If you have seen ESPN at all recently you would know that Tom Brady was cleared of his 4 game suspension on Thursday. A lot of people are overreacting to this. He wasn’t facing jail time, just missing 4 weeks from his work. To get this overturned Brady had to appeal to a federal court. However, the case isn’t settled because the NFL is going to appeal this decision to a higher court. The NFL was suspending him for deflating footballs before the AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. The Patriots beat the Colts 45-7.  

What Brady did wasn’t even that bad to begin with.The real life equivalent of that is getting jail time for going 70 mph in a 65 mph zone. What he did was a misdemeanor and not at all worth 4 games. His numbers were better in the second half when the balls were fixed. LaGarrette Blount (the Pats running back) ran for 148 yards and 3 touchdowns. That’s really good. The Patriots beat the Colts because they were better and the Colts couldn’t stop the Patriots running the ball.

The Patriots have been in trouble with cheating before. In a scandal called Spygate, they were caught videotaping other team’s play calls. That had been legal the previous year, but was outlawed that summer. Some people thought that Brady should have been suspended because the Patriots had been caught cheating before. The Patriots also were fined $1 million and lost a first and fourth round pick.

The New England Patriots play the Pittsburgh Steelers in their first game. My favorite football team is the Steelers. As a fan I would have loved Brady to be suspended, but taking my fandom out of it I think it is the right decision. The Steelers’ defense is supposed to be terrible this year. They would have had a good chance if Tom Brady was suspended. Now the Pats will probably score a lot of points. That game is the first of the NFL season.

A lot of people are mad at the NFL for this and a lot of other things. One reason is that the NFL wildly under-punished players for domestic abuse as highlighted by the Ray Rice incident. This case involved a surveillance video in a casino elevator showing Ray Rice (former Ravens running back) punching his then fiancee and now wife.  At first he was suspended 2 games, then the uproar caused the NFL to justly up the punishment. It was then reduced back to 2 games by the federal court because the NFL punished Rice twice for the same incident. Legally what the court did was right, but morally it should have been greater. That whole fiasco is a possible reason why the NFL over punished Tom Brady.  Now Brady can try to win their division for the 7th straight year.