Tom Brady and the New England Patriots have been deflated a bit after penalties from the National Football League came down Monday for the "Deflategate" scandal.
Quarterback Brady will be benched for the first four games of the 2015 season, and the team will lose a 2016 first-round draft pick as well as a 2017 fourth-round pick and pay a $1 million fine for deliberately deflating game balls used in last season's AFC Championship Game victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
Brady was found to have been "at least generally aware" that two Patriots staffers, Jim McNally and John Jastremski, had intentionally deflated footballs to gain a competitive advantage, according to an independent investigation led by lawyer Ted Wells. Staffers, McNally and Jastremski, were both indefinitely suspended without pay by the Patriots last week, according to the NFL statement.
Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations, said a factor in Brady's four-game suspension was the fact that Brady refused to turn over his phone to aid the investigation.
"Your actions as set forth in the report clearly constitute conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the game of professional football," Vincent wrote. "Each player, no matter how accomplished and otherwise respected, has an obligation to comply with the rules and must be held accountable for his actions when those rules are violated and the public's confidence in the game is called into question."
Touche, Tom Brady. How does a softer-ball advantage feel now?