Okay, so usually when I hear a big news story that makes me feel even a little bit outraged, all I have to do is wait a few days – or sometimes even a couple hours – and someone with more time or passion (or whatever) than I, will post an eloquent article, laying out everything I had in my mind.
Except for this time.
It's been about a week, and still nothing.
It's true; I don't spend hours a day scouring Reddit, Buzzfeed, NBC, or ESPN, but surely if what's raging in my head had been chronicled (by more than just a meme), it would've gone viral by now, with the shared outrage of millions of other Americans.
At least it damn well should have.
What I'm talking about is Deflategate.
No, wait! Before you click away, know that this is not another article debating Brady's penchant for specifically-inflated balls, nor is it a tirade against the NFL for essentially making up their own rules, and – contrary to our current legal system – deciding a certain someone is "guilty until proven innocent".
No, this is much more serious; it's about the NFL giving Tom Brady a 4-game suspension as punishment.
As a woman, and a football fan for well over a decade, I am deeply appalled at the NFL: Roger Goodell, Mike Kensil, Ted Wells – all of them.
Confused? Let me throw some history at you about previous indiscretions by pro footballers and the subsequent punishments by the NFL.
Jon Schuppe of NBC News shed some light on this in his 2014 article "Still Playing: 12 NFL Players Have Domestic Violence Arrests". Players from various teams (none of them Patriots, incidentally), had situations ranging from hitting their mothers to beating their pregnant fiancées.
Most of these players received a ONE-GAME SUSPENSION!
But no, there is a "possibility" that Brady might've had some air let out of a couple balls, so he gets a 4-game suspension?! Seriously?!
One of the more notable on Schuppe's list, is Ray Rice, who allegedly hit his girlfriend so hard in an elevator that he knocked her out.
Goodell issued a whopping 2-game suspension for that one…until the surveillance footage came out, showing Rice dragging his girlfriend's limp body out of the elevator.
After seeing the footage, Goodell changed the rules to impose a 6-game suspension for 1st-time offenders.
Six games?! How about "one and done", NFL??
So, the unconfirmed (and most likely fabricated) rumor that some balls had a low PSI is generally worse than hitting a woman?!
What kind of example are you trying to set for the millions of young football fans, NFL? Possible cheating is at least TWICE AS BAD as abusing a woman?
Please tell me, Roger Goodell, would you tell your twin daughters to just "suck it up" if their football star boyfriends gave them black eyes before they went on to win a playoff game?
Frankly, I'm deeply disgusted with you, NFL.
And sure, I look the other way when I see your cheerleaders wearing their 2nd grade girl-sized uniforms. And I couldn't muster the energy to protest when I learned that you only pay them about $50 bucks a game.
But the punishment and slandering you've doled out during your blatant witch-hunt is TOO DAMN MUCH!
Hate Tom Brady if you will – I'll never be able to change your mind there.
But for the love of huge shiny Super Bowl rings, please reevaluate the importance of a little air over a beaten woman.
Your young fans – and everyone else for that matter – need to know that a domestic violence offender should always be dealt a harsher punishment over some small balls.
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