Tag Archives: New England Patriots

Sports news

Deflategate comes to an end

FOXBORO, MA - NOVEMBER 02: Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots warms up before a game against the Denver Broncos at Gillette Stadium on November 2, 2014 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

A young man with whom I am acquainted is a happy fellow.

Trevor is as die-hard a New England Patriots fan as anyone this side of Cape Cod. However, he lives way out here on the Texas Tundra, in Amarillo.

But by golly, he loves them Pats. He went to this year’s Super Bowl game in Arizona that the Patriots won in that remarkable fashion over the Seattle Seahawks.

I know he’s happy because a judge today tossed out a four-game suspension handed to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who’d been accused of conspiring to deflate some footballs prior to the Patriots’ AFC championship game victory over the Indianapolis Colts. The Pats won the game by a zillion points, so the deflating of the balls — no matter who did it — never really mattered.

But Brady got pounded with that four-game suspension handed down by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Well, the suspension has been lifted. The NFL will appeal. My hunch is that the judge’s ruling will stand. Brady will take the first snap when the Patriots’ regular season begins.

Trevor will be made whole again.

I happen to agree with most Pats fans, that the four-game suspension was too severe. Brady perhaps needed some sanction. Fine him a lot of money; hey, he can afford it.

Four games? It was too much.

As for the appeal that Brady launched several months ago, consider this little item: He appealed his suspension to the league and the arbitrator was none other than the same man who administered the suspension in the first place, Roger Goodell!

Is that fair?

I think not.

So, let’s get on with the pro football season. As for the air pressure inside those footballs, don’t let the players anywhere near the balls until it’s time for them to take the field.

Brady suspension lifted

 

Sports news

Brady’s cover-up bites him in backside

Didn’t we all learn from the Watergate scandal that the cover-up almost always is worse than the crime?

Then again, the principal involved in a boiling sports controversy wasn’t even born yet when the Watergate scandal took down the president of the United States and sent several high-ranking government officials to prison.

Still, didn’t New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady hear of such a thing when he was in high school or attending the University of Michigan?

Brady’s four-game suspension in this year’s upcoming NFL football season will stand. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had imposed it in the wake of the now-famed Deflate-gate controversy. Brady then appealed the suspension to, strange as it seems, to the same man who imposed it. Goodell decided to let the suspension stand.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/bradys-suspension-upheld-by-nfl-commissioner-roger-goodell/ar-AAdCRfi

And why is that? Well, it turns out that Brady destroyed the cell phone that contained text messages that supposedly implicated the QB in the issue of whether he knew anything about the deflated footballs used in the Patriots’ game in which they clobbered the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC championship game this past year.

Good grief, man. All he had to do was turn over the cell phone. He didn’t do it, apparently knowing that he had done something wrong.

My strong hunch is that his destruction of the cell phone infuriated Goodell so much that he dared not lighten the suspension.

The cover-up, Tom, did you in.

This story likely isn’t over. The NFL players union will appeal the suspension.

They’d better hurry. The season starts in just a few weeks.

Sports news

Brady probe needs independent judge

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Did I hear this correctly? National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell — who administered the punishment against Tom Brady over the Deflate-gate matter — is now going to hear Brady’s appeal of the four-game suspension?

I am not going to defend the New England Patriots quarterback over this, but the NFL Players Association has a legitimate argument: Goodell should recuse himself and let an independent judge determine whether Brady’s four-game suspension stands.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/with-tom-brady-appeal-ted-wells-could-be-defending-himself-again/ar-BBjMz4W

I’ve said all along the story is overblown. Perhaps the punishment is as well. The NFLPA says it is. Brady’s agent says so, too.

What’s even more interesting is that the report issued prior to the sanctions being leveled cleared the team and head coach Bill Belichick of any complicity in deflating the footballs prior to the AFC championship game — but then the league fined the Pats $1 million and took away two draft picks in year’s draft.

What’s up with that?

Brady, though, is getting hammered — hard — for his probable involvement in the football deflation.

Goodell should step aside in favor of an impartial judge who can look at this case without the bias that the commissioner has demonstrated already.

 

Sports news

Rice got two-game suspension; Brady gets four?

Let’s see if we can sort this out for just a moment.

The National Football League suspended former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for two games after a video showed him punching his then-fiancée — and now his wife — in the face, knocking her out cold in an Atlantic City, N.J. elevator. It then elevated the suspension to “indefinite” status, meaning he would be unable to play pro football in the NFL probably forever.

Rice then appealed his suspension and had it overturned by a federal court. The NFL sought to send a message that it wouldn’t tolerate domestic violence.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/how-will-the-patriots-fare-without-tom-brady/ar-BBjFpZS

It’s the two-game initial suspension that got everyone up in arms. It wasn’t enough, they said.

