AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, Rob Carr/Getty ImagesAccording to the NFL, Tom Brady was "at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities" of the New England Patriots' equipment managers during Deflategate, and for that, he has been suspended without pay for four regular season games.
When former Baltimore Ravens star Ray Rice told the NFL he had hit his wife during an altercation in a Atlantic City hotel elevator back in February of 2014, he received a two game suspension. That was his original punishment, until the video leaked. You remember that horrifying video, right?
In footage taken from inside the elevator, Rice punches his then-fiancée (now wife) Janay Palmer in the face so hard that she falls over, knocking her head against the handrail in the elevator and slumping to the floor unconscious. When the elevator opens up to their floor, Rice drags her limp body out of the elevator.
Now, the NFL says in a statement that they didn't see the video until months later, which makes us wonder if the punishment would have been more severe had they seen the video. But that's not the point. Ray Rice should have received a harsher punishment, regardless of video evidence. Especially when we now have his original suspension of two games to compare to Brady's four games. Yes, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback cheated, but we think we can all agree that beating your wife is much worse than under inflating some game balls, right? Just one year ago it was two games for freely admitting to knocking your wife unconscious, and Tom Brady got four games for his participation in Deflategate. Doesn't sit right with you, does it?
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell apologized for his decision to hand down such a disturbingly lenient punishment for Rice, and new guidelines for domestic abuse offenses were put in place. So for the first offense, it's now a six-game suspension. The second offense brings a lifetime ban from the NFL. And that's a step in the right direction, but it took way too long to happen,.
Just so we're all clear, up until the Ray Rice debacle, the punishment for players convicted of beating their wives and girlfriends was usually around two games. Violence against women in the NFL is nothing new, but the Ray Rice video shed a much needed light on how skewed the system was (and still is) when it comes to severity of punishments. Let's take a quick look at some players who were suspended for more than two games, which was Rice's original punishment, and the reason they were sentenced. FYI, these are all during the tenure of current commissioner Goodell:
Terrelle Pryor, Oakland Raiders: 5 games for involvement in tattoo case at Ohio State (2010)
Cedric Benson, Cincinnati Bengals: 3 games for misdemeanor assault against a former roommate (2011)
Wes Welker, Denver Broncos: 4 games for performance-enhancing drugs, allegedly Adderall (2014)
Plaxico Burress, New York Giants: 4 games for accidentally shooting himself in the leg (2008)
Albert Haynesworth, Washington Redskins: 5 games for stomping on another player in a game (2006)
Odell Thurman, Cincinnati Bengals: 32 games for multiple DUIs (2006)
Terry Johnson, Chicago Bears: 8 games for firearm possession (2007)
Chris Henry, Cincinnati Bengals: 8 games for violating the player conduct policy on the field (2007)
And that's not even the whole list (though the Big Lead has a full one), plus we didn't even go into all the players that are still playing in the NFL after countless charges, accusations and convictions of domestic abuse, some without any suspensions at all.
Outraged? Good. You should be.
(Originally published on Monday, Sept. 9 at 10:36 AM PDT)