Charles Pierce :How Tom Brady Became a Martyr for Roger Goodell's NFL

Truer words have never been spoken:
"That character never has been tested the way it has under the NFL's current commissioner, Roger Goodell, a man who never has seen a problem he couldn't turn into a crisis and never has heard dissent he couldn't turn into a pitchfork-waving mob."

People believing the NFL acted in a manner at all approaching competent during this fiasco are blinded by hatred or just plain stupid. This was a non-event until they bungled it to make it one, and Goodell had to go into CYA mode from the moment Mortensen was allowed to air his false report without a correction from the NFL. Complete joke, Goodell should have been fired long ago.

hambone1818 said:

This was a non-event until they bungled it to make it one, and Goodell had to go into CYA mode from the moment Mortensen was allowed to air his false report without a correction from the NFL. Complete joke, Goodell should have been fired long ago.

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And, yet, the NFL tried to correct Schefter about two minutes after he tweeted that Brady's defense team was given 4 hours to present their case, 5 if the NFL agrees to it.

hambone1818 said:

Truer words have never been spoken

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I agree, and I think it's worth quoting the rest of the paragraph:

Under his occasionally distinguishable leadership, the NFL has found itself, in only the past few years, on the wrong side of domestic violence, child abuse, pharmacology, neuroscience, and, most notably, its own silly rules regarding the Ideal Gas Law. Under Goodell, the league's response to all of these has been reflexively wrong, reflexively dilatory, and reflexively tin-eared. Only when public outrage became audible on Jupiter did the league and Goodell take even half measures to address any of these problems, and by God Goodell's solutions were inadequate when it mattered most and crushingly excessive when it didn't really matter at all—as in the case of Tom Brady's deflated footballs.

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Charlie Pierce is a really good writer. Personally I'm not fond of the "unscrewable pooch" stuff but outside of that I think the article is very well written.

Bill Lee said:

Personally I'm not fond of the "unscrewable pooch" stuff...

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Yeah, I hear you. I wouldn't even think of trying!

I think this is the biggest point to me - that all the quibbling about dorito dinks and ideal gas law and **** is the small story compared to the gross incompetence of the NFL displayed every step of the way. From communicating incorrect readings to the Patriots and never correcting the erroneous leak to Mortensen, to the handling of the balls during the sting operation to the fact that there are no guidelines for measurement and testing to the fact that the refs gave us balls back over-****ing-inflated.

It wasn't a big deal until it became a big deal because the best way for the league to get the stink of Ray Rice off of them is to take down the Patriots for what is, at worst, a misdemeanor and quite possibly a red herring.

I can't stand the way Charles Pierce writes.

Amongst all the flowery words, I get the sense he thinks Brady is guilty but the transgression was so minor that a simple fine would have been okay.

aluminum seats said:

I can't stand the way Charles Pierce writes.

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Same here. I usually just avoid him, but sometimes the topic is so interesting to me that I can't help but check it out, only to find myself annoyed at his writing or simply disinterested despite my initial enthusiasm.

On the rare occasion that I actually finish a Pierce's article, I'm still left with a sour taste because he overlooked numerous opportunities for a more thoughtful analysis.

Thank God the Pats won the super bowl otherwise this whole Deflategate buffoonery would be just unbearable.

Tony2046 said:

Thank God the Pats won the super bowl otherwise this whole Deflategate buffoonery would be just unbearable.

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It's still pretty close to unbearable because the proudly ignorant public doesn't want the facts to be anything but "Brady is guilty" and "the Pats are cheaters and always will be." If we had lost the SB, there may have been a lemming like line forming to swan dive off the Pru.

Clearly the NFL lost complete control of this minor issue, as once Mort came out with the fudged figures it was over.. all of the leaks that occured in the first week were strategic, a poor strategy nonetheless planned.

Did they learn from this?? Probably not as they will overreact once again and Goodell is complicit in this whole matter...

old 55 said:

It's still pretty close to unbearable because the proudly ignorant public doesn't want the facts to be anything but "Brady is guilty" and "the Pats are cheaters and always will be." If we had lost the SB, there may have been a lemming like line forming to swan dive off the Pru.

