The NFL took deflate-gate very seriously, hammering the New England Patriots with unheard of punishment in the matter of deflated footballs. 
 
 The league announced Monday that quarterback Tom Brady was suspended four games, the team was fined $1 million and will lose its 2016 first-round draft pick and a fourth-round pick in 2017. The league has been considering punishment since the release of investigator Ted Wells' report on Thursday. 
 
 That's a huge punishment considering there was no evidence Brady was directly involved and the Wells Report said Patriots ownership and coach Bill Belichick weren't involved. The league said the punishment was for violating playing rules and not cooperating fully in the investigation. 
 
 Brady plans to appeal the decision. His agent, Don Yee, said in a statement, via Fox Sports' Mike Garafolo: "The discipline is ridiculous and has no legitimate basis. In my opinion, this outcome was pre-determined; there was no fairness in the Wells investigation whatsoever. ... 
 
 "The NFL has a well-documented history of making poor disciplinary decisions that often are overturned when truly independent and neutral judges or arbitrators preside, and a former federal judge has found the commissioner has abused his discretion in the past, so this outcome does not surprise me." 
 
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 In the release, the NFL said Patriots employees John Jastremski and James McNally have been indefinitely suspended without pay by the club, effective May 6. They aren't allowed to be reinstated without the NFL's permission. If they are reinstated, the NFL said "Jastremski is prohibited from having any role in the preparation, supervision, or handling of footballs to be used in NFL games during the 2015 season. McNally is barred from serving as a locker room attendant for the game officials, or having any involvement with the preparation, supervision, or handling of footballs or any other equipment on game day." 
 
 
 
 In Wells' report, it states "it is more probable than not that Tom Brady (the quarterback for the Patriots) was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski involving the release of air from Patriots game balls." 
 
 Jim McNally is the officials locker room attendant who took the game balls to the field, and stopped in a locked side bathroom for a minute and 40 seconds with the balls inside. Jastremski is the Patriots' assistant equipment man who prepared the game balls. The two texted about Brady's preference over the air pressure. Brady has said his preference was to have it at the low end of the rule, which is 12.5 psi. 
 
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 The issue came about after the AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts, who told the league the day before the game that they had concerns about the air pressure in the Patriots' game balls, intercepted a Brady pass in the first half and examined it on the sideline. They told the league, and league officials re-inspected the game balls at halftime and found they were under the minimum allowed by league rules. 
 
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 Brady denied any wrongdoing in January, during a long news conference. During it, he said, "I have no knowledge of anything." A little more than a week later at the Super Bowl, he had one of the great performances of all time, bringing the Patriots back in a nearly-perfect fourth quarter to knock off the Seattle Seahawks. It was his fourth Super Bowl title. He was named Super Bowl MVP. 
 
 The issue with punishing Brady is it is all based on conjecture. There's not even really circumstantial evidence; there's really no evidence of Brady's direct participation in any scheme put forth in Wells' report. The report implicates Brady basically because it says he had to have known, not because they had any proof that he did know or stated to either McNally or Jastremski that he wanted balls deflated after inspection. The report simply doesn't find him guilty. 
 
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 NFL vice president of football operations Troy Vincent sent a heavy-handed letter to Brady. 
 
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 Investigators hired by the NFL concluded Wednesday that it was “more probable than not” that New England Patriots personnel intentionally deflated footballs and that star quarterback Tom Brady was “at least generally aware.” 
 
 The investigators’ report on what came to be called Deflate-Gate faulted Jim McNally, a Patriots locker room attendant, and John Jastremski, an equipment assistant, for an apparent effort to let air out of game balls for the AFC championship game in January. 
 
 The report found less evidence linking Brady to tampering but found it was probable “that Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski.” 
 
 It quoted text messages between the two, months before the AFC title game, suggesting that Brady was asking for underinflated game balls, and that the quarterback expressed his displeasure when they were not to his liking. 
 
 It also quoted requests from McNally for shoes and signed footballs from Brady in exchange for deflating game balls. 
 
 Read the most revealing texts from the report 
 
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 Before the AFC championship game, McNally took two large bags of game balls, meant for both teams, out of the officials’ locker room and disappeared into a bathroom for a minute and 40 seconds, the report found. 
 
 Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league would “consider what steps to take in light of the report, both with respect to possible disciplinary action and to any changes in protocols that are necessary to avoid future incidents of this type.” 
 
