On Sunday, I was with our older son and our daughter in law\’s brother in law (if there\’s a term to describe that relationship I don\’t know it so I\’ll call him our DILBIL), and the talk turned to what the National Football League (NFL) would do about Tom Brady.
I said the NFL would probably suspend him for a year – which would then be knocked back to about half as long by the player\’s union.
My argument was that what Brady did was far, far outside the bounds of what, for lack of a better term, I would call “normal cheating”. He wasn\’t trying to steal the other team\’s signals or get a copy of their playbook, he apparently bribed clubhouse personnel to compromise the key piece of equipment used in a football game – the football – so that he would be able to grip and throw it better. And then he put on that obnoxious “dumb and dumber” grin and lied to our faces about it.
Our son said no, a years\’ suspension would never happen. Our DILBIL thought it was at least a realistic possibility.
Well, it turns out that our son was right. It has been announced that Tom Brady will be suspended for all of four games – a punishment very likely to be knocked back to maybe two games by the players\’ union.
That\’s it? Four games, maybe two games, for bribing people to compromise the footballs used for a playoff game?
By barely punishing Brady, the NFL – which acknowledges he did what he did (otherwise ther would have been no punishment at all) has indelibly stained its reputation and its integrity.
That is even dumb, and dumber, than Brady\’s grin when he lied to our faces.
