Tom Brady & The Patriots Cheated On Purpose

Admittedly, I’m not really a sports fan – particularly not a fan of American football – but regardless, you’d have to have been living under a rock to have avoided the whole Deflategate controversy that cropped up during the AFC Championship game right before the Super Bowl. Basically, Tom Brady was using footballs that had been deflated slightly (therefore making them easier to handle and control, I imagine) and he claimed he had no idea that they were deflated or who was behind it. The NFL was NOT happy and they hired investigators to look into it and – surprise! – turns out both Brady and the New England Patriots bigwigs knew all about it.

From TMZ:

The NFL just released the results of Ted Wells’ investigation into Deflategate … which says it is “more probable than not that New England Patriots personnel participated in violations of the NFL Playing Rules and were involved in a deliberate attempt to circumvent those rules.”

The report also says, “We also have concluded that it is more probable than not that Tom Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of [the locker room attendants] involving the release of air from Patriots game balls.”

The report says … when people began to get suspicious about the balls, the locker room guys began communicating with Brady by phone and text messages with “significantly increased frequency.”

Investigators also say the men who deflated the footballs “received valuable items autographed by Tom Brady the week before the AFC Champsionship game.”

As for Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick … Wells says the investigation shows there was NO evidence to support theories that they were involved in Deflategate.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft issued a statement saying, “To say we are disappointed in its findings, which do not include any incontrovertible or hard evidence of deliberate deflation of footballs at the AFC Championship game, would be a gross understatement.”

Kraft added, “We will accept the findings of the report and take the appropriate actions based on those findings as well as any discipline levied by the league.”

Yikes. Gotta love cheaters, I guess? Except, you know, not. Disgusting. For those of you more in the know about these matters, can you explain to me what happens next? As in, since it was basically proven that Brady and the team knowingly cheated, are there repercussions? Will Brady’s contract be terminated/will the Patriots face any kind of penalty?

If there’s nothing more than a wrist slap that comes next, what was the point? What’s to stop this kinda shit from continuing in football? Nothing at all.