The Patriots: A Short Story

Imagine something you’ve always wanted and worked for your whole life. Then imagine you got that one thing. All you can think of is how proud and excited you are of reaching your goal and getting what you want. Then imagine that you got what you have always wanted, but people are just looking for ways to ruin it for you because they’re jealous of your success. That is what Tom Brady had to deal with this feeling after punching his ticket to the super bowl last season. The date was January 18th, 2015 and Tom Brady and his Patriots were playing the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Divisional Championship. From the beginning of the game you could tell that the Patriots were just on another level that the Colts just could not reach. In that

Whatever it is, we 'll cooperate with them the best we can,” said Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. Later in another interview, when asked, Tom Brady said that the accusations against him and his team were “ridiculous.” On January 20th, 2015, the Colts chimed in on their thought and accusations against the Patriots. After Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson intercepted one of Brady’s passes in the second quarter and gave the ball a member of the Colts equipment staff, they noticed that the ball was underinflated and they informed the Colts head coach Chuck Pagano. That same day Chris Mortensen, a reporter for ESPN, reported that 11 of the 12 footballs used in the first half of the game were greatly underinflated compared to what they are supposed to be. Starting that day and going on until May 6th, 2015, the NFL investigated the Patriots to see if the accusations were false or if there was actually something there. On the day mentioned a report was released that said that the Patriots deliberately deflated the balls in the game. They also had proof. Tom Brady and equipment manager John Jastremski had contacted each other many more times during the investigation than they did any other time before the game back in January. The discovered this while looking through the twos phone records, text messages, and

The NFL handed down the penalties to the Patriots and Tom Brady on May 11th, 2015. Brady received a four game suspension. The Patriots as a team also received punishments from the NFL. They got 1 million dollar fine as well as the loss of two draft picks the following years draft. Everyone was more than shocked. The following month was chaos. The Patriots were trying franticly to figure out how to get rid of these sever punishments. It wasn’t until June 2nd, 2015 that they got the chance to do so. Rodger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, heard the appeal of Tom Brady. It wasn’t for a while until the Patriots and Tom Brady heard the final result of the hearing. On July 28th, 2015 the NFL announced that they would not shorten the four game suspension of Brady for the upcoming season. Then just before the first game of the year, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said that the NFL and Rodger Goodell were far too harsh when giving out their punishments to the NFL and Brady. He withdrew the four game suspension of Brady and he would end up playing the opening game of the season. He went on the play an amazing game, shredding the Steelers defense and give the Patriots and 1-0 start to the 2015