Tom Brady, like A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong, is just another sports cheater

[DanTex]

Sometimes, the obvious answer is also the correct one...

Tom Brady can no longer be considered the greatest quarterback of all-time just as Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds are no longer in the conversation as the greatest baseball player who ever lived.

Cheating is cheating whether it's performance-enhancing drugs or performance-inflated balls. And after reading the findings of the NFL-commissioned report on Deflategate Wednesday, Brady almost certainly knew about the New England Patriots equipment staff illegally deflating those infamous balls and, even worse, he probably ordered them to do it and then lied to us about it.

This is where you wish the NFL would dole out an NCAA-type of penalty and order the Patriots to vacate their victory in the AFC title game as well as their Super Bowl championship. You simply cannot have teams, players and staff on the most dynastic team in America's most dominant sport intentionally cheating and altering equipment to give them a competitive edge in a championship game.

Have you thought about this:

How many other times during his career did Brady have an unfair and illegal advantage?

How many of his four championships were illicitly attained?
...

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/os-nfl-patriots-deflategate-mike-bianchi-0507-20150506-column.html

[boston bean]

1. I don't think that a deflated ball is going to ruin Tom Brady's legacy.

Sorry, just don't think that will be the case.

[DanTex]

2. If it were just one deflated ball, maybe not.

But it's not. The investigation showed that it went back for at least a year, and the circumstantial evidence indicates it went on a lot longer than that.

And then there's Spygate, which means that ball manipulation wasn't the only way the Pats were cheating.

[pintobean]

5. He's a cheater.

It's that simple.

[FlatBaroque]

12. He is DONE

Good riddance cheater.

[Arkana]

18. And I'm sure he'll cry himself to sleep every night

next to his supermodel wife and his four Super Bowl trophies.

Gimme a break. Al Davis and Art Modell were ten times the scumbag. Those Pittsburgh Steelers teams from back in the 70s made their bones on dirty players. And the much-ballyhooed Wells report was lacking in proof of anything other than a shithead equipment manager. Does it prove that Brady liked his game balls on the low end of the PSI scale? Yeah. Does it prove that he specifically asked those guys to break the rules? No it does not.

The NFL would have handed Ray Rice a pittance--TWO GODDAMN GAMES--if there hadn't been public outcry. And yet due to an assload of hearsay and "probably" and "maybe" and "possibly", Tom Brady is handed a four-game suspension and the entire team is fined draft picks and a million bucks?

Even if you believe that Brady is guilty, why should the rest of the team be punished?

[R B Garr]

24. ALL the players have hot wives and his 4 Super Bowls had a 13-point margin

spread across those 4 games, so there has never been a dominating performance, which brings into question his so-called legacy. All it takes is a cheater's edge to gain entry into those Super Bowls. The deflated balls explain their low fumble stats which helped them gain an edge over other teams.

All of their ill-begotten gains are now called into question.

[Arkana]

28. So what? First of all, NONE of their Super Bowl victories are in question,

because even if they had done this for 15 years (which they didn't, because the rule change that allowed it wasn't made until 2006), teams don't control the game balls in the Super Bowl. The league does.

Second, I find it interesting how no one called out Brad Johnson for what he did in the 2002 Super Bowl.

[pintobean]

29. Brad Johnson should be suspended immediately!

[R B Garr]

32. So what is because having a hot wife is not a big deal for an NFL player, so

why bother bringing it up as some sidebar that has anything to do with the cheating accusations against Tom Brady.

The Patriots have been in the news for cheating for years, so that's not true about the Super Bowl wins not being in question. Plus, the point was that the low margins of victory support the aspects that cheating with the deflated ball have helped Tom pad his stats and the Pat's stats and have hoisted them into the Super Bowl game over other teams. They've won by 3/3/3/4 and the last game was almost a loss except for luck at the end. Not such a dynasty after all.

[AgingAmerican]

25. He will always have an asterisk next to his name

It may affect his getting into the hall of fame.

[R B Garr]

26. I'm thinking that may be the case about the Hall of Fame, too.

If his whole body of work related to compiling those statistics has been subverted through cheating, then there is no legitimacy to his stats. And asterisks galore, definitely.

[ileus]

3. Lance is innocent...

His confession wasn't sincere...he gave in to pressure.

[Codeine]

22. Say what now? nt

[one_voice]

23. uh, wut?

[trumad]

33. LOL

Joeybee--is that you?

[Gothmog]

4. Brady refused to cooperate with investigation and so the suspension is justified

Brady did not turn over e-mails or text messages. That refusal is grounds for suspension by itself

[boston bean]

6. I wouldn't be handing over my personal phone either. nt

[Nye Bevan]

7. Even if you were being prosecuted or sued and that would prove your innocence,

and you had an ironclad assurance that your personal information would be kept confidential?

[boston bean]

9. yep. They don't have the right to it.

He is a celebrity... to think something might be leaked or twisted would be real possibilities.

