Mass AG Says Deflategate Punishment ‘Doesn’t Add Up’

The attorney general of Massachusetts says she wishes the NFL would devote as much attention to domestic violence committed by its players as it does to deflated footballs.

“I sure wish that the NFL would spend about a tenth of the time that’s it’s spending on this on issues of domestic violence and sexual assault,” Maura Healey said in a Beantown speech reported on by the Boston Herald. “I’m just struck by the fact that somebody like Ray Rice gets a two-game suspension and Tom Brady, over deflated balls, is facing a four-game suspension. It doesn’t add up for me.”

The NFL suspended Tom Brady for four games, and fined the New England Patriots a record $1 million, on Monday based on allegations that the quarterback knew of a “more probable than not” scheme to deflate footballs prior to the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts in January. The league also subtracted a first- and fourth-round pick from the franchise.

Roger Goodell initially suspended Ray Rice for two games, then six, then for the entire season before a former federal judge acting as an arbiter vacated the suspension.

“I think priorities are not where they need to be when it comes to this particular league,” Healey remarked. She labeled domestic violence, which studies show ensnare NFL players at far lower rates than the general male population, as “rampant” in the league.

“Instead,” she complained, “we’re talking about air pressure and soft pigskin.”