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Undisciplined disciplinarian: Deflategate will mark beginning of end for Roger Goodell
by: Christopher Price on Tue, 05/12/2015 - 12:14am
Mark it down: May 11, 2015.
When Roger Goodell is removed from office in three months -- or six months, nine months or a year after another flurry of bad decisions -- we’ll remember this date as the beginning of the end.
Sure, there have been awful missteps before. But this one is going to be remembered as the one that ultimately doomed him. The decision of the league to suspend Tom Brady for four games, take two draft picks from the Patriots and fine the franchise $1 million would be a joke if it weren’t so surreal. But it’s the latest example of a maddeningly inconsistent and wildly arbitrary disciplinary process that continues to make zero sense to those of us who come at it from a common sense perspective. Ray Rice initially gets two games for knocking out his fiancee. Brady gets four for engaging in a process that, to many quarterbacks, has become standard operating procedure in the league since signal-callers pushed for the right to pre-treat the footballs in 2006.
There is talk of New England as a repeat offender. It’s a franchise that needs to be taught a lesson because of the sins committed in 2007 was the line from more than a few national pundits Monday afternoon after the decision was announced. But going deeper, the idea of punishing the Patriots because they are repeat offenders holds little water for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that they faced a nearly unprecedented penalty for that same first offense -- Spygate -- that Troy Vincent noted in his letter to the team regarding the penalty. (And if you really want to get technical, Brady had as much to do with Spygate as I did. That one? It’s on Bill Belichick.)
Let’s be clear: The Patriots are not above reproach here. There have been missteps on the part of the franchise throughout this process, most notably by the quarterback. However, the idea of the Patriots losing at least one pick and receiving a heavy fine for something along the lines of “lack of institutional control” was more in accordance with an issue that the league hadn’t cared one whit about before this year. But then again, no one has looked good throughout this whole process. Not the Patriots. Not Brady. Not the Colts. Not the league office, Goodell or the officials, who may or may not have chosen to be engaged in some sort of ham-handed sting operation with one of the biggest games on the calendar as a backdrop. And not the media.
So, sticking with that theme, the folks on Park Avenue pretty much stayed stupid from Jump Street on this one. The league dropped the report last Wednesday, and then it proceeded to stick its finger in the air and test public sentiment. When the national mob cried for blood, the NFL hit the Patriots with the biggest fine in NFL history, and Brady was hit with four games. And when the rubber hit the road, Goodell was nowhere to be found. Vincent was the one who wrote the letter. Where is Roger? Probably off having another one of his frequent sessions with the media he talked about in the days leading up to the Super Bowl.
For a moment, set aside the fact that there is no smoking gun in this case -- no text messages from Brady to John Jastremski and Jim McNally telling them to deliberately underinflate the footballs to a point outside that legally allowed PSI window. And it’s not just the fact that the discipline of Brady is borderline capricious in this instance. A lot of this is about the money. Let’s make this clear: It’s more than the Broncos got for playing fast and loose with the salary cap on three occasions ($950,000 in 1998, $968,000 in 2001 and $950,000 in 2004).
Robert Kraft said shortly after the Wells Report was released he would accept the ruling, but of course, that could all change in a heartbeat. In the short term, it’s likely that Goodell has abandoned one of his strongest allies. There have been reports of a growing division in their relationship since the week before the Super Bowl, when Kraft threw down the gauntlet on this whole matter. But it’s a relatively safe assumption that whatever alliance they had forged is now down the tubes for good. Meanwhile, Kraft likely is working the phones, armed with the knowledge that it would take three-quarters vote to be able to toss out Goodell.
From this viewpoint, Brady is going to be the one who goes down swinging. His agent, Don Yee, has already done more interviews over the last week than most any beat writers can recall since Brady joined the team in 2000. And he was probably smiling Monday afternoon at the thought of going up against Goodell and the rest of the league in court; the league has become the Washington Generals of the sports legal world with a track record of futility that remains unmatched in the modern era.
First, Yee wrote that Brady plans to appeal the decision, and, “if the hearing officer is completely independent and neutral, I am very confident the Wells Report will be exposed as an incredibly frail exercise in fact-finding and logic.”
He then added a kicker, reminding everyone just how inept the league has been when it comes to legal matters as of late.
”The NFL has a well-documented history of making poor disciplinary decisions that often are overturned when truly independent and neutral judges or arbitrators preside, and a former federal judge has found the commissioner has abused his discretion in the past, so this outcome does not surprise me,” wrote Yee. “Sadly, today’s decision diminishes the NFL as it tells its fans, players and coaches that the games on the field don’t count as much as the games played on Park Avenue.”