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And normally I wouldn't give 2 sh*ts about what the proudly ignorant public thinks, but sadly Goodell does. They're encouraging him to do something stupid and irresponsible. He seems all too happy to oblige. The whole situation is completely and utterly revolting.

The only hope is to get this mess before a true neutral and competent judge. I hope justice prevails and the NFL, Goodell and his "get-along" gang get the beat down they richly deserve.

Canuck said:

Amongst all the flowery words, I get the sense he thinks Brady is guilty but the transgression was so minor that a simple fine would have been okay.

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It's just another indication of how incompetent the NFL is. The precedent for this class of infraction indeed is a simple fine. I'm sure TFB had better things to worry about than if the equipment guys were doctoring the balls or not. If he knew there was any chance of a 4 game suspension, $1M fine and loss of first round draft picks then his priorities would shift, just like ours would if the fine for driving above the speed limit was $1M.

DarrylS said:

Clearly the NFL lost complete control of this minor issue, as once Mort came out with the fudged figures it was over.. all of the leaks that occured in the first week were strategic, a poor strategy nonetheless planned.

Did they learn from this?? Probably not as they will overreact once again and Goodell is complicit in this whole matter...

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Tom Brady the martyr reminds me of the Marshall from the High Plains Drifter, who was whipped and beaten to death while the town folks of Lago looked on. A corrupt faction (Jets, Colts, Ravens?) in Lago wanted the Marshal dead because he had information that could damage their livelihood and hired 3 gunmen to kill the Marshall. Although, not all of the town folks were complicit in the murder; they were all guilty of passively watching the torture and the murder of an innocent man.

Oswlek said:

Same here. I usually just avoid him, but sometimes the topic is so interesting to me that I can't help but check it out, only to find myself annoyed at his writing or simply disinterested despite my initial enthusiasm.

On the rare occasion that I actually finish a Pierce's article, I'm still usually left with a sour taste because he overlooked numerous opportunities for a more thought provoking analysis.

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His writing Epitomizes style over substance

PatsWickedPissah said:

His writing Epitomizes style over substance

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And Goodell epitomizes stupidity over substance. Unless that substance is on the banned list.

DarrylS said:

Clearly the NFL lost complete control of this minor issue, as once Mort came out with the fudged figures it was over.. all of the leaks that occured in the first week were strategic, a poor strategy nonetheless planned.

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Actually, the NFL WAS IN COMPLETE CONTROL OF THE NUMBER FUDGING that first week.

Mortenson's source and the T. David Gardi letter.

It's all there in black and white.

Why would you make the NFL out as an innocent bystander when they were the clear PERPETRATOR?

Bill Lee said:

I agree, and I think it's worth quoting the rest of the paragraph:

Charlie Pierce is a really good writer. Personally I'm not fond of the "unscrewable pooch" stuff but outside of that I think the article is very well written.

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I think he also wrote the book Moving the chains: Tom Brady and the pursuit of everything. He also wrote 3 other books plus he studied Journalism in University. I'm not a big fan of his writing style and the only reason I know he wrote a book about Brady is because I googled his name to see if he wrote any romance novels.

Very cynical but very true.

Comparing the NFL to the Space Program in Chuck Yeager's words is actually quite insightful. Two enterprises that are characterized by moments of transcendent brilliance, which have so captured the public imagination that the public is willing to overlook the moments of incompetence and disaster.

Two pooches that cannot be screwed.

The Space Program that landed a man on the moon and a craft on Mars is the same program that wasted billions fixing Hubble (NASA failed to do proper Quality Control on a mirror that had been improperly ground by a Contractor) and failed Quality Control 101 by allowing Challenger to launch under conditions that did not meet the specifications for safe operation of a simple, non-technical component of the rocket itself.

The NFL that provides its fans with moments like "The Catch" and "The Drive" and "The Pick" (Malcolm's moment belongs on that list!) can't keep its own house in order when generations of players are rendered mentally impaired, Ray Rice brutalizes his partner, Adrian Petersen beats up his kid and somebody fabricates a story about deflated footballs.

But Pierce is right. The game will go on. Brady will, in the judgment of football historians, be untarnished whether you think somebody let a little air out of the ball or not. The problem now is Goodell, who is so far in over his head that he seems to be trying to screw up the un-screwable.

EDIT: for facts on the Hubble point, which still stands.