Don’t expect an ‘A-plus’ performance from Tom Brady to lead the NFL to back down
COMMENTARY
Ten hours with Roger Goodell.
It might be Tom Brady’s greatest accomplishment yet.
The New England Patriots’ superstar quarterback made his case Tuesday during his appeal of the four-game Deflategate suspension handed down to him by the NFL commissioner, delivering what ESPN’s Adam Schefter termed “an A-plus’’ performance, which is little surprise if you’ve paid attention to the man at any point over the past 15 years.
“He gave sincere, genuine answers,’’ Schefter reported. “He had an explanation for everything that went on in the Wells Report, and anyone who knows and has dealt with Tom Brady knows how genuine he can be. I’m told that genuineness shined through during the course of that appeal, which I think is going to make life more difficult for Roger Goodell to make a decision on.’’
It won’t.
From the very beginning, this deflated football saga has seemed less about Brady and the Patriots than about Goodell’s public perception. Brady spent what amounts to 40 quarters of football with his newfound enemy on Tuesday, pleading his case in front of his biggest deterrent to a full 2015 season, Wells Report author and lead investigator Ted Wells. ESPN also reported that the Pats’ quarterback spent his time at the NFL offices in New York “under oath,’’ which is also a cute way of noting the comical gravity with which the league carries itself.
The NFL czar will now likely take as long as he wants — based on the nearly four weeks that Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy has waited for a decision following his appeal of a 10-game suspension for a domestic violence incident — in determining whether or not to reduce Brady’s four-game layoff. Either way, Goodell certainly shouldn’t expect a warm greeting from the locals in Scarborough, Maine, should he spend the July holiday weekend donning a lobster bib with Sports Illustrated’s Peter King at his summer home.
“I don’t know what the timetable is, but we feel like we made a very compelling case in there,’’ Jeffrey Kessler, the NFL Players Association’s counsel, said Tuesday night.
But does it matter?
The NFL has created such a soap opera for itself with Deflategate that you almost imagine Victor Kiriakis to be the deciding vote as to whether or not Brady gets his punishment reduced. At this point, the storyline seems scripted to run into next month’s training camp with a telegraphed plot that looks clearer with every development to be focused on a public takedown of the Super Bowl champions.
Is it really a coincidence that the NFL dubbed June 23 as the date for Brady’s appeal?
Under Article 46 of the collective bargaining agreement, player hearings are supposed to occur within 10 business days of the appeal being filed if it is not during the playing season. Brady’s appeal was filed May 14.
Huh.
On that date, the NHL and NBA playoffs were still in full swing. Memorial Day weekend would have been within 10 days of Brady’s initial request for a meeting, but May 26, the Tuesday, following, also included a battle between the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning, not to mention the Cleveland Cavaliers’ domination of the Atlanta Hawks.
What? You expect the NFL — the illustrious National Football League — to deal with its internal matters when there is competition for media coverage?
Denying the NFLPA’s May 19 request that he recuse himself from the appeal, Goodell said he wanted to hear “directly’’ from Brady about his supposed role in Deflategate. He finally got that chance on Tuesday as a horde of reporters stood outside the NFL Ivory Tower, waiting for revelations from the meeting that never really came. Wells escaped the building with nary a word. Brady left via back entrance. Goodell departed without comment. We may never know who took the first slice of pizza from the dinner order.
Brady might as well have. “A-plus’’ performance or not, there’s been no indication the NFL is going to back down now.
The Deflategate scandal is a circus in the truest sense of the word, with Brady left walking the tightrope above ringmaster Goodell. Just to remind you, regardless of Brady’s guilt, this is an investigation into a quarterback’s personal preference for football inflation, an issue that seems to be commonly spread around the league and no more dramatic than an early-morning coffee. Yes, the Patriots may be guilty.
But guilty of what?
That matters little though to NFL fans across the nation, looking for any way that the Patriots will be taken down, not neccassrily for reasons of integrity, but so their team may have a better chance.
Hey, look, if Brady is gone for four games, don’t the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, and even the Cleveland Browns (yeah, OK) have a chance at making up ground?
That is, after all, what this is all about. A game played within America’s favorite game, with its star attraction turned from hero to heel. We may not be at the point quite yet of accusing the league of fixing a season to justify a story line, but, for some, this Brady narrative has made it seem more WWE than NFL.
And Goodell is primed to chokeslam Brady and the Patriots.
Collection of other Goodell punishments
[bdc-gallery id=”121318″]
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com