Goodell does a dance around pointed questions on Deflategate
HOUSTON — Roger the Dodger is quite the transformative athlete.
Time after time Wednesday at his annual Super Bowl news conference, veteran reporters hurled hard, necessary, probing questions at the commish’s nose, like frozen basketballs.
He calmly swatted them all back, one after another, as if they were gently lobbed badminton birdies. Especially on Deflate-gate. If you expected Roger Goodell to backtrack a smidgen on his hard-line conclusions against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, because of the mounting scientific evidence that strongly suggests no such football deflation occurred two years ago, think again.
Asked if he’d made a mountain out of a molehill, as powerful Houston Texans owner Bob McNair recently said, by taking foul advice from those around him, Goodell said no.
No way. Instead he ‘octupled’ down, or however one should describe the exponential level of doubling down he has reached.
“We had a violation, we went through a process, we applied the discipline in accordance with our process, it was litigated — as you know — extensively, and validated by the (U.S.) 2nd circuit court of appeals, so we’re moving on from that,” Goodell said.
“It’s part of our history but … we’re comfortable with the process, the decision, and we’re focusing on the game now.”
Goodell later said his relationship with the Patriots, their owner and their fans is “not awkward at all,” adding that “we came to a conclusion that was supported by the facts and by the courts.”
Asked to elaborate on his reportedly disintegrated relationship with Pats owner Robert Kraft, who sat watching only about 30 feet away, and also why he hasn’t attended a game in Foxborough since Deflategate broke, Goodell said, “I have no doubt that if I wanted to go to a Patriots game and I asked Mr. Kraft, he would welcome me back. That’s up to him, though.”
In further sweeping away any perceived Deflategate dominoes, Goodell denied there has been an erosion of the public’s trust in him.
And he said he has disagreements with all 32 clubs all the time over various issues, but all parties “compartmentalize” the problems and move on.
“I’m not afraid of disagreement, and I don’t think disagreement leads to distrust or hatred, it’s just a disagreement,” he said.
“You … find a common place and you move forward. That’s what it is. It’s not all personal in nature.”
MORE GOODELL: In other news, he was vague on whether the pullout by the key Las Vegas move-andshaker from the Oakland Raiders’ planned relocation there imperils the plan ... He said former U.S. President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara are out of hospital, feeling better and will flip the coin before Sunday’s game ... He termed it a “disappointment” to see the Chargers bolt San Diego for L.A., but the locals should have coughed up hundreds of millions more if they really wanted the team, he all but said ... There’s no timetable on the Ezekiel Elliott domestic-violence investigation ... And the league is looking into how to make shorter disruptions in games, perhaps by reducing five commercial breaks per quarter to four.