Richard Sherman on Deflategate: Brady being fined more than Pats raises 'red flags'
— -- Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman believes that the New England Patriots should be paying as large a punishment for Deflategate if not more than what has been handed to quarterback Tom Brady.
"You're fining players more than you're fining organizations?" Sherman told USA Today Sports. "That should bring up some red flags. But nobody's talking about that."
Brady has filed an appeal seeking to overturn a four-game suspension -- worth approximately $2 million in salary -- for his role in the use of deflated footballs in the AFC Championship Game. He and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell have been ordered to again appear in court Aug. 31 if no settlement on a lesser suspension has been reached before then.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft was fined $1 million and docked two draft picks -- a first-rounder in 2016 and a fourth-rounder in 2017 -- by the NFL, and he said in May that he would not appeal the punishment.
Sherman believes Kraft got off easy, and Brady "shouldn't be punished so severely" for an incident in which "it wasn't just him" that was implicated.
"Owners can only be fined so much. There's a cap," Sherman told USA Today Sports. "And Brady gets fined [roughly $2 million]. Whether the crimes are the same or not, a suspension is a suspension, a fine is a fine. Game checks."
He added: "People are just so focused on, 'Oh, that's a huge fine for the organization.' It's not. A million dollars is peanuts to the Patriots, who will make [hundreds of] million dollars this year. Brady ... you take away four game checks, and you're doing this to the organization."
