Posted by MikeT23 on 1/23/2015 10:24:00 AM (view original):
Yes, of course it would. I would not get jail time or fined. Maybe the authorities would pour over records and make my life difficult. Maybe they would find something to fine me for after doing that. But I wouldn't be fined for kitten crushing.
You want BB's head on a stick and this does not warrant it. Perhaps a rogue employee, one that he does NOT oversee and had no hand in hiring(which doesn't apply to my kitten crushing driver), did something against the rules. Punish the organization not the guy who has no hand in ball management.
I'm not calling for BB's head on a stick. That was stinenavy who said that he should be suspended for the Super Bowl. I think that's both extremely unlikely, and extremely excessive. Unless the NFL investigation finds something really egregious going on in Foxboro as part of their investigation.
My only comment has to do with Belichick's accountability in all of this. If he has virtually complete control of all things related to football operations in the Pats organization, and somebody on the payroll who falls under football operations (that would exclude the ticket people, security, secretaries, other purely administrative functions, etc.) tampered with the footballs, then it needs to roll up to him. Again, that's how the business world works.
Most likely (and appropriate) punishment will be fines and loss of a draft pick, much like after Spygate. I wouldn't expect the team and/or Belichick to be hit as hard as they were then, but again, we need to see what the NFL investigation finds.