Upon reflection: Assessing NFL, Tom Brady and Patriots punishments

Before the NFL handed down its multi-tiered punishments in the Deflategate situation, I went on record that a sanction was necessary for Tom Brady if the quarterback was indeed involved in directing the underinflating of game footballs. My thought was that the spanking should constitute two games, no more. The issue was the integrity of the game and when you compromise that, even if “integrity of the game” is an elusive phrase for the NFL, there are necessarily consequences.

With the release of the Ted Wells report and the fallout, and an overnight to consider it, the opinion stands: two games for Brady. Not the four of the initial decision, which likely gets reduced anyway.

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