It’s beginning to look more and more like New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will indeed have to serve some kind of suspension during the upcoming season for his believed involvement in the deflation of the footballs prior to last year’s AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts.
According to Gary Myers of the New York Daily News, the league’s decision to suspend Brady is expected to be announced next week. The only question now is how many games will it be?
The Patriots open up the regular-season at home in a Thursday night game against the Pittsburgh Steelers to kick off the new season. Should they wind up having to play without Brady, that will likely result in backup Jimmy Garoppolo having to make his first career start. In the six games that Garoppolo has played in, he’s completed 19-of-27 passes for 182 yards and one touchdown.
The Steelers will likely be without their star running back for the season-opener against the Patriots as Le’Veon Bell is set to serve a three-game suspension at the start of the season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. Bell is currently appealing that suspension and one would expect that Brady will immediately appeal his should one indeed be passed down next week.
The league will hopefully move quickly on this and I’m now willing to bet that Brady will be sat down for at least three games and maybe even longer. The Wells report that was released on Thursday really paints the Patriots quarterback in a bad light as it relates to his knowledge of the footballs being deflated.