Now we have New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady getting a four-game suspension. For what? An NFL report says he probably knew something about the deflating of footballs prior to last season’s AFC championship game, which the Pats won by 38 points. There’s been no proof that he did anything wrong. Just a lot of circumstantial stuff.

He’s out four games. Without pay.

The message here? I’m betting the NFL wants to say that it won’t tolerate cheating, so they’re going to make an example of an All-Universe athlete.

But have you noticed Brady’s public demeanor during all of this? He’s looked a bit smug, as if he’s not taking this very seriously.

As my late mother used to say when she scolded me, “Wipe that smirk off your face or I’ll wipe it off for you!”

My hunch is that the NFL is seeking to wipe Brady’s smug look off his face.

Mission accomplished? I think so.

 

Sports news

Non-story about footballs becomes … a story

Man, oh man. I’ve been all over the pea patch on this “Deflate-gate” story.

I’m still believing the story has been overblown, overhyped and oversold as a “scandal.” Now the National Football League has suspended superstar New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for four games next season, fined the Pats a million bucks and taken away two draft choices as punishment …

… for something that “probably” happened.

The “probably” is that Brady might have known something was going on when someone deflated those footballs prior to the AFC championship game the Patriots won by 38 points against the Indianapolis Colts. The deflated footballs were easier to throw and catch, supposedly, as if it mattered in a game that the Patriots won in such convincing fashion.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12867594/punishments-handed-tom-brady-new-england-patriots-deflategate

I could see fining Brady a lot of money. He can afford to pay whatever the league would levy against him. I can see the team paying a fine. Suspension? Loss of draft picks? I don’t know.

I get that the league is trying to dissuade future cheaters from doing something improper. It’s sending a message of some sort around the NFL.

The NFL report alleging Brady’s “likely” complicity in the deflating matter is full of qualifiers that make it seem at best circumstantial. If only the league could prove what it has alleged, then I could accept the punishment as delivered.

Then again, if only Tom Brady had been more forceful in his previous denials about the matter, then I could believe fully that he did nothing wrong.

Still, I’m left wondering how this story got so huge in the first place.

 

Sports news

Reading Tom Brady's body language

My wife isn’t a football fan, per se.

She doesn’t care so much about the details of the game, or even the men who play it.

However, she’s an astute reader of body language. She’s told me this about New England all-Universe quarterback Tom Brady, who’s been accused of having general knowledge that someone deflated those footballs prior to the Patriots’ game with the Indianapolis Colts.

“He looks like someone who was spoiled by his mother and has gotten away with everything he’s ever done,” she said. Does that mean Mrs. Brady actually spoiled little Tommy, or that my wife has inside knowledge of such? No. She said only that he looks like the type. “All he has to do is smile,” she said.

That was her takeaway from Brady’s appearance the other day in which he refused to answer questions about the deflated football story that has a lot of NFL fans in a tizzy these days. He looked “too smug,” she said.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/05/09/reality-not-looking-good-for-tom-brady-and-patriots/IGT3myWkYdZagI4FCzkHKJ/story.html

The rumor mill is churning out stuff about the National Football League getting ready to suspend Brady for at least part of the next football season. Some reports say he might have to sit the entire season out if NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell decides to drop the hammer.

I don’t particularly care one way or the other whether Brady sits or plays. I don’t think there’s that much of a story there about what Brady knew about the balls’ air pressure and when he knew it. I mean, the Patriots clobbered the Colts that day.

However, if my wife’s intuition is correct — and she is the very definition of “woman’s intuition” — then the all-world QB is likely to receive the shock of his life when the NFL commissioner decides to punish him for breaking a simple rule.

 

 

Sports news

Thanks, Tom, for keeping 'Deflate-gate' alive

Oh, I was so hoping Tom Brady could take the air out of the Deflate-gate story today.

The New England Patriots quarterback didn’t deliver. Instead, he kept this non-story buzzing by refusing to discuss it in front a friendly crowd gathered at a long-ago-scheduled public appearance.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/tom-brady-declines-to-go-into-detail-on-wells-report-deflategate/ar-BBjosTF

He came into the hall packed with about 4,000 cheering fans and then declined to say anything about the NFL report that says he “probably” knew something about the footballs that were underinflated prior to the Patriots’ rout of the Indy Colts in the AFC championship football game.

There’s no proof that Brady did anything wrong. No proof that he “cheated.” Nothing that says he watched some mysterious individual deflate the balls to make them more catchable and throwable.

He didn’t deny doing anything wrong. He didn’t say anything.

