Well, Justice in the NFL has been rendered. Tom Brady has been suspended for four games. The Patriots have lost a first round pick in 2016, a fourth round pick in 2017 and have been fined $1 Million Dollars.
The NFL, after an exhaustive study found that "it was more likely than not" that Tom Brady knew the footballs were deflated.
Now, the NFL also found that the Colts balls were not inflated correctly, but no sanctions were extended to the losers in the AFC title game.
"More likely than not" is a legal standard found in the federal courts, most often in extradition hearings when the standard is that it is "More likely than not"
whether an individual is more likely than not to face torture if returned to the country of removal
There are numerous federal cases that cite that standard. The Standard seems to be similar to the civil standard of a preponderance of the evidence, or
"a familiar one to immigration authorities and reviewing courts." By its terms, the "more likely than not" standard requires evidence of a greater than 50% chance that an event will occur.
So, we have something more than a flip of a coin, in other words!
But, what we know for certain is that we have spent more time, money and attention to determine if the Patriots knew whether their footballs were improperly deflated than we have to determine if our Police in our major cities are properly trained.
Now, I know that with a push of a button, I can tell you the air pressure of all four tires on the ground, and I am sure that most of you can, too. If the air pressure of a football is so important, I would suggest that the NFL have something better than a football needle that could detect the air pressure of a football on the sideline.
Honestly, I can tell you that as the Head coach of a High school football team, I never checked the inflation of a football. I could tell by the feel that it was under inflated and I aired it up. I never deflated a ball because I thought it was overinflated, but in retrospect, it might have helped the kicker..