An appeal from Brady likely could knock it down to two games, but it doesn’t appear cooler heads are going to prevail in this one. Expect the quarterback and friends to go to the mattresses against Goodell. And while many have wondered about what this whole mess -- and a possible legal fight -- will do to Brady’s legacy, Monday’s decision confirmed that there’s no such doubt when it comes to Goodell.
by: Christopher Price on Tue, 05/12/2015 - 12:14am
When Roger Goodell is removed from office in three months -- or six months, nine months or a year after another flurry of bad decisions -- we’ll remember this date as the beginning of the end.
Sure, there have been awful missteps before. But this one is going to be remembered as the one that ultimately doomed him. The decision of the league to suspend Tom Brady for four games, take two draft picks from the Patriots and fine the franchise $1 million would be a joke if it weren’t so surreal. But it’s the latest example of a maddeningly inconsistent and wildly arbitrary disciplinary process that continues to make zero sense to those of us who come at it from a common sense perspective. Ray Rice initially gets two games for knocking out his fiancee. Brady gets four for engaging in a process that, to many quarterbacks, has become standard operating procedure in the league since signal-callers pushed for the right to pre-treat the footballs in 2006.
There is talk of New England as a repeat offender. It’s a franchise that needs to be taught a lesson because of the sins committed in 2007 was the line from more than a few national pundits Monday afternoon after the decision was announced. But going deeper, the idea of punishing the Patriots because they are repeat offenders holds little water for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that they faced a nearly unprecedented penalty for that same first offense -- Spygate -- that Troy Vincent noted in his letter to the team regarding the penalty. (And if you really want to get technical, Brady had as much to do with Spygate as I did. That one? It’s on Bill Belichick.)
Let’s be clear: The Patriots are not above reproach here. There have been missteps on the part of the franchise throughout this process, most notably by the quarterback. However, the idea of the Patriots losing at least one pick and receiving a heavy fine for something along the lines of “lack of institutional control” was more in accordance with an issue that the league hadn’t cared one whit about before this year. But then again, no one has looked good throughout this whole process. Not the Patriots. Not Brady. Not the Colts. Not the league office, Goodell or the officials, who may or may not have chosen to be engaged in some sort of ham-handed sting operation with one of the biggest games on the calendar as a backdrop. And not the media.
So, sticking with that theme, the folks on Park Avenue pretty much stayed stupid from Jump Street on this one. The league dropped the report last Wednesday, and then it proceeded to stick its finger in the air and test public sentiment. When the national mob cried for blood, the NFL hit the Patriots with the biggest fine in NFL history, and Brady was hit with four games. And when the rubber hit the road, Goodell was nowhere to be found. Vincent was the one who wrote the letter. Where is Roger? Probably off having another one of his frequent sessions with the media he talked about in the days leading up to the Super Bowl.
For a moment, set aside the fact that there is no smoking gun in this case -- no text messages from Brady to John Jastremski and Jim McNally telling them to deliberately underinflate the footballs to a point outside that legally allowed PSI window. And it’s not just the fact that the discipline of Brady is borderline capricious in this instance. A lot of this is about the money. Let’s make this clear: It’s more than the Broncos got for playing fast and loose with the salary cap on three occasions ($950,000 in 1998, $968,000 in 2001 and $950,000 in 2004).
Robert Kraft said shortly after the Wells Report was released he would accept the ruling, but of course, that could all change in a heartbeat. In the short term, it’s likely that Goodell has abandoned one of his strongest allies. There have been reports of a growing division in their relationship since the week before the Super Bowl, when Kraft threw down the gauntlet on this whole matter. But it’s a relatively safe assumption that whatever alliance they had forged is now down the tubes for good. Meanwhile, Kraft likely is working the phones, armed with the knowledge that it would take three-quarters vote to be able to toss out Goodell.
From this viewpoint, Brady is going to be the one who goes down swinging. His agent, Don Yee, has already done more interviews over the last week than most any beat writers can recall since Brady joined the team in 2000. And he was probably smiling Monday afternoon at the thought of going up against Goodell and the rest of the league in court; the league has become the Washington Generals of the sports legal world with a track record of futility that remains unmatched in the modern era.
First, Yee wrote that Brady plans to appeal the decision, and, “if the hearing officer is completely independent and neutral, I am very confident the Wells Report will be exposed as an incredibly frail exercise in fact-finding and logic.”
He then added a kicker, reminding everyone just how inept the league has been when it comes to legal matters as of late.
”The NFL has a well-documented history of making poor disciplinary decisions that often are overturned when truly independent and neutral judges or arbitrators preside, and a former federal judge has found the commissioner has abused his discretion in the past, so this outcome does not surprise me,” wrote Yee. “Sadly, today’s decision diminishes the NFL as it tells its fans, players and coaches that the games on the field don’t count as much as the games played on Park Avenue.”
An appeal from Brady likely could knock it down to two games, but it doesn’t appear cooler heads are going to prevail in this one. Expect the quarterback and friends to go to the mattresses against Goodell. And while many have wondered about what this whole mess -- and a possible legal fight -- will do to Brady’s legacy, Monday’s decision confirmed that there’s no such doubt when it comes to Goodell.
