January and February 2015 was wrought with controversy as the 2014-2015 NFL football season drew to a close and the New England Patriots came under scrutiny by the NFL. In their final faceoff before entering the Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks, the New England Patriots conquered the Indianapolis Colts with a 45-7 victory, though the legality of the win is still being hotly debated, considering the condition of balls used during the game. Recent developments in the debate reveal that the Patriots will be punished and that star quarterback, Tom Brady, will suffer a four-game unpaid suspension in the upcoming season.

According to standards set by the NFL, legal footballs used in play must be inflated to a gauge pressure between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch (psi) or 86 to 93 kPa, though an investigation at halftime of the January 18th AFC Championship game revealed that only a single ball fell 2 psi below the minimum regulation pressure.

While this incident could easily have been influenced by environmental conditions—balls inflated in warm rooms would lose pressure on a cold field—human intervention was suspected and Brady became isolated as a primary culprit—‘Deflategate’ exploding into a prolonged national controversy.

Last week, the NFL reflected upon the likelihood of the Patriots’ involvement in a highly illegal cheating scheme and took into account various suggestions of the deliberate under-inflation of regulation footballs including uncovered text messages between Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski which seemingly implicated Brady as the facilitator of this covert operation. The NFL concluded that Brady did, in fact, indirectly tamper with the game balls used in the AFC Championship game and thus he will suffer an almost $2 million deficit in his four-game suspension.

Brady was given a three-day appeal deadline on May 11 to challenge the NFL’s decision in regards to repercussions and the punishment of the team, which is forced to pay $1 million along with the loss of their first round pick in the 2016 NFL draft and their fourth round pick in the 2017 draft.

In response to the NFL’s convictions, the New England Patriots issued a testimony that stated, “Today’s punishment…far exceeded any reasonable expectation. It was based on circumstantial rather than hard or conclusive evidence.”

Despite the Patriots’ potential for involvement in a scandal that has influenced nation-wide anger, Brady will be facing a castigation in the upcoming season that far exceeds the provisions of Ray Rice’s punishment—a two game suspension—after video evidence revealed that he physically abused his current wife, Janay Palmer.

The scandal that marred the post season excitement and cast a shadow over the “sport’s biggest spectacle” has been hotly debated for months, the public calling for extreme forms of punishment including Bill Belichick’s firing/suspension or the Patriots’ removal from the Super Bowl. Despite the controversy ‘Deflategate’ has caused, the NFL will be hard-pressed to decide how to prevent cheating from infiltrating the game in future seasons.