New York Jets legend Joe Namath does not equate playing with a slightly under-inflated football to taking performance-enhancing drugs.
The NFL’s punishment baseline for players who test positive for PEDs is a four-game suspension — the same disciplinary action that has been taken against New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Namath believes Deflategate is much less of an issue than PED use.
“There are other sports where rules have been breached,” Namath said Tuesday, according to Seth Walder of the NY Daily News. “Performance-enhancing drugs, to me, is a far worse issue, than what we’re talking about with the ball being deflated a little bit. I don’t even know that it was, mother nature does it on her own, like an automobile tire.”
Namath was referring more to baseball’s steroid issue, but you could argue that the problem is just as concerning in football. Rather than using PEDs to hit balls over a fence, NFL players use them to become stronger and hit harder. Not only is that cheating, it’s downright dangerous.
In Brady’s instance, it seems obvious that the punishment has more to do with the coverup than the crime. Most people believe the four-game suspension will be cut down to two or three games after Brady’s legal team argues that a report labeling him as “generally aware” of ball tampering is not enough to warrant a suspension. However, the NFL could — in theory — penalize him for a lack of cooperation after he refused to provide information from his cell phone.
Earlier this week, we sorted through some reasons why Brady’s suspension could be thrown out completely. I still wouldn’t be stunned if that happened.
