The first thing I thought of when I saw the Kansas City Chiefs were docked draft picks and the organization, Andy Reid and GM John Dorsey were all fined heavily was how familiar this all felt. Didn't we just get upset at the NFL for something like this?
You can't really defend some of the behavior in the Saints bounty scandal a few years ago but it sure felt like the NFL was making an example out of one team for something many teams have done in the past. And most recently with the Patriots there was the DeflateGate fiasco where the NFL made an example out of one team for something many players have done before.
I saw this tweet and it pretty much explains the NFL's thought process here:
How the NFL handles problems:
— Raymond Summerlin (@RMSummerlin) March 9, 2016
Step 1 - Ignore problem
Step 2 - Make example out of one player/team with OTT penalty
Step 3 - Lose in court
Clark Hunt suggested the Chiefs would explore their appeal options. They absolutely should appeal because this is such an obscure violation for the NFL to pounce on given THEY HAD TO MAKE A LEGAL TAMPERING PERIOD BECAUSE PEOPLE TAMPERED SO MUCH. The NFL said in their statement that this punishment would act as a deterrent for others which should have the Chiefs wondering why they were the team that was picked for this insane penalty for something that, as evidenced by the NFL changing their own rules to allow for it, happens all the time.
The violations are different but I don't really see how this is all that different from DeflateGate. The Chiefs will probably be dealing with this a year from now, too.