Time for Goodell, Brady to deflate scandal
Roger Goodell and the NFL need to settle Deflategate. By next Wednesday morning, at the latest.
Before U.S. federal court judge Richard Berman can obliterate any more of their side’s flimsy positions, as he did this past Wednesday in a south Manhattan U.S. federal courtroom.
Yes, Berman in the open-court session aimed his obliterator at the other side, too. Namely, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the NFL players’ union.
But Berman’s crisp, persistent, impressive destruction of the Wells report’s (and thus Goodell’s and the NFL’s) primary conclusion — that Brady was “more likely than not ... at least generally aware” two equipment managers conspired to deflate footballs below league standards prior to the AFC title game — should scare the crap out of the heretofore intractable, unflappable Commish.
“There is no finding in this case that there was anything done by Mr. Brady (in the AFC title game),” Berman himself concluded in open court.
The historical impact of that assessment probably has yet to fully resonate. One result: even if Brady and the NFLPA wind up unsuccessful in having the three-time Super Bowl MVP’s four-game suspension vacated, he always will be able to say, hey, even a federal court judge said I didn’t do anything.
Conversely, Goodell, his righthand man (lawyer Jeffrey Pash), other league executives and their purported independent investigator, Ted Wells, all come out of this after Wednesday stained. Continuing this fight risks yet more staining for all.
Legal experts unite in saying not to read too much into Berman’s line of questioning. That’s his job — to rattle both sides and expose the weakest elements of each’s position, so as to compel the sides to settle before the judge is forced to choose.
Similarly, we are warned not to infer one way or the other from the judge’s public questioning which way he might be leaning should he ultimately decide. Understood. But Brady’s name already had been dragged through the mud six ways to Sunday by Super Bowl Sunday. Goodell et al. are just sinking into the muck now and they’re only up to their knees.
Presumably, the whole point of this needless investigation and its delayed, dubious findings was to show the world — after the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson scandals last fall wobbled Goodell’s position and authority — that the do-gooder sheriff is still in charge, as powerful and as empowered as ever.
And to catch those purported ever-cheating Patriots once and for all.
In fact, the longer this dreary episode drags on, the less those possible objectives are being met.
What if next Wednesday, when both sides are scheduled to be grilled again by Berman in open court, the judge applies similar doggedness to the Wells report’s ridiculously thin scientific conclusion, on which the proof-absent assessment of Brady was based in the first place?
That is, that New England’s footballs did not naturally deflate to the extents gauged at halftime solely because of environmental changes between the officials’ locker-room and outdoor conditions on that chilly, rainy night in January?
As you’ve read here and elsewhere for months, the scientific methods used and conclusions reached by Wells’ advisers, at best, were ... let’s say creative.
What should be of even greater concern to Goodell — and NFL owners other than peeved Robert Kraft of the Patriots — is if Berman next Wednesday in open court should go after the Commish over his own role, decisions and contentions in this mess.
It’s not only possible Berman would do this but perhaps probable, seeing as this court case at its essence is a challenge to how an arbitrator (Goodell) acted in a management/ union dispute (Brady’s unsuccessful appeal in June).
And know this. Brady is not going to admit guilt, even in the unlikely case that he is guilty. Why? If only because he testified under oath at his appeal in June that he never has organized, nor ever has had any knowledge whatsoever of, any schemes to deflate footballs on his hand-gripping behalf before any NFL games. To admit guilt now would be to perjure himself. So that ain’t gonna happen.
So here’s the common-ground compromise: reduce Brady’s suspension to one game with a hefty fine, solely as punishment for his now admitted lack of openness and full co-operation.
Settle it now, Roger.