QUESTION: If Brady was non white would he have asterisks by his name because of deflategate?

[Jim Lane]

5. The most famous sports asterisk belongs to Roger Maris, who was white.

As for Bonds and his use of performance-enhancing drugs, his case is similar to that of Mark McGwire, who is white. Both of them had outstanding statistics but neither has been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Of the two, Bonds had better statistics, but he also had the additional "distinction" of having been indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation of steroids. (The jury deadlocked on perjury but convicted him of obstruction of justice. On appeal, his conviction was initially upheld, but then overturned after a rehearing en banc.) Does keeping him out of the Hall of Fame mean that he's being treated worse than McGwire? With so few cases to consider, there are so many individual factors that it's hard to say whether racism is a cause.

As for how the media treated Brady, there was widespread reporting of what turned out to be a totally false charge, namely that 11 of 12 footballs tested in one game were underinflated. The NFL, clearly biased against Brady, was happy to let that lie propagate.

Did deflated footballs give the Patriots an advantage comparable to that gained by players like Bonds and McGwire over their careers? In the one game at issue (Patriots versus Colts, January 18, 2015), there was one Patriots ball that was found underinflated. The Patriots outscored the Colts by 17-7 in the first half. After halftime testing of balls by the referees, with the Patriots using balls of approved pressure, they outscored the Colts by 28-0 in the second half. Compare that with enormous advantage that Bonds gained by using steroids over a period of years. Sorry, but I can't see the media treatment of Brady as being unduly favorable.