For a time, it looked like Deflategate might die. It looked like the NFL had lost and the New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady had managed to escape relatively unscathed. Sure, losing draft picks and being fined hurt. But Brady avoiding the four-game suspension handed down and upheld on appeal by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was the biggest aspect, both for the team and for the league. The Pats need Brady - sorry, Jimmy G. - if they're going to continue competing seriously for the AFC and NFL crown over the next couple of seasons.
Losing their future Hall of Fame quarterback for any extended period wouldn't ultimately destroy the Pats' playoff hopes, but it would certainly cripple them. Yes, Belichick has made hay with guys like Matt Cassel, but it wasn't easy and it didn't result in an NFL championship.
But then came reports last week that the three-judge panel tasked with hearing the NFL's appeal of U.S. district judge Richard Berman's ruling that Brady's ban be vacated seemed to be leaning the league's way on a number of issues. Patriots fans and NFL observers alike began to wonder - would Brady's suspension rear its ugly head again? We won't have an answer for at least a couple more months, but we now know that Brady is, at the very least, prepared for the possibility.
As part of his recent extension, protection has been put in place in case Brady misses games, presumably as a result of the Deflategate suspension, next season. The deal carries $41 million in new money, meaning Brady will be with the team at least until he's 42 and won't have to ask his supermodel wife for walking around money any time soon, but his former base salary of $9 million for 2016 was dropped to $1 million.
If Brady misses four games next season, he'll only lose a couple hundred thousand dollars, as opposed to the $2 million it would have been before.
Really, it's far less important than whether or not the panel decides to again impose the ban on Brady, but it's at least interesting to note that a man who has made $162.779 million in career earnings since entering the NFL in 2000 would have protection put in place that will save him about $2 million should he be forced to miss games.
But the NFL is a business and Brady has given his body and his mind completely to the game and the Pats since the day he was drafted. It may seem like a small thing to worry over, but possible ball inflation scandal or no, Brady deserves every dollar of the contract he'll be playing under until an age at which most people struggle to get up off the couch, let alone lead a team full of elite professional athletes into competition on a weekly basis.