In the first (and my favorite) National Lampoon’s Vacation movie Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) decided go skinny dipping in the hotel pool with the girl from the red Ferrari (Christie Brinkley). Just before Clark jumped in he said, “This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy!”
That’s kind of what I was thinking about during the whole issue with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell handing out a four game suspension to New England quarterback Tom Brady for “deflategate,” and then being the one who heard Brady’s appeal and upheld his own decision.
That kind of justice is bat-crap crazy and it hurts the NFL.
Back in May I wrote about New England Patriots quarterback Brady and his four-game suspension. I wrote about not being a fan of the New England Patriots, and that I am a lifelong fan of the Kansas City Chiefs. I also added the part about my Chiefs beating the Patriots 41-14 during the past season, which was very sweet.
To put the Brady’s four-game suspension in perspective, Greg Hardy of the Dallas Cowboys was suspended four games for domestic violence. Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens was suspended two games by the NFL for knocking his girlfriend unconscious in an elevator.
Goodell seems to have a problem determining the severity of his players’ actions.
By the way, Brett Favre was fined $50k for not cooperating with the NFL during the sexting probe. Brady’s punishment, if any, should have been about the same as Favre’s.
I hope Brady takes Goodell to federal court to overturn the suspension, and I also hope he seeks an injunction that would allow him to play while the case is being heard. All that could take months or even a year or more.
The big news from yesterday is the NFL said that Brady destroyed his phone. Brady contends he has an assistant do that to prevent someone from stealing the information when he gets a new phone. That sounds believable. Brady’s agent Don Yee called the league’s appeals process “a sham” and insisted that Brady has done nothing wrong in Deflategate. Yee had this to say about the electronic data:
Finally, as to the issue of cooperation, we presented the Commissioner with an unprecedented amount of electronic data, all of which is incontrovertible. I do not think that any private citizen would have agreed to provide anyone with the amount of information that Tom was willing to reveal to the Commissioner. Tom was completely transparent. All of the electronic information was ignored; we don’t know why. The extent to which Tom opened up his private life to the Commissioner will become clear in the coming days.
Supposedly everyone else for the Patriots involved in “deflategate” gave up their text messages which included ones from Brady. They found nothing.
Folks may not remember that after the footballs were properly inflated during halftime of the Colts/Patriots game, the Patriots outscored the Colts 28-0. The final score was 45-7.
One other thing that’s amazing is if Brady actually sits out four games, his first game back would be against the Colts on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. That would be a bonanza for the NFL and NBC – and don’t even try to tell me the NFL did not plan it that way.
Right now the NFL is pretty screwed up and a lot of it is because of Goodell. It’s getting to be NASCAR-like screwed up. I stopped caring about NASCAR races a few years ago because they seem to make up the rules as they go along. After checking in during the “Brickyard 400” last week it appears with all the empty seats in the stands, many others have given up on NASCAR. Goodell is taking the NFL in the same direction. I hope the owners replace him before he takes the great game of professional football down the toilet.
Here is more great reading about this issue:
Pro Football Talk: Tom Brady’s agent calls NFL appeal process “a sham”
SI.com: What will happen if Brady, NFLPA take Deflategate suspensions to court?
Sporting News: Blame Patriots’ shady past for Tom Brady’s silly suspension
USA Today Sports: Nothing will save the mess Roger Goodell has made of Deflategate
Forbes: Patriots QB Tom Brady Ranks First In NFL Jersey Sales In Last Quarter
## END ##
