.

And to think Brady was not involved neck deep with the entire process is ludicrous. There simply is no way two faceless random part-time employees would be messing with the instrument with which Brady makes his living.

This is most likely very common across the league -- it may be one of the reasons why so few current quarterbacks are speaking out about this -- but Brady got caught.

And the "everyone else's is doing it" defense simply never flies, whether you're in a first-grade class or the AFC East.

The need and decision to punish the Patriots, too, seem fitting, but the loss of a first-round pick seems a little over the top.

Regardless of the penalties, the Patriots were punished because of their past -- the much ballyhooed/maligned "Patriots Way" -- and for appearances. And the latter should worry every NFL team and fan moving forward in an NFL that seems more image conscious than ever.

And while we're here, the fact that the NFL announced the punishment Monday afternoon after a very interesting story surfaced Monday that 14 NFL teams took more than $5 million total to "honor" our military.

Before we get back to Brady, those 14 teams should be ashamed of themselves. Most notable among them is the Atlanta Falcons, who pocketed more than $1 million.

This is an outrage. The NFL, a league that until recently was viewed as a nonprofit operation, turned an $8 billion profit last year and still was happy to take taxpayers funds for something they should be falling all over themselves to do out of civic responsibility.

Goodell has done this far too many times for it to be a coincidence. Focus on off-the-field trouble is frequently diverted by the league slyly making a "big announcement" like a study to see if there will be 18 regular-season games or changes to the point-after-touchdown rule.

So the NFL delivers another rope-a-dope move so the public has another narrative to digest with the suspension of arguably the greatest quarterback of all time and hammering the sport's best franchise over the last generation.

While the timing is calculated, the message is loud and clear. Goodell is obviously tired of PR black eyes, and his overly painful draft-pick penalties makes a direct statement to the teams in the league: Get your house in order.

It's a message made even more clear by the fact that the Wells report found the Patriots' top management was not likely involved in deliberately breaking the rules involving how much air is in the footballs.

Despite the lack of a direct link, the organizational penalties levied means the NFL expects the franchise to know what its employees are doing. It's not unlike the NCAA's rules.

The appeals will come for sure -- for Brady and for the Patriots -- and this is not done.

In fact, we don't really expect a final decision until the next potential NFL scandal is leaked.

Then maybe we can finally let the air out of DeflateGate.

Jay Greeson's column appears on Page A2 on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. His sports columns are scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays. You can read his online column the "5-at-10" Monday through Friday at times freepress.com after 10 a.m.

Contact him at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter at @ jgreesontfp.

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