Goodell, Kraft’s Decision Has No Bearing on Brady Appeal
No surprise as Goodell sidesteps questions and stands behind Wells Report
If you were waiting for a bombshell from Commissioner Roger Goodell at his press conference on Wednesday concerning the suspension of Tom Brady, you were surely disappointed.
Goodell, speaking at the conclusion of the owner’s meetings in San Francisco was quite clear stating the decision by Patriots owner Robert Kraft to accept the league’s Deflate-gate punishment will have no bearing on deciding Brady’s appeal.
Goodell attempted to show that the he and the NFL were open and transparent (we hear lots of that these days), but in the end, he stonewalled and hid behind the Wells Report.
While the NFLPA and Brady’s legal team has requested that Goodell recuse himself from the appeal, Goodell sounded like a man who has no intention of stepping aside, more than once referencing the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement and the appeal process as he considers it his duty to “protect the integrity” of the game.
"I look forward to hearing directly from Tom. If there is new information or information that could be helpful to us in getting this right, I want to hear directly from Tom on that," Goodell said.
Getting it right would’ve been getting it right from the outset but Goodell basically skipped over a question from Tom E. Curran from Comcast Sports New England that called into question the bias on the part of the league which the Patriots questioned.
“Ted Wells did address that in his report,” Goodell answered. When pressed by Curran on what the league could have done differently, i.e. the Titanic-like self-serving leaks that emanated out of the league offices, Goodell gave the usual double-talk without ever answering Curran’s question.
“I asked him specifically when I engaged him to evaluate the league’s conduct to determine what we could have done differently and I think he made his views very clear in the report, so I would disagree on that point,” Goodell said.
“Whenever we have an incident, we look at it and say, ‘What could we have done differently, how can we improve?’ And we’ll continue to do that.”
That was an outright misrepresentation, the Patriots and their attorneys sent an email to NFL lawyer Jeff Pash dated February 7, that specifically complained about how Wells was to investigate the Patriots only, that the league will investigate itself. Curran referenced the letter in his piece on CSNNE Wednesday and it is in the link above.
Returning to the Brady situation, Goodell said "I have great admiration and respect for Tom Brady, but the rules have to be enforced on a uniform basis. They apply to everybody. They apply to every club, every individual coach, every individual player," Goodell said.
"We put the game ahead of everything."
Sounds great, makes for a superb sound byte on the NFL Network but if where is the consistency Mr. Commissioner? Why weren’t the Colts ever questioned on how their ball attendant could measure the Patriots football intercepted by D’Qwell Jackson on the sidelines during the game when the league rules specifically forbid the possession of needles or gauges?
The integrity of the game certainly must not have suffered much in Minnesota where warming towels, in direct violation of the NFL rules where openly used in the game between the Vikings and Panthers. There was no gray area there, no “more probable than not”, it was plain to see. There’s your uniform basis.
So what can Brady expect in his appeal? Goodell made it clear, he’s standing by the Wells Report as the basis for everything and that Brady’s “refusal to cooperate” by turning over texts and emails were considered highly in his suspension.
Since the league already had the phones of McNally and Jastremski and therefore any and all text messages and/or phone calls from Brady on this issue, why would they continue to push this redundancy will be a question that won’t be answered in the appeal.
If anything the timing of Kraft’s capitulation of the punishments will hurt rather than help Brady’s appeal as the Commissioner and the NFL have no reason to lessen any punishments now. Goodell reading the tea leaves will have his original decision justified by the Patriots throwing in the towel.
Asked when the Brady appeal will be heard, Goodell said that he had no idea.
That sums up his leadership as the league’s head in a nutshell.
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