It all started on Jan. 19, 2015, the day after the New England Patriots handed a 45-7 drubbing to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game. Colts beat reporter Bob Kravitz tweeted that the Patriots would be investigated for illegally deflating footballs, and so began the ridiculous circus now known as Deflategate.
When it was all over, the Patriots were fined $1 million and stripped of their first- and fourth-round draft picks. Tom Brady, the best quarterback in league history and a role model on and off the field, would be suspended four games.
The penalty was the stiffest ever handed out to an NFL franchise – for slightly deflated footballs! – despite the complete lack of proof beyond the circumstantial. Sports Illustrated’s Peter King wrote, “the crushing harshness contained this message to the rest of the NFL that (NFL Commissioner Roger) Goodell wanted to send: We do not play favorites.”
Such blind justice may be true for the other 31 teams, but as far as the NFL is concerned the Patriots are in a dark league of their own.
This month, following a Dec. 4 game between the New York Giants and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Giants complained to the league that the Steelers were using underinflated footballs. But Deflategate 2.0 went over like a lead balloon. After very brief consideration, the league said it was no big deal.
“We checked with the officials to make sure they checked the proper inflation,” Goodell said. “They did that. The balls were retained in their control throughout the game from that point on. So the protocols were followed all the way.”
If a team raised concerns about the Patriots deflating footballs this season, does anybody believe Goodell would make a couple of phone calls and then exonerate the team by saying “protocols were followed all the way”? Of course not. There would be another investigation. Retired quarterbacks like Mark Brunell would weep on national television as if Brady committed a crime against humanity, and pre-game commentators would recite cheating allegations against the Patriots that were long ago determined to be false. Patriots fans would have to brush up on the Ideal Gas Law and NFL attorney Ted Wells’s myriad conflicts of interest to defend the team in Facebook debates, and President-elect Trump would have to take a break from filling his Cabinet to vouch for Brady’s integrity.
But this isn’t about the Steelers, Patriots or the effect cold weather has on footballs. It’s about Goodell’s hypocrisy and the league’s obsession with dragging Brady and the Patriots through the mud – an investigation of convenience fueled by the frustration of inferior franchises and a desire to distract from real issues, such as concussions, steroid use and domestic violence.
Maybe Goodell truly didn’t have the same kind of “chain of (football) custody” concerns with the Steelers that he had with the Patriots. Maybe he was certain the Steelers did not intentionally deflate balls, just as it’s possible the Patriots did not. But by dismissing this new allegation so quickly, Goodell proves that none of the other 31 teams would have faced the excruciating investigation launched against the Patriots in 2015.
The NFL has plenty of problems, and Goodell is one of them. It’s time for him to go.