NFL 2015

[Cutz]

So they are taking two picks from the NE Patriots, and fining the organization $1M. Sounds great, until you read what the report says: "In particular, we do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Patriots ownership, Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick or any other Patriots coach in the matters investigated."

So after investigation we don't believe they did anything wrong, but we're going to take their picks and fine them anyway. Ridiculous.

Just because the coaches and owner may not have been aware, that doesn't mean the offending parties don't represent their organization. Management is held accountable for the actions of their company, that's common across business. It's not an employee's personal life or legal trouble that is being questioned.. a la Ray Rice or Adrian Peterson... rather an employee's workplace duties and business practices. They may not have known, but they didn't incorporate any measures to make sure there wasn't illegal activity. Any manager can tell you all about internal controls safeguarding fraud. Additionally, this is the SECOND cheating scandal that the same Patriots administration is dealing with. Same owner, same head coach.

If the Pats wanted less organizational punishment, they should have done their own investigation, FIRED the guy who was deflating balls and suspended Brady on their own, and then apologized in a statement and said they'd accept any punishment handed down by the league. Instead they sat on their laurels defending themselves, Kraft made a statement that the league would end up apologizing to the organization for accusing any sort of cheating, and they refused a second/final interview by the investigators with the guy who was cheating.

I agree that all QBs like their footballs personalized, and I even understand the mentality that everyone tries to bend the rules, but it was cheating. It wasn't that they made the balls the minimal level possible and then they lost some air... it was one guy taking the balls he shouldn't have had and deflating them beyond acceptable levels in a bathroom. If it was more innocent, they wouldn't have gone to such secret measures to do it.