You didn't get the gist of the article. The only thing it accused Tom of was not co-operating. That may or may not be true.
It didn't say he was guilty, only that he is a big part of the sport and when men that big in a particular sport are castigated it affects the sport.
Read it again.
Jason Notte's point about attendance or people watching bike racing is nonsense. There are no valid comparisons between football (college or pro) and long-distance cycling. Every high school doesn't have a team or even an athlete that participates in that sport, nor is it remotely as telegenic as football, especially as the technology makes football more interesting with every innovation.
Pete Rose gambling and the Sosa, Clemens, Bonds, et al PED mess hurt baseball, but baseball's attendance issues and TV ratings have more to do with the pace of the game, the decline of kids going into baseball above other sports, and the biggest mistake of putting the playoffs and World Series on TV so late that even if you have a team in the playoffs on the East Coast you can't watch and hold a job, or go to school because the games go well past midnight. MLB has screwed the pooch, and it will be interesting to see if the new Commissioner can make it easier to follow.
The NFL and college football are unparalleled media machines and have survived bigger scandals and just keep rolling. I am sure DeflateGate will not affect ratings this Fall, except maybe in New England if Brady is suspended. Game 5 against the Colts will be a blockbuster.
Back to my original complaint, though, Brady can't possibly be compared to that boorish cheater/liar Lance Armstrong, or that boorish liar, gambler Pete Rose, or those knuckleheads in baseball who used steroids to so totally warp the history of baseball statistically. He has spent over 20 hours in person with the investigators in the original meeting and the appeal.
If not turning over one's personal cell phone to an investigator who is not looking into a criminal complaint is "not cooperating" and punishable by our employers, God help us.
If your boss walked in and said that he/she wants you to hand over your cell phone so they could look for wrongdoing, would you do it?
