The football is the sacrosanct centerpiece of the game. This, THIS... is serious. We'll see how it is treated. Between the $$$ and general erosion of values, who knows.
Lying, cheating and stealing seem to be on the increase, from my observation point. Or at the minimum, taken less seriously.
The number of people that subscribe to "It is not just whether you win or lose, but how you play the game," seems to be on the decline.
When the Napster controversies raged, over stealing music, I was shocked to learn my olde fashioned moralistic belief system had been trumped by new rationalizations for outright theft.
So cheating at football or bike racing is no big deal, especially when $ millions are at stake. And from a Real Estate broker's standpoint, I was not surprised by the "Liar loan" breakdown which helped crash our economy.
If Brady misses 2 versus 8 games makes little difference.