What should happen to Tom Brady?

There is so much handwringing over the deflated football scandal. I even saw one sports commentator ask, in all seriousness, “What do we tell our children?”

It’s pretty clear the footballs were deliberately deflated right before the AFC championship game.

Related: Tom Brady still needs time to ‘digest’ findings of investigation

Security camera video shows a locker room attendant smuggling the game balls into a bathroom for a minute and forty seconds. Which meant he would have had about 8 seconds to deflate each ball. That takes talent.

Even though there’s no direct link, the report still concludes that Tom Brady must have known because he’d made it clear he likes a softer football.

But here’s what caught my attention.

The report says that when the underinflated balls were discovered at halftime, the referees made sure they were re-inflated to the proper pressure for the second half.

Now as you may recall, the AFC game was a blowout. New England beat the Colts 45-7.

After the first half, the Colts were only down 17-7. It was in the second half that it fell apart. It was with the balls at the full legal pressure that the Patriots out-scored the Colts 28-0.

It’s still cheating, I grant you, but if anything it was self-defeated cheating because they did better when the balls were legal. It’s like cheating on a test by copying the wrong answers.

So what should happen to Tom Brady? Clearly, make him play the whole season with deflated balls.

As for what to tell your children? Tell them you love them and not to watch so much football.