(CNN) Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid slammed the NFL on Tuesday for focusing on the fallout of the New England Patriots "Deflategate" saga, over focusing on changing the name of the Washington Redskins.

On Monday, t he league decided to suspend New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for four games, in light of the incident, where the Patriots were found to have used underinflated footballs to gain an advantage in the playoffs.

Reid, who has repeatedly said that the name of the Washington Redskins is racist and needs to be changed, used this punishment as an opportunity to slam the NFL for what he considers to be a hypocritical move.

In a tweet posted Tuesday, the Nevada Senator said that the NFL team is a "racist franchise."

I find it stunning that the NFL cares more about how much air is in a football than it cares about a racist franchise name. — Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) May 12, 2015

The NFL also fined the Patriots $1 million and stripped them of their first-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft and fourth-round pick in the 2017 draft.

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