Tom Brady’s Fate: What Does History Tell Us?
Speculation on Tom Brady’s post-Wells-report fate so far has ranged from a $25,000 fine to a season-long suspension, and we’ll probably have to wait until at least next week to find out. Forget all the talk about “the NFL wouldn’t suspend it’s glory boy quarterback!” – the league clearly had no problem lowering the boom on Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees (by way of suspending his head coach), or suspending marquee players in general.
Yesterday, I explained why I don’t believe Tom Brady will be suspended by the NFL. It’ll look ludicrous, and also require a substantial degree of Roger Goodell making it up as he goes along (although that’s clearly never stopped him before).
To do our best to figure out what Tom might be looking at, the best way to do it is to look at how other instances of on-field cheating have been treated in the past – and that, of course, assumes that Roger Goodell takes a look at the Wells report and goes “YE SHALL NOT PASS”.
What follows is a non-exhaustive list (although it sure took me a second to find all of them) of teams, players, or both engaging in clear instances of cheating on the field.
We’re purposefully going to exclude instances where allegations were made, but no official punishment was ever meted out, such as Indianapolis’s rumored fake crowd noise in the mid-2000s. We’ll use the “pics or it didn’t happen” standard, if you will. Because it wouldn’t be fair to assume that just because someone says you probably cheated means you actually did, without conclusive proof. Right? Good.
Penalties like illegal hits and blocks also aren’t going to be included, because, while it still could be considered cheating, stuff like helmet-to-helmet hits and stomping on other players fall more into the “being a d-bag” category.
Finally, performance-enhancing drug suspensions are also not going to be included, for two reasons: one, the NFL has very specific punishment regulations for PED users, and two, literally every team in the league has had multiple players suspended for PEDs, so it’s pretty much a wash.
Remember: the point of the following is not that everybody cheats. It’s that, when it comes to calling for players being suspended, banned from the league, and that kind of stuff, the league just doesn’t do that kind of thing, at least not regularly.
If I missed anything, let me know in the comments.
Team: Denver Broncos
What and When: In the 1998 AFC divisional playoff game, Broncos offensive linemen Brian Habib, Gary Zimmerman, and Mark Schlereth were caught using Vaseline on their arms, which, of course, would make it a tad bit hard for defensive lineman to grip their offensive foes. Mike Shanahan, who coached the Broncos at the time, stated that using Vaseline was “…quite common in the NFL”, and then philosophized “The question is whether Vaseline is considered a foreign substance when it’s very cold weather…”
Penalty: $5,000 fine per player
Team: San Diego Chargers
What and When: In 2012, the Bolts were playing the Broncos when the San Diego equipment manager was caught hiding Stickum in hand towels and giving the towels to players when he was caught by a line judge. Really gives a new meaning to Chris Collinsworth saying “Sticks to his hands!”, right? After investigating, the NFL came out three weeks after the incident and said the Chargers failed “to immediately surrender” the towels and “As a result of the failure of club staff to follow the directive of a game official to immediately surrender the towels when directed to do so, and to attempt to conceal the towels, the Chargers have been fined $20,000.” In other words, “We can’t find out for sure that you did anything wrong, but you sure were acting shady” (sound familiar?)
Penalty: $20,000 fine for the Chargers
Team: Atlanta Falcons
What and When: After the 2014-2015 season, Falcons owner Arthur Blank fessed up to using fake crowd noise during home games in the 2013 and 2014 seasons. This, of course, is the same thing that the Colts were accused of in 2006, only Atlanta came clean and said “Yup, we did that.”
Penalty: $350,000 fine, Falcons lose a 2016 fifth-round draft pick.
Team: Cleveland Browns
What and When: Following the Browns’ disastrous 2014 season (aren’t they all?), it came to light that Browns general manager Ray Farmer had been sending text messages to coaches on the sidelines during games. While this sounds relatively harmless, NFL rules very specifically prohibit contact between coaches and pretty much anyone that isn’t on the team or part of the coaching staff.
Penalty: Ray Farmer suspended four games, Cleveland Browns fined $250,000.
