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| Commissioner Roger Goodell has appointed himself judge, jury and executioner in the NFL. Photo: Grantland |
Peter Solari, Contributing Editor Follow @4PeteSakeNY
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is a snake, and now everybody knows it.
During FOX's pregame coverage on Sunday, Jay Glazer reported that the New York Giants had alerted the NFL that several of the footballs their defense recovered from the Pittsburgh Steelers in their week 13 contest, had less than the minimum air pressure stipulated by league rules. After the report, the NFL, who were embarrassed by the original "deflategate" scandal in 2015, scrambled to release a denial, but all they could come up with was that the Giants hadn't issued a "formal complaint" to the league, a fact which Glazer himself, confirmed.
Having ignored the issue of under-inflated balls altogether, the NFL was clearly hoping to sweep this incident under the rug with nobody noticing. But on Wednesday, the story popped up again when Giants owner John Mara told reporters that Deflategate II was "much ado about nothing," a statement that Steelers owner Art Rooney "agreed" with.
This isn't surprising. The Mara's and the Rooney's have owned their respective franchises since they were established, and the families have ties going back nearly a century. So it's highly unlikely that the Mara's would throw the Rooney's under the bus, or vice versa. But this does nothing to explain why the Steelers were using under-inflated balls, or why the league didn't seem interested in pursuing an investigation into it.
Also on Wednesday, in another attempt to just make all of this go away, Goodell again reiterated that the Giants hadn't filed an official complaint to the league, and added that proper "protocols were followed" on gameday. In other words, the officials who were in charge of the game-balls in Pittsburgh told the league office that they tested the air pressure of the balls before the game and maintained possession of them throughout. All of this was good enough for the commissioner, who determined that no further inquiry was necessary. But these actions are questionable at best, in light of the NFL's reaction the last time a situation like this arose.
Let's go back to January, 2015 and the AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts. Leading up to that game, the Colts notified the league that they believed the Patriots were using under-inflated footballs to gain an unfair advantage. The Colts had no evidence to back up their charge, and they certainly didn't file a formal complaint. They simply alerted the league. So how did the NFL respond? They sent officials to monitor the situation at the AFC Championship Game, in what amounted to nothing less than a sting operation.
Walt Anderson, the referee who officiated that game, claims that he tested all of the game balls before kickoff, and either approved or denied them for use in the championship. In other words, proper protocol was followed. So all of this should have been enough for the league to move on, right? Not quite.
Goodell made it clear that even a hint of cheating would be taken seriously and investigated by the league,
The NFL embarked on a year-and-a-half crusade to nail the New England to the wall. They hired attorney Ted Wells to lead the investigation, and even his report concluded that there was no hard evidence to convict the Patriots or quarterback Tom Brady of wrongdoing. But Goodell pushed on. The league spent a boatload of money, and made multiple federal court appearances. And when they lost in court, it only emboldened Goodell's resolve.
Ultimately, it was the collective bargaining agreement the players agreed to with the league, which gave the commissioner power to act as judge, jury and executioner, that did New England in. Brady was suspended for four games and the Patriots were fined $1 million and stripped of two draft picks. More importantly, Goodell had sent a message to all 32 teams. One that we now know had an expiration date.
Regardless of whether or not they filed a complaint, the Giants obviously felt there was an issue with the footballs and they notified the league, who, all of a sudden, don't seem the slightest bit interested in it. So how did we get here, when less than two years ago, playing with deflated footballs was the gravest sin imaginable? Well, it's really not complicated.
When the original deflategate was unfolding, I wrote that the whole ordeal amounted to a witch-hunt from a power hungry commissioner with an ax to grind with the Patriots, and that all fans should be concerned, because who's to say your team won't be next? These recent developments only appear to confirm those fears.
The PSI of the gameballs didn't matter back in 2015 and it doesn't matter now. It was merely the avenue the commissioner took to flex his muscles. If the NFL really believed that deflated footballs amounted to "cheating," they'd be interrogating the Steelers right now, but they don't, and they're not.
All of this should, once again, be very concerning to football fans everywhere. It's one thing when the man in charge is a tyrannical egomaniac, but if he's entirely unprincipled and has carte blanche to do whatever he wants, then all bets are off.
There was little doubt before that the entire deflategate saga was nothing more than Goodell's personal vendetta against Brady and the Patriots, but the commissioner's nonchalant attitude towards the Steelers allegedly committing the same crime, should tell you all you need to know.
