Back in 2015, Tom Brady’s fourth Super Bowl win was overshadowed by Deflategate, and the headline-making drama threatened to taint his entire career. It all started that January when linebacker D’Qwell Jackson thought there was something unusual about the football being used during the Colts-Patriots game and reported it, per ESPN. A review found that 11 of 12 balls used in the first half were indeed underinflated, and the NFL launched an official investigation. “I have no explanation for what happened,” Brady said at the time. “I didn’t alter the ball in any way.”
Well, that’s not what the final 243-page report, which was published in May 2015, found. Rather, it concluded that Brady probably had knowledge of what was happening, and he was suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2015 season. In a letter to Brady, NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent wrote, per NFL, “You were at least generally aware of the actions of the Patriots’ employees involved in the deflation of the footballs.”
Vincent also condemned Brady for not cooperating with the investigation and refusing to provide electronic evidence, like texts and emails. “Your actions as set forth in the report clearly constitute conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the game of professional football,” Vincent wrote. The Patriots were also fined $1 million and lost two draft picks, although, as USA Today noted, the advantages of playing with a deflated football are unclear.
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