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Richard Sherman defends Tom Brady against deflate-gate punishment
Enemies on the field, allies off it. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, last seen offering a hand in congratulations to Tom Brady at the end of the Super Bowl, is now taking up Brady's cause in the ongoing deflate-gate saga.
Speaking to USA Today, Sherman took direct aim at the NFL and its differential between punishment for players and punishment for owners.
“You’re fining players more than you’re fining organizations?” Sherman said, referring to the potential $2 million Brady could lose if he's suspended four games.
Sherman also noted that Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay received a punishment for DUI that didn't quite seem to measure up to what Brady would face.
“Last year, Jim Irsay got fined what, 500 grand?” Sherman said. “Owners can only be fined so much. There’s a cap. And Brady gets fined [roughly $2 million]. Whether the crimes are the same or not, a suspension is a suspension, a fine is a fine. Game checks.”
Sherman had said during Super Bowl week that the NFL likely wouldn't punish the Patriots because NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and New England owner Robert Kraft posed for pictures together. Now that the team has, in fact, been fined a million dollars, Sherman noted again that there's a differential:
“People are just so focused on, ‘Oh, that’s a huge fine for the organization,’ “ he said. “It’s not. A million dollars is peanuts to the Patriots, who will make [hundreds of] million dollars this year. Brady ... you take away four game checks, and you’re doing this to the organization.”
As to whether Brady is innocent of the whole deflating-footballs thing, which, lest we forget, is how this whole mess began, Sherman said, “It wasn’t just him. There’s no way nobody else knows about it. So, he shouldn’t be punished so severely.”
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.
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