The Sports Xchange

Two legendary quarterbacks have different viewpoints about the NFL’s punishments handed down for Deflategate this week.

Denver Broncos general manager John Elway clearly supports the league after it announced Monday the suspension of quarterback Tom Brady for four games in addition to fining the New England Patriots $1 million and docking the franchise a first-round draft pick in 2016 and a fourth-round pick in 2017 following the release of the Ted Wells investigative report.

Former New York Jets legend Joe Namath said he wasn’t sure the deflating of footballs was that big of a deal when compared to performance-enhancing drug use.

Elway, the former quarterbacks great for the Broncos, said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell got it right.

“The integrity of the game is No. 1,” Elway said Tuesday while attending a luncheon for former NFL safety John Lynch’s annual scholarship. “I support the commissioner 100 percent.

“I knew that Tom Brady was going to be playing in Week 12 (against the Broncos on Nov. 29). So, other than that, I wasn’t too concerned about it.”

Namath said he isn’t convinced the Patriots cheated.

“There are other sports where rules have been breached,” Namath told the New York Daily News Tuesday at the United Way’s Gridiron Gala in Manhattan. “Performance-enhancing drugs, to me, is a far worse issue, than what we’re talking about with the ball being deflated a little bit. I don’t even know that it was, mother nature does it on her own, like an automobile tire.”

Namath was asked if that discipline for Brady and the Patriots fit the crime.

“I don’t know the details of everything,” he said. “I really don’t know.”

The NFL said Brady’s suspension is for “conduct detrimental to the integrity of the NFL,” and NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent wrote a pointed letter about Brady’s refusal to cooperate with the investigation.

Brady will appeal the suspension, his agent, Don Yee, said. It is likely that backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo will start at least the Sept. 10 season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Week 2 at the Buffalo Bills.