Deflategate: The Ethics Behind the NFL

Just recently it was announced that Tom Brady would be suspended for four games of the upcoming NFL season, as a result of the deflategate scandal the Patriots where hit with after last season’s championship Sunday blowout game against the Colts. Now, I’m no sports enthusiast, but there is something very wrong about this decision. For the simple fact that Tom Brady and the Patriots were never hit with any hard evidence, but were basically found [“more than likely not aware of what was happening with the footballs]”. Couple this with the fact that we have players like Ray Rice, caught on tape beating his wife in an elevator, and he gets a 2 game suspension. Ben Roethlisberger, who was accused of rape back in 2008, was suspended for 6 games. There are also many other examples, but I found these to be the most striking. So essentially what this says to me that, in the eyes of the NFL, deflating footballs is worse than beating your wife, but not quite as bad as raping someone. Now I have seen arguments concerning the NFL’s code of conduct, and how they are more able to deal a harsher punishment because it happen within NFL regulations. However, this doesn’t excuse the fact that NFL is weighing crimes of civil misconduct over their own league policies. At most, this incident should have just been kept at a fine, which the Patriots also have, I believe its 1 million dollars. But at no point do I think it’s fair, and right, to deal out a punishment harsher than beating your wife, and just under the punishment of raping someone, for “possibly knowing” that the footballs were underinflated. It’s disgusting, and the NFL really needs to take a step and ask “How bad is this, really?”