Team: New Orleans Saints
What and When: Bountygate, which was interesting because, at least if you believe the NFL, both the Saints players and the defensive coordinator at the time (Gregg Williams) were all involved. Supposedly, the team was running a program in which defensive players would earn bonuses for “cart-offs”, “knockouts” and other plays that resulted in opposing players being taken out of the game. On top of that, Saints owner Tom Benson ordered the program shut down, and, well, it wasn’t. Aside from being Machiavellian as hell, non-contract bonuses are also illegal in the NFL.
Penalty: Gregg Williams suspended indefinitely, Saints coach Sean Payton suspended for 2012 season, Saints fined $500,000, Saints second-round draft picks in 2012 and 2013 taken away.
Team: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
What and When: In the 2002 Super Bowl, Bucs quarterback Brad Johnson was worried about having to throw with the slick, new footballs that the NFL had provided for the game, so he did what any logical man would do. He paid an NFL employee $7,500 to scuff up and “break in” all 100 of the game balls so they were closer to his cup o’ tea. The Bucs won the “Gruden Bowl” Super Bowl in a curb-stomping of the Oakland Raiders.
Penalty: None, since Johnson only admitted that this occurred in 2015.
Team: New England Patriots
What and When: Spygate. If you need a refresher, the league sent out a memo reminding all 32 teams that “videotaping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent’s offensive or defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches’ booth, in the locker room, or at any other locations accessible to club staff members during the game. Obviously, you know how the rest went: the Patriots kept doing it anyway.
Penalty: Bill Belichick fined $500,000, Patriots fined $250,000, team’s 2008 first-round draft pick taken.
Team: Minnesota Vikings/Carolina Panthers
What and When: Just this past season, the Vikings and Panthers were both shown on national television using heaters on the sidelines to warm up game balls. The league rules are pretty clear about game balls NOT being altered in any way, which is, of course, why we’re discussing this in the first place. Fortunately for the Panthers and Vikings, the league decided a finger-wagging was enough.
Punishment: The NFL stated that they warned both the Panthers and Vikings about heating up game balls, and would “remind teams this week” that heating game balls is (still) illegal.
Since we’re dealing with on-field cheating that would directly impact the game, I wouldn’t be doing my job if these last two weren’t included.
Team: Pittsburgh Steelers
What and When: In 2013, the Steelers were playing their mortal enemies, the Baltimore Ravens (they seem to have several mortal enemies, no?), and Jacoby Jones was returning a kickoff. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin decided to jump in on special teams and literally stepped on to the field, directly in the path of Jones, during the return. Tomlin said he was trying to watch the play on the Jumbotron.
Penalty: $100,000 fine for Mike Tomlin.
Team: New York Jets
What and When: In a 2010 game against the Miami Dolphins, Jets assistant coach Sal Alosi tripped Miami Dolphins gunner Nolan Carroll (who was a rookie at the time) on a special teams play when Carroll ran near the Jets sideline. It was also discovered that Alosi had instructed Jets players to “form a wall” along the sideline. Alosi apologized publicly at a news conference shortly after.
Penalty: Alosi was suspended indefinitely and fined $25,000 by the team. The NFL fined the Jets $100,000.
Finally, as more or less a footnote, let’s not forget that G.O.A.T. Jerry Rice famously stated that, when asked about the Patriots and the DeflateGate scandal “”I’m going to be point blank, I feel like it’s cheating, because you have an edge up on your opponent and its unfortunate that it happened,” Rice said of Deflategate at the time. “I think you have to really put an asterisk on it, because this is going to follow them, you know, for the rest of their lives, because when you look at it, when people go back and they think about the New England Patriots, they’re going to think about these controversies.”
A week or two after that, Rice admitted that he used Stickum on his gloves, but that since “All players did it! #equalplayingfield”, (his words, not mine) it shouldn’t be held against him.
It’s also noteworthy that the Saints and Patriots were undeniably hammered the hardest by the league in their respective punishments, with draft picks lost, fines, and, in the Saints’ case, suspensions, for running a program that encouraged players to injure opponents and…videotaping hand signals, respectively.
Here’s the takeaway – when it comes to on-field infractions that don’t involve PEDs, even in situations where there’s literally zero doubt about what went down, the NFL simply doesn’t usually hand out suspensions. The only couple events on this list where suspensions occurred involved egregious and deliberate attempts to injure other players. And for everyone who’s calling for Tom Brady to be suspended for multiple games, suspended for a season, banned for life, whatever, for “more probably than not” being “generally aware” of a cheating situation…you’re living in a dream world.