Salguero On Brady Punishment: NFL 'Considering Everything'
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady has spoken, and now we await for any punishment from the NFL stemming from the Deflategate controversy.
There's a wide range of potential punishments on the table for the Patriots quarterback, ranging from a massive fine to a possible suspension. The Miami Herald's Armando Salguero wrote Thursday that a season-long suspension is even a possibility:
The small tidbit of news I can offer is that the NFL is weighing a suspension of New England quarterback Tom Brady that could span up to one season. "Everything is being studied, everything is being considered," an NFL source with knowledge of the disciplinary procedure told me Wednesday night.
The source said it would be wrong to think a season-long suspension will absolutely be the punishment doled out because that decision had not been finalized at the time of our conversation. But he also said it would be wrong to dismiss such an extended and seemingly improbable length of time as the ceiling for discipline.
The source declined to give a discipline floor, or the most lenient discipline Brady is facing. Interestingly, the source did not mention possible discipline for New England coach Bill Belichick or owner Robert Kraft.
Salguero joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Friday morning, and said whatever punishment the NFL hands down will be to protect the integrity of the game, but that in turn could raise even more issues.
"That's going to be interesting," he said. "If you suspend Brady, the suspension itself affects the integrity of the game. You've made the New England Patriots an inferior club for four games, and their opponents will have an advantage that opponents later in the season will not have. You've tilted the power in games, which to me, is the highest order of integrity."
What bothers Salguero most about the situation is the "why" behind it all.
"The New England Patriots kicked the Colts' rear up and down Gillette Stadium. It wasn't close, and they shouldn't be on the same field that day. What's the point? Why do this stuff? What are you gaining? It's beyond reason that this even happened," he said. "It doesn't make sense. That's the question no one has been able to answer me. If you are so great, if you are who you say you are, why are you doing this?"