 The Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 for the AFC championship, and the Colts complained after the game that some balls were underinflated. Underinflated footballs are easier to catch and throw, particularly in difficult weather, and it was raining during the game. 
 
 Two weeks later, the Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. After a furor over the game balls, the commissioner asked Ted Wells, a prominent lawyer, to compile the report. It took more than four months and ran to more than 240 pages. 
 
 The Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft, said he was still convinced that the team had done nothing wrong. 
 
 “To say we are disappointed in its findings, which do not include any incontrovertible or hard evidence of deliberate deflation of footballs at the AFC Championship game, would be a gross understatement,” he said in a statement. 
 
 In an interview with the investigators, Brady denied wrongdoing and said that he didn’t even know McNally’s name before the AFC title game. “We found these claims not plausible and contradicted by other evidence,” the report concluded. 
 
 It also found that Brady and Jastremski did not communicate by phone or text for six months — then communicated six times over the three days after suspicions were first raised about ball-tampering. 
 
 In May 2014, long before the season, McNally referred to himself as “the deflator,” according to texts reviewed by the investigators: 
 
 McNally: You workingJastremski: YupMcNally: Nice dude....jimmy needs some kicks....lets make a deal.....come on help the deflatorMcNally: Chill buddy im just (expletive) with you ....im not going to espn........yet 
 
 The report includes further salty text-message exchanges between McNally and Jastremski during the 2014 regular season, as they deal with Brady’s preferences for game balls. 
 
 After Brady complained about the inflation of footballs in a game in October, McNally wrote to Jastremski: “Tom sucks ... im going make that next ball a (expletive) balloon.” 
 
 Another exchange that same month went like this: 
 
 Jastremski: Can’t wait to give you your needle this week :)McNally: (Expletive) tom....make sure the pump is attached to the needle.....(expletive) watermelons comingJastremski: So angryMcNally: The only thing deflating sun..is his passing rating 
 
 In addition, the Colts alerted the league on the day before the AFC title game to concerns about air pressure in Patriots footballs, the report found. General Manager Ryan Grigson wrote: “All the Indianapolis Colts want is a completely level playing field.” 
 
 An attached message from the Colts’ equipment manager, said: 
 
 As far as the gameballs are concerned it is well known around the league that after the Patriots gameballs are checked by the officials and brought out for game usage the ballboys for the patriots will let out some air with a ball needle because their quarterback likes a smaller football so he can grip it better, it would be great if someone would be able to check the air in the game balls as the game goes on so that they don‟t get an illegal advantage. 
 
 An NFL official promised that one of his colleagues would speak to game officials about it. 
 
 At a press conference in January, Brady denied wrongdoing and said that he had never knowingly played with a football that did not meet league regulations. 
 
 “I would never do anything to break the rules,” he said. 
 
 The report cleared Bill Belichick, the head coach, and the Patriots front office in Deflate-Gate. It did fault the Patriots for refusing to make McNally available for a follow-up interview with investigators. The investigators said it was inconsistent with the team’s pledge of full cooperation.
– The NFL suspended Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady for four games without pay today for his role in a scheme to deflate footballs used in the AFC title game. The league also fined the Patriots $1 million and took away two draft picks, including next years' first-round choice. The NFL also indefinitely suspended the two equipment staffers who carried out the plan, including one who called himself "The Deflator." The league cited the integrity of the game in handing down the punishment five days after a report said Brady "was at least generally aware" of plans by two Patriots employees to prepare the balls to his liking, below the league-mandated minimum of 12.5 pounds per square inch. Brady's agent says the star quarterback plan to appeal, and tells TMZ that the NFL "has a well-documented history of making poor disciplinary decisions." Out of the gate: Way unfair: "The NFL took deflate-gate very seriously," writes Frank Schwab at Yahoo! Sports. "That's a huge punishment considering there was no evidence Brady was directly involved and the Wells report said Patriots ownership and coach Bill Belichick weren't involved." On the other hand: "He has to hammer Brady," writes Gregg Doyel of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell at the Indianapolis Star. "The Wells report didn't implicate Brady for cheating in a regular-season game. ... This was the AFC championship, the catapult to the Super Bowl. And Brady rigged it, or at least he tried to." See how media pundits slammed Brady or how he reacted to the Wells report.