NFL

Deflategate verdict: Tom Brady banned 4 games, Pats lose picks

The NFL deflated Tom Brady’s reputation and paycheck Monday.

The league came down stunningly hard on the star quarterback and the Patriots for the Deflategate scandal, banning Brady for the first four games of the 2015 regular season without pay while docking the team $1 million and two draft picks in the wake of last week’s release of the Wells Report.

The NFL’s stiff punishment, administered by league vice president of football operations Troy Vincent but endorsed by commissioner Roger Goodell, appeared to result more from the cover-up than the actual crime of intentionally deflating footballs for the AFC Championship Game.

Barring a successful appeal, Brady was told by Vincent he will miss the first four regular-season games (Brady can participate in training camp and the preseason) because he was “generally aware” the balls were being under-inflated but more due to his lack of cooperation with NFL investigators.

Brady sat down for an interview with the probe’s leader, Ted Wells, last month, but the three-time Super Bowl MVP refused to turn over texts or emails related to the situation.

“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,” Vincent wrote to Brady.

The Patriots, meanwhile, received the largest team fine in league history — as well as the loss of a first-round pick in 2016 and a fourth-rounder in 2017 — in large part because they also were half-hearted in cooperating with Wells.

Although Bill Belichick was exonerated, the league came down even harder on the Patriots as repeat offenders because of the 2007 Spygate scandal, for which Belichick and the team were fined $750,000 combined and docked a pick for videotaping the Jets’ defensive signals.

Vincent also told the Patriots the league suspects Brady had ordered footballs under-inflated at home long before their 45-7 title game victory over the Colts.

“While we cannot be certain when the activity began, the evidence suggests that January 18th was not the first and only occasion when this occurred, particularly in light of the evidence referring to deflation of footballs going back to before the beginning of the 2014 season,” Vincent wrote the Patriots.

Brady announced through his agent, Don Yee, that he plans to appeal through the NFL Players Association in hopes of getting a “neutral” arbitrator who will knock down the suspension.

If it stands, Brady will forfeit $1.882 million of his scheduled $8 million salary.

“The discipline is ridiculous and has no legitimate basis,” Yee said in a statement Monday night. “In my opinion, this outcome was pre-determined; there was no fairness in the Wells investigation whatsoever.”

Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who famously demanded an apology from Goodell just days before the Super Bowl, issued a blistering response Monday night.

Kraft said last week when the Wells Report was released that he would accept any discipline from the league, but his tone changed Monday because “the punishment … far exceeded any reasonable expectation.”

Kraft also said the investigation was based on circumstantial evidence and blasted it as “one-sided” for dismissing what the Patriots claim was scientific evidence in the form of the Ideal Gas Law to explain the deflated air levels.

“Tom Brady has our unconditional support,” Kraft added. “Our belief in him has not wavered.”

Unless Brady’s suspension is reduced, his first game back would be Oct. 18 on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” in Indianapolis against the Colts — the same team whose complaint to the NFL going into the AFC title match set the whole controversy into motion.

The little guys in this escapade didn’t escape punishment, either. Patriots locker-room attendant James McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski, whom the Wells Report indicated had doctored footballs at Brady’s direction, were suspended without pay by the team.

McNally and Jastremski also must apply to the league for reinstatement, but even if that happens, they are now permanently barred from handling or supervising equipment on game day.

The defending-champion Patriots, meanwhile, will have to shift to unproven, second-year backup Jimmy Garoppolo and go without Brady for the first time since 2008, when he suffered a season-ending torn knee ligament in the opening game.

If it’s any consolation to their fans, New England went 11-5 with Matt Cassel that season, although they lost the AFC East to the Dolphins and didn’t even make the playoffs.

“The NFL has a well-documented history of making poor disciplinary decisions that often are overturned when truly independent and neutral judges or arbitrators preside,” Yee added in his statement. “Sadly, today’s decision diminishes the NFL as it tells its fans, players and coaches that the games on the field don’t count as much as the games played [at league headquarters] on Park Avenue.”