Sports Illustrated's and NBC Sunday Night Football's Peter King joined Dan Patrick on Thursday to talk Tom Brady and Deflategate.
King's sense of what Roger Goodell's ruling on Brady's appeal will be?
"What would surprise me is if he vacated his ruling," King said. "I don't think he's going to do that. It make sense for him to reduce it, let's say to one to two games. Unless there's hard evidence that would prove contrary to the major points as to why he suspended him."
King says the NFL lacks proof of wrongdoing by Brady.
"I believe The NFL doesn't have proof that this happened, but they're treating it like a civil suit," he said. "There's a lot of circumstantial evidence, but no hard evidence that Tom Brady ever told directed anybody, 'I want you to deflate these balls below 12.5 per square inch every home game.' "
So, Patrick asked, if you reduce Brady's penalty, should you reduce the Patriots' punishment, too?
"You're exactly right," King said. "If Goodell says, 'I'm putting Tom Brady's sanction down to one game. Then how comfortably could you have the Patriots with this massive sanction, including a first-round draft choice?"
New England Patriots
King's idea for the penalties? Wait.
"I still think the smartest thing to do is to defer the sanction until then end of this season," he said. "After which, you could have 17 weeks, plus this season, to see what weather conditions do to footballs."
For the complete discussion, watch the video above.