Because ________________.

It won't go to a real court, nor should it.

You're mostly right, though I believe the final verdict would actually go the other way. The penalty appears to be in large part due to Brady's non-cooperation with the investigation, not his actual actions, and while you can introduce evidence of such into civil courts in a roundabout manner, juries often prefer to see something more concrete.

That said, the parties agreed to the current disciplinary system. I suspect the NFL is within its rights to draw these conclusions and hand down these punishments, though I haven't gone through the collective bargaining agreement to be sure about that.

-The measurements by the two refs varied by 0.3-0.45psi
-The measurements for the Colts balls showed measurements up to 0.4psi below the allowed limit
-Brady prefers gameballs on the lower end of the spectrum
-Luck's preference is unknown (to my knowledge)

Therefore, Luck's gameballs could have started as high as 13.95psi (due to the variability in measuring) and fallen to as low as 12.15psi (only four balls were measured) (a 1.8 difference). The Pats could have started with gameballs as low as 12.1psi (due to the variability in measuring) and the final recordings placed the gameballs at 10.5psi, a 1.6psi difference.

We just don't have enough information (the starting points of the balls) to know what actually happened, and this lack of reliable information makes it ridiculous to give out such a harsh penalty.

Additionally, it is my opinion (and seemingly the opinion of numerous past and present quarterbacks) that modifying gameballs in some way is inconsequential and it seems to be fairly common. Strange that the NFL suddenly started caring about something so minor so quickly.

Its about time the NFL has cracked down on the Patriots for their blatant cheating and BS tactics... A $1 million fine and the loss of a first round pick this year and a 4th round pick next year seems totally fair considering they were caught cheating in a divisional championship game. I mean its not like this is the first time the Patriots were caught cheating...

Also its pretty sweet to see the hammer come down on the NFL's golden boy: Tom Brady. Funny how he was sooooo smug in his interviews about the deflate debacle and now hes facing a 4 game suspension XD. Although I'm sure he will appeal and the NFL will bitch out of the suspension because that's what the NFl does....

And yet the Colts were also playing with underinflated balls throughout the entirety of the game, by ref measurements.

The lackadaisical nature of the NFL's enforcement of these rules pretty much invalidates this whole "fiasco" imo.

Would it help if you viewed the punishment as being not for underinflating a football, but repeatedly refusing to cooperate with, and apparently lying to, the investigation?

Correct me if im wrong but doesn't the offense use its own balls when they are on the field. So, wouldnt the Patriots be the only team benefiting from the use of the deflated balls sense they were only used when the Patriots offense was on the field.

I'm not a Patriots fan either I'm just a fan of the AFC.

Even if the Patriots wouldn't have thrown the ball once in that game they still would have won the game by at least 21 points so in the big picture the deflated balls didn't make any difference.

You first have to prove something happened before proving there was a coverup. As for Brady not sharing his emails, I think a fine would be a good penalty for that, however I would also like to see any text in the rulebook which talks about disclosure. I also see how it is entirely reasonable for Brady to refuse for a number of privacy reasons. The NFL already looked through the staffers phone, so it isn't like there is some missing link in the conversation that could only be retrieved from Brady's phone.

While I can understand a suspension for a few games (4 is overkill) to some degree, I think that the penalties on the organization are ridiculous. To my knowledge, no evidence was found linking Belichick or Kraft (or anyone of any importance other than Brady) so penalizing the club to such a large degree seems like too much.

For what many (including many current and past players) see as no big deal (and something that was treated as no big deal by the NFL prior to this case) to carry such a heavy penalty makes the NFL look like a joke.

The Colts balls that the Colts used on offense also showed values below the legal limit according to the Wells report.

Why? The AFC is terrible