Regardless of Roger Goodell’s decision, Tom Brady has already been convicted in the court of public opinion
COMMENTARY
The Deflategate damage is done. And there are no appeals in the court of public opinion.
Roger Goodell can decide to eliminate Tom Brady’s suspension altogether, or maybe the NFLPA gives the NFL a beatdown in federal court.
It doesn’t really matter … outside of the Foxborough Oh-So-Faithful, of course.
You can’t put the January genie back in the bottle.
The relentless punchlines outside of Patriots Nation aren’t going away.
Your friends and family in other cities are never going to let you hear the end of it.
Deflategate will be part of the national dialogue for the rest of our lives, and it’s permanently part of Brady’s resume.
You don’t have to look too far to see evidence of how far Robert Kraft’s proud franchise has fallen, and how hard of a hit Brady’s reputation has already taken.
On ESPN’s nationally televised ESPY awards on ABC Wednesday night — where Brady did not win the “best NFL player’’ award and was nowhere to be found among the country’s top athletes — the Patriots quarterback was panned in a comedic bit by host Joel McHale.
The backdrop during the joke featured an image that surely made the four-time Super Bowl winner wince when he saw it. The caption next to the image of Brady holding a mobile phone related to a prize read: “Tom Brady’s ‘I’ll Text You What To Do’ Fantasy Ball Boy Experience.’’ Ouch.
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Brady may have been spared a bit of embarrassment in the broadcast, as it was reported that McHale rejected a joke relating to Brady’s deflated balls to Caitlyn Jenner’s transitional experience.
ESPN — one of the NFL’s biggest broadcast partners — is also pulling no punches in their recent commercials promoting their fantasy football leagues.
In one of the spoof ads that features fake actors dishing about who should be the commissioner in their faux fantasy league, “Trevor the Shampoo Commercial Actor’’ takes a shot at his nemesis “Roger the Allergy Medicine Commercial Actor’’ saying “He’s softer than the footballs in Foxborough.’’
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OK, but that’s sports programming. Surely our most celebrated game shows must be free of Brady-bashing.
In promos running this week on ABC for Sunday’s upcoming “Celebrity Family Feud’’ episode featuring the Gronkowski clan, host Steve Harvey asked the contestants to name “something that can be inflated or deflated.’’ Sigh.
Rob Gronkowski is shown smacking the buzzer and answering, “I don’t even want this one.’’
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And music? Can we have Brady-bashing-free rock and roll?
On Saturday night at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo, the Rolling Stones performed and lead rocker Mick Jagger took time out to further shatter Brady’s reputation when he told the crowd of 50,000: “We’re in a great hotel and I’m in the Tom Brady suite. Funny thing, the pillows were all deflated.’’ Wonderful.
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In an ESPN/ABC News poll in May, NFL fans, by nearly a 2-1 margin, supported the league’s sanctions against Brady and the Patriots with more than half the respondents believing that Brady himself cheated.
A Today show survey took things a step further, with more than 70 percent of viewers thinking the Patriots should forfeit their Super Bowl title.
And that was all before Kraft accepted Goodell’s punishment.
The late night talk show hosts, Saturday Night Live skits, and other NFL players have taken their best shots at Brady and the Pats as the Deflategate debacle has remained at the top of the country’s buzz charts for six months and counting.
Even the president couldn’t resist the urge to crack a joke at the Patriots expense when the defending Super Bowl champs were honored at the White House in April.
“I usually tell a bunch of jokes at these events, but with the Patriots in town I was worried that 11 out of 12 of them would fall flat,’’ Obama said as a smirking Bill Belichick gave a thumbs down motion.
File under: The beat up goes on.
Tom Brady through the years
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