[DanTex]

15. And that's exactly why it's so hard to actually prove that athletes are cheating.

Even though the whole cycling world knew he was totally doped up, Lance would have gotten away with it had the Feds not gotten involved with subpoenas and grand jurys. If Tom Brady had to answer questions under penalty of perjury, pretty sure he wouldn't have stuck to his "what, me?" defense. But instead, he had the option to just refuse to cooperate and not hand over evidence.

It's remarkable that the Patriots got busted twice for serious violations despite how easy it is to get away with things like this. Makes you wonder how much other crooked stuff was going on there.

[polichick]

8. Just another asshole - but cheaters win in the U.S., like greedy corrupt...

assholes in most other businesses - fans, consumers & voters reward them.

[tk2kewl]

10. sad truth

[UglyGreed]

14. And many people accept cheating

I see so many comments on this subject that are along the lines of so what he cheated, he would of won anyway, why make such a big deal of it. My son a few weeks ago told his Mom that cheating is fine and that is the way you succeed in this world. My wife and I are honest people and never cheated anyone, perhaps our struggles have had him view us as losers I don't know. Integrity is lost I fear.

[polichick]

27. Your son probably notices that cheaters are admired and elevated...

in the U.S. - this society desperately needs a paradigm shift.

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. I say this with no particular love for the Patriots, thanks in part, mostly to

their fans...

The whoopty-doopty over this is is ridiculous as heck. Like, super fantabulously stupid.

Let me put it bluntly: I don't care, and I believe Tom Brady etal has a really great case.

That said, as a long time (ca.1970 because it's bred into our blood in WI) Packers fan, I acknowledge the fact that every single name you have listed had inherent talent at his job. I can't deflate a ball and win a Super Bowl. I can't inject a concoction and lead the league in homeruns (and as much as I can't stand the Yankees, go freaking A-Rod--what a year). I can't replace my blood, or whatever the hell that is that Lance did, and bike for miles on end.

In short, this ridiculous pumping up of a non-issue (in this case) has me giggling and truly believing it is more to do about hatred for a man/team than anything else. To compare it to PED use (AFTER the rules went into effect, not before) is just plain goofy. Sorry, but I just can't get that worked up about it. What I can get worked up about is the awesome draft the Pack had again this year. They just quietly do their thing.

[dsc]

13. No it isn't

In my district a baseball team had to forfeit a game they won on their senior night for a technical rule violation that in no way, shape, or form could have helped them with the game they forfeited. They had to do this despite the fact they asked before hand if they could do what they did, got clearance to do what they did, and then did it. Yet, in this case a team purposely cheated and nada.

[bluedigger]

16. Don't forget Aaron Rodgers.

[ScreamingMeemie]

35. Forget what about Aaron Rodgers?

http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/12201369/aaron-rodgers-green-bay-packers-upset-referees-take-air-footballs

He's been pretty forward about the whole thing. While I think this whole Brady ruckus is stupid as hell, Rodgers has done nothing wrong. Saying "I like when footballs are a little overinflated" is not a crime.

[cherokeeprogressive]

17. I wonder... Would the attitudes on display in this thread be different...

If Brady hadn't "disrespected" President Obama by skipping the required White House visit?

Before answering, go back and read the threads about that.

[madinmaryland]

31. No. This has been simmering since 2007. The year

Of belicheat and spy gate.

When this happened in January du was all awash in Brady's shrunken balls.

[MrMickeysMom]

19. Short answer - "no"… Everything else is an application of the Ideal Gas Laws

I don't place it on the same level as those other sports figures (and I'm not an NFL fan, either). However, I do appreciate the Ideal Gas Laws, which can be argued back in forth by geeks or otherwise till you get called to dinner! (watching re-runs of Bing Bang Theory)

So, I think we just have to take great sports figures and watch them get torn down for our collective amusement these days. Arguments over the conditions and the temperature of when the footballs (new?) were inflated in ambient temperature and pressure, then taken to rest when temperature was reduced (significantly) are the real conversation, which frankly, isn't that interesting.

I know that my Honda will tell me when the weather changes my tire pressure "significantly", but I'm not going to crucify myself for ignoring that warning, cause I'm on my way to work…

[DanTex]

20. The Ideal Gas Law (obviously) didn't explain why the Pats footballs lost

far more pressure than the Colts footballs. They didn't really need the chairman of the Princeton Physics department to figure that out, but it's just as well that they consulted him as part of the investigation, just to put that excuse to rest once and for all.

[Doctor_J]

21. IMO there is so much "cheating" in pro and D1 college sports, that singling out a player or team

is pretty silly. You must already have an axe to grind. The NCAA is a toilet. The Cowboys hired at least one felon this off season. The NFL is packed with wife beaters and assorted other felons.

This current outrage is based on something else.

[trumad]

34. SO what do you do?

They got caught---do you let them go?

[Orsino]

30. Tons of free money from cheap labor, minus regulation, equals corruption. n/t