Frank on Friday – On Patriots and Their Balls

When the football deflating scandal came to light, I must confess I didn’t think much of it.  At first blush, it seemed unlikely that any quarterback would practice all week with an under-inflated ball, knowing full well that, come Sunday, the officials would be checking the pressure and making sure the balls were inflated to the standard set forth by the rule.  In other words, why get accustomed to a softer ball, and then be handed a harder ball on a cold Sunday when the championship was on the line?  That problem still bothers me.  Then we were told that some of the Patriot balls were under-inflated a pound or two.  Then we were assured that, at half-time, the balls were re-checked and re-inflated to the proper pressure.  That left us  with the reality that, with a soft ball, which we are told Tom Brady prefers, he scored 7 points, and with the harder ball that we are led to believe Brady doesn’t like to the point of breaking a rule, he scored 38 points.  Apparently, the Colts quarterback has no preference when it comes to his balls, because, putting his ball pressure completely aside, he only scored 7 points the whole day.  Pardon me, but I am left with the impression that there is not much to this whole thing.

And then we have the Wells report.  Now, I have only the highest regard for Ted Wells, who is a Jersey guy, and one of the finest lawyers you will find anywhere.  I am sure Ted Wells left no stone unturned, but the dirty little secret is, now matter how much you pay them, lawyers cannot make the facts.  What Wells determined is that a couple of Patriots’ employees took air out of the balls; and that it is more likely than not that Tom Brady knew about this.  Not what I would call a smoking gun.  In English, what this means is that Brady didn’t confess, and the employees didn’t claim that Brady ordered the deflation, but that it is hard to believe they would have done it if they weren’t sure Brady wanted it done.  That’s what we call in the law a reasonable suspicion.  Now, you can’t convict someone on that standard (for that matter, you can’t even arrest someone on that standard), yet I have endured a couple of days of sports reporters demanding that Brady be suspended, some say for up to a year.  Seriously?  Now the NFL has a rule, and if it was broken, and it looks like it was, there should be some sanction.  But suspend Brady a year?  There are several problems with that.  First, and foremost, it hasn’t been proven that Brady is guilty.  Secondly, even if he is, there is no precedent for this violation.  Knock out your girlfriend in the elevator – you get suspended for 6 games.  You take air out of a ball – you get a year?  Bottom line, this is much ado about nothing.  I tell you what, I have the perfect solution.  Let’s suspend Tom Brady for one game.  We’ll pick one at random … how about November 15, when the Patriots play the Giants.  Now that seems fair.

One more thing, Frank on Friday is going on sabbatical for two weeks while I am away.  See you May 29.