Wednesday, May 13, 2015

New England Patriots' fans start GoFundMe to help pay team's $1 million fine

I. Love. Patriots'. Fans!

New England Patriots' fans have started a GoFundMe account to help raise part of the $1 million in fines assessed the Super Bowl-winning team.

Fans say they started the account because they opposed the NFL's decision to fine the team for Deflategate, the name dubbed the ball deflating scandal involving quarterback giant Tom Brady. The fine came on the heels of the much ballyhooed report from NFL-hired attorney Ted Wells that concluded Brady likely knew his footballs had been deflated below league standards – but did not definitely know.

Brady faces a four-game suspension without pay and his team, the loss of its first-round draft pick in 2016 and fourth-round pick in 2017 as additional punishment.

Fans expressed outrage at the penalties, particularly the $1 million fine, assessed Brady and his team on what they saw as flimsy evidence.

As of Wednesday, the account registered more than $13,000.

"We obviously know we won't reach One Million Dollars, however we do believe the fine is bull[expletive] 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!"

An update to the account explained "if our donations are not accepted by The New England Patriots, we will donate the money to some great causes!" Among the mulled causes: relief projects, charities or even other GoFundMe accounts "that really could use some extra help."

The Wells report concluded "it is more probable than not [Brady] was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities" of locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski in deflating the footballs, CNN said.




No comments:

Post a Comment