DeflateGate

Let's get one thing straight right off the bat -- the NFL couldn't have cared less about air pressure in footballs before a Colts beat writer reported about underinflated footballs being used in the first half of the AFC Championship game, a game in which the Colts were destroyed 45-7.

A league that cared about air pressure wouldn't leave each team responsible for their own ball prep. A league that cared about air pressure would have required the referees test each ball with two gauges and log the air pressure of each ball before, during and after the game. And while there was a warning issued to the Vikings and Panthers for tampering with their footballs (caught on video), a league that cared about air pressure would have at least issued a warning to or fined Green Bay/Aaron Rodgers after his admission that he tries to sneak overinflated balls past officials.

The Wells report is a joke. It's 243 pages of assumptions and bias beautifully explained on page 228:

In sum, the data did not provide a basis for us to determine with absolute certainty whether there was or was not tampering as the analysis of such data ultimately is dependent upon assumptions and information that is not certain.

The only thing we do know in all of this is Brady liked his footballs on the softer side and he rode the equipment people about it because the text messages state that. What isn't in those text messages however is an admission of rule breaking, any statement that Brady preferred this footballs at less than the league-allowed 12.5PSI or that the equipment people deflated them to less than 12.5PSI or that Brady told them to do so. So instead of actual evidence Wells gave us conjecture. Wells believes it's "more probable than not" the balls were tampered with illegally and believes Tom Brady was "generally aware" of the tampering because he assumes it's likely Brady told the equipment folks to do it.

At this point though, Commissioner Goodell has painted himself into a pretty tight corner. By waiting to issue a ruling until he could gauge public reaction to the report, he has allowed a mob to form in the town square and they all want Brady's head. Anything less than a major suspension for what amounts to a minor equipment infraction and he'll be seen as Bob Kraft's pet. Anything more than a slap on the wrist and Goodell will likely lose the support of Kraft himself, someone who has publicly, and on more than one occasion, supported Goodell in the face of his screwups, especially ones like the Ray Rice suspension (by the way, it's "more probable than not" Goodell is lying about not seeing the video of Rice punching out his fiance).

Update May 11th: Tom Brady is suspended for the 1st 4 games of the 2015 NFL season, the team will lose a 1st rd and 4th rd pick and pay a $1M fine. Talk about the punishment not fitting the crime; heck, the team is being punished even though the coach and team officials were officially blameless in the report. This punishment screams a desperate Commissioner trying to save face in the eyes of the public.