Originally Posted by Deadspin article
ESPN’s Adam Schefter has an answer:
For those asking why Patriots suspended two employees if those two did nothing wrong, as New England claims: NFL asked Pats to suspend them prior to discipline being handed down, per a league source in New York. New England obliged with the NFL’s request.
This just raises a whole bunch of questions. Why would the NFL request an immediate suspension for these two rather than wait the five days until it sorted through and issued official punishments? (Was the league worried they would sneak into Gillette and deflate a bunch of balls?) And why on earth would the Patriots sign off on it?
The only way things make sense is if everyone had already decided that McNally and Jastremski (“turn in your badge and gun!”) would be useful patsies here, and take the fall for anyone of consequence. Perhaps the NFL believed shitcanning the two of them would show how seriously it took this case, and the Patriots believed this sign of cooperation would result in a slap on the wrist. Scapegoating peons is the American way, after all.