Tom Brady and Bill Belichick dealt with an offseason full of controversy (Getty Images).

Last Monday marked the one year anniversary of the Indianapolis Colts’ temper tantrum; more commonly known as ‘Deflategate’. My stance has been the same all along; Tom Brady was “more than generally aware”, however, he is still the most prolific Quarterback the game has ever seen.

From the time the first report came out, I have been Brady’s harshest critic. During that time, I have also maintained that none of what they have been accused of doing were worthy of the penalties that were handed down to them. With that being said, I am a firm believer that if you bend the rules, no matter how small of an offence, you must pay the price.

I have a hard time believing that a man that was called “the deflator” in a text message was, in fact, called that because he was trying to lose weight. I have a hard time believing that a Quarterback, one that takes pride in his attention to detail, could not tell that the ball had less PSI. Most importantly, I have a hard time believing that Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and the New England Patriots would leave something up to chance. Bill has always thought he was the smartest guy in the room: Spygate and the 2014 AFC Divisional Playoff game against the Ravens are prime examples.

This will eventually be pro-Brady and the Patriots, but not yet.

The lengths to which Patriot diehards go to justify the actions of everyone involved in the scandal, Tom in particular, are laughable. I understand, he’s the golden boy with the immaculate jaw line who can do no wrong, but that doesn’t make him immune to the rules; no matter how silly those rules may seem to some. To me, there is only one, somewhat justifiable reason for Brady to do what he did; everybody does it.

Of course, well established Quarterbacks will never admit to it. It’s always the guys who have underwhelmed and were never that good: Matt Leinart, David Carr, Jeff Blake etc. Even Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson admitted to deflating basketballs to prevent teams from easy fast breaks; things like this happen every day in sports. HGH runs rampant in baseball and football, multiple teams pump crowd noise through speakers on a regular basis, some receivers even use stickem…cough cough…Jerry Rice. My point is this; rules lose their importance when everyone decides to circumvent them.

Let’s get in to the statistics, shall we? With Brady playing a full season, all eyes were on him and the Patriots. Those same eyes were focused on statistics. Statistics that, now with monitored levels of PSI, would either sway one way or the other.

According to Pro Football Reference, the Patriots fumbled a total of fourteen times this season, losing seven of those. With further inspection, I learned that four of the fumbles were on special teams. The balls used on those plays are called K-balls; they are only to be used for kickoffs and punts. After subtracting those, the Patriots offense fumbled ten times while only losing four. The offense in 2014 fumbled eleven times and lost the same amount as this year, four. The one year sample, albeit not enough to determine whether or not the air was a factor, results in a victory for New England.

Proving that deflated footballs were not a factor, Brady, at age 38, had one of his best seasons in the league. The former Michigan Wolverine had a higher completion percentage while throwing more attempts than he did in the previous season. Not only did he throw for more yards, but he threw three more touchdowns than 2014; his thirty-six were tied for the league lead. He threw 2 less interceptions, had a better Quarterback Rating, and his 1.1 interception percentage was good enough to lead the league. Oh, and by the way, his team was plagued with injuries this year.

Gronkowski missed one game, Blount went down in week twelve, Amendola sat for two, Dion Lewis has been out since the midway point in the season, Lafell missed the team’s first five, and Edelman missed the teams last seven games. That doesn’t even begin to explain the troubles of the team, the offensive line has been in shambles all season. Brady has played a stellar season with thirty-seven, yeah you read that right, thirty-seven different offensive line combinations.

If you want to give Brady an asterisk for every game he played before last year’s Super Bowl, go ahead, I don’t have a problem with it. One could make the argument that he deserves it. But if you do that, he still has one ring, last year’s Super Bowl, and is on his way to a second. I believe we are seeing the second coming of Tom Brady and last offseason did not deflate his confidence. This first season without needing deflated balls, only deflates the ego of the smartest guy in the room, Bill Belichick.