Justice delayed, but not denied for Brady and Pats
In federal court and football there is one common rule: Never leave at halftime. During the Deflategate appeal in New York, those with front-row seats knew it was over before NFL attorney Paul Clement stopped speaking. The National Football League couldn’t back its case, and its high-powered lawyer was defenseless in the face of bad facts and a federal appeals panel that seemed annoyed with the prospect of dealing with a strange labor law case.
When Clement took a seat, an attorney turned to me and flipped up his yellow legal pad.
“Tom Brady wins,” it said, underlined twice for effect.
New England’s golden boy would play, and NFL Englnad's golded boy would play, would have to swallow a healthy serving of crushing precedent for years to come.
But with what must have felt like a 21-3 lead, Jeffrey Kessler, Brady’s attorney, quickly saw his commanding advantage disappear. The judges were focused on the quarterback’s cellphone, and two of the three jurists appeared ready to defer to Goodell and his decision in a bizare arbitration dispute involving footballs that may or may not have been deflated. The momentum was gone, and soon the decision handed down by US District Judge Richard Berman – in which he chided Goodell for dispensing "his own brand of industrial justice” – would be nothing but an anecdote.
Reporters and lawyers rushed out of court to break the news that Brady would almost certainly sit. It all came falling down, and nothing would change the fact that Brady would miss four games for being generally aware of something that may have not even happened.
That was 11 months ago. Since then, Brady and the Patriots have taken the law into their own hands. The players’ union never took the Deflategate fiasco to the Supreme Court. Instead, head coach Bill Belichick and his team of peeved Patriots released their frustration on the field. In a coaching master class, the Pats went 3-1 without the best player in the history of the game.
Then he came back, and at 39 put together a nearly flawless season. His Patriots marched through the playoffs, and of course Goodell decided to go everywhere but Foxborough as Brady and the gang took care of business.
On Super Bowl Sunday there was nowhere else to hide. The commish surely thought he had dodged an awkward moment when the Falcons took a commanding lead heading into the half.
Then, much like that strange day in federal court, the script flipped, Goodell's punishment meant nothing as he handed the Lombardi Trophy to Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Then he left the stage, deflated and blanketed in boos.
The awkward, long-anticipated moment between Brady and Roger Goodell unfolded Monday morning without incident. It was awkward when Goodell called Brady up to the podium at the George R. Brown Convention Center to accept the Pete Rozelle trophy as Super Bowl LI Most Valuable Player. As brady waled over, Goodell appeared unsure of how to engage the 12-time Pro Bowl selection initially. Goodell paused and then pulled himself closer to Brady when Brady started to look around. Eventually, the handoff was completed as both men smiled and photographers clicked away in rapid fashion.
Brady took the high road when asked if this marks the first step in repairing his frayed relationship with the NFL’s top executive.
“It’s an honor to be here and have the commissioner present us with the trophy,” Brady, 39, said. “It certainly means a lot and my kids will be happy to see that trophy. They always ask about it, and I get to bring them one home.” Brady didn't sit with Goodell when it was time for Patriots coach Bill Belichick to speak. Brady left the room and Goodell sat by himself. Goodell did salute Brady and Belichick whom he previously punished in the Spygate scandal.
“The two gentlemen that we have here have set new bars across the league,”
Goodell said. "Five Super Bowl championships and and four MVPs for Tom Brady, cementing his legacy as not just a Super Bowl performer but maybe one of the greatest players of all time.
“And this duo, coach Belichick, with his success of five Super Bowls cementing his legacy as perhaps the best coach of all time. And it’s a great honor for us and for me personally to have both of these guys here this morning.
Tom, come on up. Get your trophy." The outspoken Kraft referenced the Deflategate episode following the Super Bowl while addressing the crowd after the game on the podium.
“Two years ago, we won our fourth Super Bowl down in Arizona and I told our fans that was the sweetest one of all,” Kraft said. “But a lot has transpired over the last two years, and I don’t think that needs any explanation. But I want to say to our fans, to our brilliant coaching staff, our amazing players who were so spectacular: This is unequivocally the sweetest.”
A veiled reference Brady did seem to tweak Goodell with a commercial that was released shortly after the Patriots’ victory.
As he prepares to get an MRI in the ad, Brady removes his four previously earned Super Bowl rings before putting on a fifth.
“I forgot this one,” Brady said. “It’s kind of new.”
When informed he could use a bigger space for his rings, Brady replied with a zinger: “Roger that.”
“It was just a great team performance,” Brady said. “I’m so proud to be a part of this team. We faced a lot of adversities over the course of the year, and overcame with a lot of mental toughness. It was a great way to really culminate the season.” Industrial justice, indeed.