Tom Brady Loses Appeal, Goodell Will Keep Suspension at Four Games

Earlier today, the NFL announced that Tom Brady's supension will be kept at four games for the star quarterback's supposed involvement in the saga known as "Deflategate." The major breakthrough that accompanied the announcement was that on March 6th, the day that Tom Brady interviewed with Ted Wells, the quarterback asked an assistant to destroy a cellphone that he had been using since November of 2014. The NFL simply viewed Brady's unwillingness to cooperate with the investigation as an ongoing pattern.

Meanwhile, Brady's attornee Don Yee quickly released a statement of his own: "The commissioner's decision is deeply disappointing, but not suprising because the appeal process was thoroughly lacking in procedural fairness. Most importantly, neither Tom nor the Patriots did anything wrong. And the NFL has no evidence that anything inappropriate occured. The appeal process was a sham, resulting in the Commissioner in the Commissioner rubber-stamping his own decision." Don Yee went on to complain that the NFL gave Brady and his team just several days to prepare for a four hour argument in juxtaposition to the roughly 100 days that the NFL had to prepare. Moreover, Brady's team points to the third party's that sided with the Patriots, whereas the the information collected by the NFL's investigation is deemed "junk" by Yee. Lastly, Yee argues that the team presented Goodell with all kinds of electronic data, even though this data was eventually "ignored."

Patriots release statement on Tom Brady's suspension being upheld. pic.twitter.com/Sbfwp38r0d

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 28, 2015

NFLPA releases statement on Tom Brady, says it will appeal the decision to uphold his suspension. pic.twitter.com/LePpZcrJwF

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 28, 2015

I believe Tom Brady told bellboys to inflate his footballs to lower end of regulation. Wants court battle b/c believes totally innocent.

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) July 28, 2015

NFLPA will file suit tomorrow in federal court in Minnesota, contesting Tom Brady's 4-game suspension - via @RapSheet pic.twitter.com/SVdEkEODhW

— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) July 28, 2015

Football in the Olympics?

     Earlier in the day, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the sport is fighting to become a part of the Olympic games. Football...in the Olympic games? There are some things football fans just can't picture, and football in the middle of the summer is one of them. First of all, the injury risk would turn away many of our league's stars, because no player making millions of dollars for their play wants to be hurt right before the start of the season. A report released in 2010 states an average close to 3.5 players per team per week suffers an injury. So would these games look identical to the Pro-Bowl; highly regarded players who are not willing to play their hardest due to the injury risk? And what about international competition? There are close to 65 other countries with a style of play somewhat identical to the NFL, a list that includes regions like Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom. However, the skill level would not even be close to resembling the players found in the National Football League. With so much history and purpose behind this American-bred sport, opposing competitors wouldn't stand a chance. A compromise that could be made would be to play college stars on the American team to make it slightly more competitive. Even if university's were not willing to play their stars, the Olympic team administrators could start the nation's top high school prospects. Many (including myself) do not believe sports such as basketball should be a part of he Olympic games, especially when we see Kobe Bryant and LeBron James running circles around bottom-tier squads. The bottom line is that football's biggest stars should watch the Olympic games from home in 2016, so come September, we are hungrier than ever to watch the game we love.