Wow, talk about die-hard fans! Patriots fan, Michael Whitman, started a gofundme account in hopes of reaching $1 million in order to cover the team’s fine on deflating footballs.
For those of you who aren’t caught up on that tea, locker room attendants John Jastremski and James McNally deflated the footballs used by Patriots’ quarterback, Tom Brady. Text messages confirmed this as McNally referred to himself as “the deflator”. The attendants have since been suspended indefinitely and without pay from the NFL, but the reason why fans are irate is because Tom was found to be guilty as well. NFL Executive VP, Troy Vincent, said, “The integrity of the game is of paramount importance to everyone in our league, and requires unshakable commitment to fairness and compliance with the playing rules. Each player, no matter how accomplished and otherwise respected, has an obligation to comply with the rules and must be held accountable for his actions when those rules are violated and the public’s confidence in the game is called into question.”
Since the Spygate Scandal, the Patriots had been under a magnifying glass when it comes to issues of integrity and the fact that Tom Brady would not hand over his cell phone during investigations, Vincent said that that determined their decision to suspend him for 4 games. His team will lose its first-round draft pick for 2016 and fourth-round pick for 2017. Ouch! Now, on the GoFundMe page, Michael Whitman says, We obviously know we won’t reach One Million Dollars, however we do believe the fine is bulls**t and want to help anyway we can. So whatever is donated will be donated to the New England Patriots in help with the fine!
As we venture with this, we will do frequent updates to show progression of this! If enough is made to make the travel, we will fly down there (on our own expenses) and deliver a check in person!
By the way, the team is worth $2.6 billion, Tom is worth over $154 million (without endorsements!!!!!!) and team owner, Robert Kraft is worth $4.6 billion, so, of course, the team doesn’t need the money, but these fans go hard for their players! Most fans are donating in increments of 12 in honor of Tom’s jersey number. If you’d like to donate, then click Paying the bill of the PATRIOTS!