The story won’t disappear, even though it should.

We can thank Tom Brady’s tight lips for keeping it alive and kicking.

 

Sports news

Deflate-gate non-story re-emerges

Count me as someone who believes the New England Patriots’ “deflate-gate” story is, well, a non-story.

You also can count me as someone who doesn’t believe all-world quarterback Tom Brady should face any serious punishment for what he might have known about the balls that were deflated prior to the Patriots’ blowout win over the Indianapolis Colts in last year’s AFC championship football game.

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/12839315/tom-brady-agent-says-wells-report-significant-terrible-disappointment

The NFL lawyer who looked into this mess has determined that head coach Bill Belichick didn’t know anything about the balls. Nor did team owner Robert Kraft.

Brady, on the other hand, “probably” knew that some hanky-panky was going on with the balls, that someone was letting some of the air out of them to make them easier to catch and handle.

Probably knew?

That’s proof of anything? Hardly.

The only way this matter becomes relevant to anything is if the Patriots had won the game on a last-second hail Mary pass that Brady would have thrown to a receiver who couldn’t have held on to a properly inflated football.

That didn’t happen. The Patriots blew the Colts away. As someone once wrote, the Patriots would have won playing with beach balls.

I won’t get into the nuts and bolts of whether Brady should be suspended or fined or both.

Whatever happened to those footballs prior to the AFC championship game had no bearing on the outcome.

There. End of story? Oh, probably not.

national news, Sports news

Yes, Brady should have been at the White House

Tom Brady is taking some heat for missing a ceremony honoring the pro football team of which he is a member.

You’ve heard of Brady? Sure. He’s the quarterback of the New England Patriots, who won this year’s Super Bowl in stunning fashion against the Seattle Seahawks. He’s also the face of the team. He’s its field leader. He’s the Main Man of the offense.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/stephen-a-smith-blasts-brady-for-missing-white-house-visit/ar-BBiFBgr

Stephen A. Smith, an ESPN commentator, has taken serious umbrage over Brady’s absence from the ceremony, which is a tradition at the White House. Presidents long have honored NFL champs, World Series champs, NBA champs and even occasionally NHL champions, if the franchise that wins the hockey title is based in the United States.

I don’t buy Smith’s tirade that Brady “disrespected” the president, or that he skipped out because of political reasons. Then again, Smith is a blowhard and a grandstander who often says things that have little basis in reality.

I do agree, though, that Brady should have been there.

He’s a member of a team comprising 53 men that won the Big Game — as a team.

The writer of the essay attached to this blog notes that in previous post-Super Bowl ceremonies at the White House, Brady was single and that now he’s married, with children — and that maybe he couldn’t fit the event into his busy schedule.

C’mon.

Brady knew for many weeks the event was coming up. Brady had ample time to schedule this appearance. Heck, he’s got a secretary who could have taken care of the details. Brady could have taken some time away from his kids’ activities and his super-model wife to attend a light-hearted event at the White House.

My sense is that Brady’s absence from this event suggests he thinks of himself as bigger than the game and more important than his team.

The young man would be sadly mistaken on both counts.

 

legal news, Sports news

Aaron Hernandez: new face of 'stupid'

Check out this video. It’s a little more than 3 1/2 minutes long.

It shows then-high school senior Aaron Hernandez talking about his dreams and aspirations as he prepared to enroll at the University of Florida. He was excited. He acknowledged he was a good student, because his mom wouldn’t let him drive if he got a C grade or lower in any subject.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/teen-aaron-hernandez-had-hopes-dreams/ar-AAb3r0a

I don’t know whether to laugh derisively, cry, vomit or simply shrug.

Aaron Hernandez is a galaxy away from that interview tonight. He’s spending the first night of the rest of his life in prison. A Fall River, Mass., jury convicted the young man of murder and then sentenced him immediately to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Hernandez played some pretty good football at Florida. He then played a bit for the New England Patriots, where he was slated to become the next Big Thing. He was a stellar tight end. He was destined to make lots of money and achieve plenty of fame.

Well, the money is gone. The fame will stick, although not the way he envisioned when you watch him in the video interview.

Aaron Hernandez is now the latest new face of “stupid.” Another celebrity athlete likely will take his place in due course. Today, though, that dubious “honor” belongs to a young man who once saw a bright future laid out before him.

Now he’ll be spending every day of his life about a mile from Gillette Stadium, where the Patriots play football. He’ll listen to the cheers.

If he has a shred of remorse for what he did to his “friend,” Odin Lloyd, he’ll kick himself forever.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/12696042/aaron-hernandez-prosecutors-score-enormous-triumph-murder-conviction