I think the punishment is unfair but I think it's Brady's fault. He should had owned up to it after the super bowl and then the attention would had been on a fair punishment and not whether there was some kind of cover up. I don't feel bad for Brady at all.
But what if Brady is innocent? Should he have owned up to something he didn't do?
What if the ref actually used the gauge he said he used and the balls were not underinflated? Afterall, he did measure over 50 balls. You would think he would remember which gauge he used a few hours later when it became an issue especially considering the two gauges are noticeably different.
To me it all comes back to the "deflator" text message. If that guy said it was a running joke because Brady always wanted the footballs at 12.5 and had him deflating them all the time in practice and before the refs inspecting them, I could get around that. But not the story they used. No way was he calling his friend the deflator because he was losing weight.
How many people actually believe that story?
The deflator comment came prior to the comment from Jastremski about how he was expecting the balls to be 13 after the Jets game. Why would he expect the balls to be 13 if they were deflating them? That makes no sense and contradicts the deflator comment, but hey, let's pick and choose which texts to pay attention to.
When he texted Jastremski during the Packers game "Deflate and give somebody that jkt." Was he telling him to hurry up and deflate balls? Of course not, he was using it in another context. Is it really hard to believe that he used that word in other contexts when talking to his friend who inflates and deflates balls for a living?
http://www.patspulpit.com/2015/5/14/8609329/what-is-this-deflate-that-you-speak-of
I think it's very plausible that he was deflating the balls on the sideline. Especially since they couldn't run their scheme on road games.
And the fact that the Jaguars put in a complaint that the colt's ball boys had needles up their sleeves, makes me think it's pretty common place.
So you think it was more likely that when McNally saw his friend on TV after the Packers just scored a game changing TD, that he sent a text advising him to deflate footballs despite the fact he would not see the text until later and that he wasn't being silly and telling the guy to relax after the camera focused on him?
You think he would be so careless to tell him to deflate the balls on the sidelines during a game, but yet so carefull to never reference to deflating the balls below 12.5 even once?
I doubt anyone would ever tell someone to deflate because they seemed too tense. Do you really believe that?
Considering all their jargon and the fact the guy inflates and deflates balls for a living and the obvious circumstance, sure. It seems a whole lot more likely than instructing the guy to start deflating footballs on the sidelines. But I guess we differ on that.
Definition of deflate: 2nd definition listed:
2.
cause (someone) to suddenly lose confidence or feel less important.
"the news left him feeling utterly deflated"
synonyms: subdue, humble, cow, chasten; dispirit, dismay, discourage, dishearten; squash, crush, bring down, take the wind out of someone's sails, knock the stuffing out of
"the news had deflated him"