Brett Favre: ‘I don’t think Tom Brady cheated’

At least one former NFL quarterback of some repute thinks the Tom Brady ball-inflation penalties are being overblown.

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Green Bay Packers legend Brett Favre told Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren during an appearance on On The Record With Greta Van Susteren earlier this week that he doesn’t believe that Brady, who led the New England Patriots to their third Super Bowl title, was cheating.

Favre acknowledged he hasn’t followed the story closely, but questions whether what was done—if it was done—could be considered “cheating,” per The Associated Press.

“At the time, when it first came out, I was probably like many others, it was somewhat laughable at first that we were even talking about that, especially considering the magnitude of the game that was upcoming,” Favre said during the telephone interview. “But I understand the league’s view of this and the deceit involved and the insinuation of cheating.

“I don’t think in any stretch, in my opinion, that Tom was cheating and it sounds crazy, but historically there’s been stealing of signs and that goes to baseball and football.

“Whatever advantage you could get, Lester Hayes putting the Stickum on his arm for the Raiders, and pine tar.

“It’s just endless the advantages that players would try to get. And I don’t know if Tom would say he’s completed more passes because of it. I think more than anything, it helped with the great based on condition. Not every game. Would other players do it? Sure, I have no reason to think otherwise.”

For the record, current Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers told CBS’ Eye on Football Podcast back in January that under-inflated footballs would be a disadvantage for him ad that he prefers them to be aired up beyond the maximum threshold permitted by the NFL.

“The majority of quarterbacks, I would say more than half, are maybe on the other end of the spectrum and like it on the flatter side,” Rodgers said, per CBSSports.com. “My belief is that there should be a minimum air-pressure requirement but not a maximum. There’s no advantage, in my opinion—we’re not kicking the football—there’s no advantage in having a pumped-up football.”

My belief is that if 32 game balls from any given week of NFL action were measured, it’s likely there would be a range of 32 different PSI readings.

What do I base this belief on? The fact that when helping out with a high school team in my local area, our starting quarterback was given the game ball before each game and asked if he wanted more air, less air or if it was good.

Jan 18, 2015; Foxborough, MA, USA; Indianapolis Colts inside linebacker D’Qwell Jackson (52) runs the ball after an interception during the second quarter against the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stew Milne-USA TODAY Sports

If this is happening at a small high school in the Upper Midwest, one can logically assume that similar activities are taking place at the highest level of the sport.

But somehow the story blew up into the biggest scandal in the NFL this offseason, with Brady being slapped with a four-game suspension, while the Patriots were fined $1 million and stripped of two draft picks in the next two years—a first-round selection in 2016 and a fourth-rounder in 2017.

And in the hot-take world of 21st century media, the incident has been compared to the torture of Iraqi prisoners of war at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

And, of course, the oh-so-clever folks in the media had to attach the “-gate” suffix onto it, because original thinking apparently died sometime after the original Watergate scandal broke in 1972.

Sometimes, I wonder what modern-day journalists would have done had the break-in at the Watergate occurred instead at a Ramada Inn.

Would we be hashtagging this story #Deflatemada?

Honestly, I think that’s a more worthwhile discussion than how much air goes in a football that was only found to have been altered after it was intercepted by the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship.

So, yeah … huge advantage gained there.

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