Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio was inducted into the USC Athletics Hall of Fame this weekend. Prior to the ceremony, he was asked whether he thought the punishment the league handed down to the Patriots for 'Deflategate' was not unlike the punishment the NCAA handed down to USC for giving Reggie Bush improper benefits. Del Rio agreed that there are some similarities between the two.
"I think there are some similarities in terms of an overreaction, from my standpoint," Del Rio told the Associate Press. "I think it was a little bit overdone, but that's somebody else's problem right now."
"Everybody understands that quarterbacks all want to get the balls how they like them, and why not?. They throw these balls around, and one of the reasons the sport is so popular is the ability of guys like Peyton (Manning) and Brady to throw the ball the way they do."
In case you hadn't heard, Tom Brady and the Patriots were found to have used football that were below the required air pressure during their playoff game against the Colts following last season. The punishment handed down was the Tom Brady being suspended without pay for 4 games while the Patriots were fined $1 million dollars and lose their 2016 first round draft pick and 2017 fourth round draft pick.
Compare this to the punishment the NCAA handed down to Reggie Bush which included stripping the player and the school of the Heisman Trophy, vacating 14 games and their National Championship in 2004, a two-year Bowl ban, four years of probabtion, and loss of 30 scholarships of a three-year period.
That's quite a bit harsher a penalty than the Patriots received. By a large margin.
Though, to be fair, Del Rio merely said both punishments were overreactions, not that they were the same level of overreaction.
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