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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will miss the first four games of the National Football League's 2015 season for his role in deflating footballs before last year's AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts.
The incident has become known as "Deflategate." The lower air pressure supposedly gave Brady a better grip on the football in cold weather.
The Patriots crushed the Colts 45-7, then went on to defeat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.
TMZ reports that the league also severely punished the Patriots organization by fining them $1 million and taking away a first round pick in 2016, and a 4th round pick in 2017.
"Tom Brady will be suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2015 regular season for conduct detrimental to the integrity of the NFL," the league said in a statement. "Brady may participate in all off-season, training camp and pre-season activities, including pre-season games."
Troy Vincent
In a letter to Brady, NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent explained the league found "substantial and credible evidence to conclude you were at least generally aware of the actions of the Patriots’ employees involved in the deflation of the footballs and that it was unlikely that their actions were done without your knowledge."
"Moreover, the report documents your failure to cooperate fully and candidly with the investigation, including by refusing to produce any relevant electronic evidence (emails, texts, etc.), despite being offered extraordinary safeguards by the investigators to protect unrelated personal information, and by providing testimony that the report concludes was not plausible and contradicted by other evidence."
"Your actions as set forth in the report clearly constitute conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the game of professional football."
Patriots owner Robert Kraft told WCVB that he disagreed with the findings.
"While I respect the independent process of the investigation, the time, effort and resources expended to reach this conclusion are incomprehensible to me. Knowing that there is no real recourse available, fighting the league and extending this debate would prove to be futile," Kraft said.
The two equipment managers, John Jastremski and James McNally, have also been suspended by the team indefinitely.
Brady will have the opportunity to appeal his suspension.
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