Roger Goodell and the Hypocrisy of the NFL

JT Volpe

As I watched the waning seconds of this year’s AFC Championship Game, I marveled at how Tom Brady, 13 years after his first Super Bowl victory in 2001, was at it again. His Patriots embarrassed Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts 45-7, in a game that was over midway through the third quarter. 

I then woke up the next day to a report detailing complaints from the Colts' locker room about the Patriots game balls being under inflated. I chuckled to myself about how this was the stupidest, most inexcusable display of poor sportsmanship since Sidney Crosby didn’t shake hands with the Detroit Red Wings after the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals. Seriously, you lost by 38 points and you mean to tell me it was because the air was a little low in the ball? Gimme a break. I, as well as most NFL fans who support teams not named the Colts, Ravens or Jets, assumed this nonsense story would blow over in about 3 hours as the football world geared up from the most promising Super Bowl matchup in several years.

Oh, how very wrong I was. ESPN First Take, Fox Sports Live, CNN, MSNBC, even Chinese news stations carried countless stories about the incident. The two weeks between Championship Sunday and Super Bowl Sunday saw more coverage of football air pressure than they did the matchup of Tom Brady throwing against Richard Sherman, or Marshawn Lynch rushing against a Patriots front seven that featured Vince Wilfork. Suddenly a seemingly meaningless non-story dominated the news cycle, with opinion pieces on the Patriots legacy being tarnished, and petitions to have their AFC Championship win vacated.

Now of course the Patriots won anyway and after the initial hysteria died down America sat down to watch one of the most thrilling Super Bowls of all time, which culminated with a Malcolm Butler interception on the goal line to seal the 28-24 victory. It seemed as though the Patriots had put accusations to rest by winning on the biggest stage. And then…

The Wells Report. A comprehensive, 138 page report of the internal investigation carried out by the NFL. First, let that sink in that a 138 page report was written about the incident. The report concludes that it is probable that two Patriots attendants most likely operated outside the Playing Rules and that Tom Brady probably had a “general awareness” of the activity. Most importantly the report specifically states that the NFL, Patriots organization, owner Robert Kraft, and Head Coach and General Manager Bill Belichick were unaware of the actions of the attendants.

So exactly how can the NFL justify a 4 game suspension and two draft picks and a $1 million fine? Seriously, a million dollars for this? A quarter of the season for Brady and a first round pick taken from the organization? This is an absolutely ridiculous price to pay, and far exceeds the crime committed.

First of all, the investigation itself is riddled with flaws. A great write up on that can be read here.

But even outside of that, the decision reeks of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s incompetence, and lack of self awareness. This is the man who in this season alone botched the situations regarding Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, and Josh Gordon and he’s dropped the ball here again.

First of all, if the report you commissioned explicitly exonerates the owner and head coach, how is it that you asses a $1 million fine to the owner and take two draft picks - one in the first round! - from the head coach? Do Roger Goodell and I have different interpretations of the following excerpt from page 3 of the Wells Report?

“We do not believe that the evidence establishes that any other Patriots personnel participated in or had knowledge of the violation of the Playing Rules or the deliberate effort to circumvent the rules described in this Report. In particular, we do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Patriots ownership, Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick or any other Patriots coach in the matters investigated."

Hmm, no that seems pretty straightforward. I think the appropriate response with respect to Bill Belichick should have been an apology from the commissioner’s office for disrupting the coach’s Super Bowl preparation. Perhaps a thank you for complying fully with NFL procedure, or for the personal investigation and research Belichick carried out during Super Bowl Week. Instead, Roger decides to take two draft picks. 

Now, the likely explanation from NFL headquarters is that ignorance is not an excuse and that Belichick should have been aware of his employee’s actions. This is the same explanation that lead to Sean Payton’s 1 year ban in the aftermath of Bountygate, even though Payton was also reported to have no direct involvement with the incident. That would be fine and well, if it weren’t for the fact that ignorance has been a pretty convenient excuse for Goodell this season. Here’s his take on the NFL’s slow response to the Ray Rice domestic violence incident.

“Well, we certainly didn't know what was on the tape. But we have been very open and honest. And I have also -- from two weeks ago when I acknowledged that we didn't get this right. That's my responsibility. And I'm accountable for that.”

You see? Roger didn’t know what was on the tape. Never mind the fact that they did have a tape of Rice dragging his wife out of an elevator, forget the part where even if they didn’t have the actual tape, they had a written summary of its contents, and certainly don’t question the fact that the billion dollar industry directly related to the event was unable to get their hands on the tape but TMZ could. Its very simple, in Roger Goodell’s NFL ignorance is no excuse, unless of course, you are Roger Goodell.

Next, let’s take a look at the 4 game suspension that will be served by Tom Brady. I fully believe that Brady should be disciplined in some manner if he was truly involved with deliberate cheating. But 4 games? For reference, that’s twice as much as the initial suspension Ray Rice got for beating his wife. Its also equivalent to the suspension served by Ben Roethlisberger for his second rape accusation. Good to see the NFL has its priorities straight. Even more ridiculous is the fact that this is certainly not the first time this has happened and Brady is unfairly suffering the worst punishment yet. Aaron Rodgers openly admitted on his radio show that he likes the ball over inflated and that he will have Packer’s locker room attendants over inflate the ball by nearly a full pound to see if it will sneak by. Seems logical then that Rodgers will be serving a four game suspension along with Brady. Except, he won’t be, the NFL made no response to his comments, and he will be starting opening night. A similar incident occurred last year in a cold, November game between the Carolina Panthers and the Minnesota Vikings. Both teams were caught using space heaters to warm game balls throughout the afternoon. What harsh penalty was given to the two clubs? The NFL filed a warning to all teams reminding them not to heat up balls.

So why four games? At first it seems as if a precedent is being set for future incidents. But taking a look at the Patriots schedule, it seems the first game Brady would be eligible for is a Week 6 game against the Indianapolis Colts. Well that’s convenient, that he happens to come back to face the very team whose accusations and sore loser attitude started this circus. You might think I’m reading too much into what amounts to a coincidence. But remember that Brady was officially suspended for “conduct detrimental to the league”. The same offense Greg Hardy was suspended 10 games for. Of course Hardy, who recently signed with the Dallas Cowboys, will be returning to action on Thanksgiving to face his former team, the Carolina Panthers, in prime time. So that’s two counts of Goodell manipulating storylines and TV ratings with player discipline. Some might consider that conduct detrimental to the league.

At the end of the day, it’s the NFL headquarters, and not the New England Patriots, who should be held accountable for this mess. In addition to the issues highlighted in the NESN article referenced earlier, why is it even league procedure to allow teams to provide their own game balls. Are we really surprised things like this happen? This wouldn’t even be an issue if the NFL did what all three of the other major sports leagues do, and provided game equipment from an impartial source.

But I guess we shouldn’t let this shock us. After all this is the same organization who claims to champion player safety, while artificially creating shorter rest periods with unnecessary Thursday Night Football games, the same organization that dedicates an entire month to breast cancer and then only donates 8 percent of the revenue made from selling pink products to breast cancer research.

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