Will NFL’s ‘Deflategate’ ruling make up for the past?

Tom Brady faces a four-game suspension and the Patriots are losing both money and draft picks in the scandal’s aftermath. Is it enough to repair football’s reputation?

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The National Football League announced Monday it was suspending New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady without pay for the first four games of the 2015 season. The decision comes on the heels of an investigation into a report the team deflated footballs in order to gain an advantage in last season’s AFC Championship.

“Deflategate” affected more than just Brady: The Patriots were hit with a $1 million fine, and forfeited its first-round selection in 2016’s NFL draft along with the fourth-round draft selection in the 2017 draft. John Jastremski and James McNally—Patriots employees involved in Deflategate—were also suspended without pay, indefinitely.

Many football fans and NFL players took to social media and expressed anger at the NFL’s ruling; it also seems the friendship between Robert Kraft, Patriot’s chairman and CEO, and Roger Goodell, NFL’s commissioner, is now on the rocks.

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