Judge’s beatdown of the NFL sure makes things look good for Tom Brady
COMMENTARY
Put away your “Free Brady’’ T-shirts. Time to trash the “No Brady, No Banner’’ posterboards.
It’s over.
For months the National Football League has preached its independence in getting to the bottom of Deflategate, which, in reality, always was a duplicitous partisan investigation that was funded by the NFL, edited by the NFL, and perpetrated by the NFL. For if indeed the Wells Report was an “independent’’ outsourcing, it turned out to be about as objective as Raid on an ant farm.
But after Wednesday, when Judge Richard Berman entered the courtroom, figuratively removed his gloves, and slapped Roger Goodell and his NFL entourage across the face with the backside of his hand, it’s hard to see the league’s case against Patriots quarterback Tom Brady going anywhere except up in a plume of smoke, one staining the face of the commissioner in a more embarrassing fashion than your average gag cigar.
If Berman hasn’t exactly made up his mind as to which — ahem, — independent way he’s ruling, as he stressed on Wednesday after undressing the NFL in its quest to uphold Brady’s four-game suspension, then he certainly has laid out a preview as to which direction in which he’s leaning. The judge was highly critical of the Wells Report, wondering where the evidence was that linked Brady to tampering with footballs, and pointed out that Brady actually performed better when the balls were to NFL specifications in last January’s AFC Championship game.
“Is there a text in which Mr. Brady instructs someone to put a needle in a football?’’ league lawyer Daniel Nash said, according to the New York Daily News, whose Stephen Brown did yeoman’s work live-tweeting the court hearing on Wednesday, picking up thousands of Twitter followers in the process. “No, there is not such direct evidence.’’
Berman asked Nash if it indeed mattered one way or the other if deflation of footballs helped Brady in any way.
“What matters is the commissioner’s thought on that,’’ Nash said. “His judgment.’’
Bingo. Now we’re getting to the crux of the thing.
The NFL purchased a lemon in the Wells Report, an investigation so flawed that even the league itself can’t decide exactly what methods were involved in procuring it.
Depending on the moment of convenience that summons Goodell, Ted Wells’ not-so-definitive findings regarding the long-drawn-out saga are either independent or something entirely not thereof. Yet the Wells Report remains the gospel of falsehoods that Goodell remains insistent on preaching to the masses in his public crusade against Brady and the Patriots.
Goodell would have had a better chance of having Brady accept the Easter Bunny as his Lord and Savior than he would with the league’s pathetic last-gasp effort to settle Brady’s suspension appeal before it headed to federal court on Wednesday. According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, (apparently tweeting about Deflategate once again), the NFL on Monday changed its settlement offer, saying there would be none unless Brady accepted the findings of the Wells Report.
The NFL’s ridiculous request came just prior to Judge Richard Berman’s request that the two sides play nice before meeting with him in the Robing Room. Seeing as Brady’s case centers around full exoneration, admitting the findings of the Wells investigation would seal his guilt and admit perjury during his June appeal hearing, no matter if his four-game suspension was ultimately wiped clean.
Nope. Even if Brady were to take “team guy’’ to an extent that even Bill Belichick would probably discourage and trade defeat for field duty, the quarterback is long past the point of making any sort of deal with a manipulative and deceptive commissioner who has made the Deflategate pursuit something of a personal nature.
Who knows what the genesis was to Goodell’s obsession of Brady and the Patriots. Maybe it was the GQ article that referred to Patriots owner Bob Kraft as the assistant commissioner. Perhaps it was pressure from the rest of the league owners who felt slighted by Goodell’s random punishment wheel of doom, only to be lectured by Kraft what a good job ol’ Roger was doing at 345 Park Ave., even as domestic violence became an almost-daily headache to bear. Probably, most likely, Goodell saw the beginning of a soap opera that would keep his league on the front burner from Super Bowl trophy presentation to banner unfurling come September.
This was nothing more than Goodell’s need to throw around his ultimate power, to prove his worth to the rest of the NFL and the league’s partners. His iron fist would show no limits, of course, even against the team of whom the other 31 owners snickered over his favoritism and asked how they could take a man so easily influenced by the owner in New England seriously any longer.
Instead, Goodell’s mission has imploded into a public relations disaster, exposing the NFL as duplicitous in its appeal procedure, and opening the door for the NFLPA to blow the door open as far as how these cases are handled moving forward. It’s clear that the NFL can’t be trusted in any more disputes it may have with its employees, no matter how serious or minor the transgression.
Berman had some pointed questions for Brady’s side as well, prompting attorney Jeffrey Kessler to admit that the quarterback could have done a better job communicating with Wells, an admission of guilt that would seemingly open the door for paying the fine that his side seeks to settle this matter with in exchange for the four games back. Maybe Berman has some harsher words for Brady when next week’s conference convenes. Maybe the NFL ought to realize it’s cooked.
Tom Brady has won not because he proved his innocence, but because he proved the complete incompetence of the men who somehow are in charge of the most successful sports league on Earth.
In retrospect, none of this was really that difficult.
Brady will see you on Opening Night at Gillette.
The list of NFL punishments under Roger Goodell
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