Anonymous NFL Owner: Deflategate Has Been ‘Embarrassing To Our League’

http://nesn.com/2015/08/anonymous-nfl-owner-deflategate-has-been-embarrassing-to-our-league/

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Bleacher Report spoke with an anonymous NFL owner who really summed up the entire saga as well as anyone else has so far. “We all agreed to this process,” the owner told Bleacher Report. “The union agreed to it, and the owners agreed to it. It’s hypocritical for the union to say they hate the process or for Robert (Kraft) to put up such a fight. Robert didn’t have a problem with the process when it was used against other teams.”

The owner added, however, that it’s undeniable the NFL’s system is flawed to the point where it’s doing damage to the NFL. “I agree with Roger being the voice of discipline, but it can’t be denied that the process needs major tweaking,” he told Bleacher Report. “This process has hurt Tom, it’s hurt Roger and it’s hurt the NFL. “This entire episode is embarrassing our sport. It makes us look horrible. Think about how long this has gone on. This shouldn’t happen.”

The owner also took issue with how long and drawn-out the entire process has been. Here we are, seven months later, still squabbling over something that started with air pressure in footballs. “Nothing like this happens in other leagues,” the owner said. “Why our league?”

Question: “Why our league?”

Answer: An almost unheard-of level of incompetence, arrogance, and corruption exists in the NFL's leadership positions.

This completely overlooks the fact that it was the ignorant meatheads that the owners hired who blew a nothingburger up into this tempest that threatens the whole "system".

"It’s hypocritical for the union to say they hate the process or for Robert (Kraft) to put up such a fight."

Well, FU too Mr. Anonymous. Hate that these sad sacks of crap won't reveal who they are. Cowards.

The process requirements of the CBA didn't change with Goodell. The Judge seems skeptical that players agreed to this process.

"Why our league"

Cuz you hired a dumb s**t for commissioner.

Freeman is still assuming that footballs were deflated. Blech.

The owner(s) quoted don't seem to care about whether the findings and discipline are fair. They just think the process should be quicker and less controversial. Triple blech.

I just can't take anonymous quotes seriously.

Maybe this is the straw that finally breaks the back of the Billionaire Boys Club.

"Nothing like this happens in other leagues," the owner said. "Why our league?"

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It's pretty much by design that the NFL lurches from scandal to scandal as the NFL's modus operandi for any accusation of wrongdoing is to play it out before their beholden media, highlighting and exaggerating wrongdoings or even manufacturing it out of whole cloth to justify outsized punishments. They'll even re-punish things if the initial punishment is seen as insufficient as in the case of Ray Rice. If you hate how this scandal is playing out, owners, by this time next year there will be three new big scandals to chew over. Unless you think 1500 young men and 32 franchises are all going to stay out of (alleged) trouble. It's now as predictable as a TV network rolling out new shows in the fall and summer.

Actually 31 franchises, as they let the Jets of all teams police themselves.

Why doesn't this happen in other leagues? Because other leagues handle bad news in a way that ensures that the bad news will GO AWAY whenever possible. It could be revealed that the last five World Series has been fixed by the mob and they'd make it go away quieter than this non-issue. The NBA made a ref shaving points in games go away to the point that no one remembers it. The Cardinals illegally hacking into the Astro's system, an actual crime that can lead people in prison, that has gone away. Only the NFL would promote the worst of their league to the front page of the headlines for months at a time, apparently all for the ego of the commissioner.

I will say that if I were an owner who received a "You gotta let this go for the good of the league" talk from Robert Kraft in my hour of need (such as Bountygate), I would be downright gleeful at Kraft getting bent over and asking for support, now.

**** this whole "it's what the players agreed to" argument. This policy has been in place for something like 50 years, and it was fine because everyone involved generally paid lip service, at least, to stuff like good faith, reasonable standards, and operating in the best interest of the league.

Anyone who watches Goodell go miles off the reservation over and over again and concludes that it's the players' fault for not predicting he would go nuts and preemptively striking to prevent it is just making up reasons for someone else to be responsible.

It's past time for owners to start taking some accountability over the fact that it's their employee who's the cause and common denominator in all this crap. He's done enough to get fired a few times over, and the best the owners can manage is that a couple might occasionally make anonymous, pointed comments that don't even explicitly call him out.

"Robert didn’t have a problem with the process when it was used against other teams."
The quote that makes me believe that Kraft is in a tough spot with the other owners. His public support for the commish in the Ray Rice issue did a lot of damage that will be hard to recover.

it's also hypocritical of the league to dole out ridiculous punishments without a shred of evidence to back it up.

that should be the embarrassment.

deters said:

"It’s hypocritical for the union to say they hate the process or for Robert (Kraft) to put up such a fight."

Well, FU too Mr. Anonymous. Hate that these sad sacks of crap won't reveal who they are. Cowards.

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If he considered that a fight, he should be happy it wasn't a true fan of the team, but someone who is mostly aligned with the business. then again, it's why Kraft was in a position to own a team.

But Kraft basically is blocking punches with his face on this account.

Chiuba E. Obele said:

http://nesn.com/2015/08/anonymous-nfl-owner-deflategate-has-been-embarrassing-to-our-league/

“We all agreed to this process,” the owner told Bleacher Report. “The union agreed to it, and the owners agreed to it. It’s hypocritical for the union to say they hate the process or for Robert (Kraft) to put up such a fight. Robert didn’t have a problem with the process when it was used against other teams"

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Interesting that he considers Kraft to be putting up a fight. This is a fight between the NFL and the NFLPA. Kraft already wimped out and folded his hand. What else does he expect Kraft to do, pressure Brady into giving up?

vuudu said:

"Robert didn’t have a problem with the process when it was used against other teams."
The quote that makes me believe that Kraft is in a tough spot with the other owners. His public support for the commish in the Ray Rice issue did a lot of damage that will be hard to recover.

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It's not just that, if you look at the comments Jerry Jones made it seems pretty clear that Kraft told him to stand down over the cap penalties thing:

“I can speak to that because on a personal basis as well as from our franchise we have had that happen to us,” Jones said. “I’m sitting here living with the results of the commissioners’ decision still today that I didn’t agree with it when it happened. So some of the very people that give you biggest complaint they are the ones that give you a phone call and tell you, ‘hey let’s be a team player now and let’s all get in here and realize this happens to everybody. And let’s go on and compete. We have a great league and a great game.’ So I would remind any and everybody that we do (have a great league). We a commissioner that is outstanding. He has to make hard calls. And more often than not you are going to have a season or you going to have a period of time when those go against you as an owner in the NFL.”

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deters said:

"It’s hypocritical for the union to say they hate the process or for Robert (Kraft) to put up such a fight."

Well, FU too Mr. Anonymous. Hate that these sad sacks of crap won't reveal who they are. Cowards.

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More hypocrisy from the NFL front office/owners. Last I checked Kraft is not fighting anything and very likely one of the reasons he caved is the exact point this anonymous ass hat is trying to make.

Sure Kraft has put out some propaganda but he didn't go nuclear on the league he took his punishment however dumb it was.

What else does he have to do? Force his employees not to appeal?

It should also be noted that under Tagliabue/Upshaw, the league and union enjoyed a more positive, productive relationship than in any other sport. Upshaw withstood persistent criticism that he wasn't doing enough for the players re: guaranteed contracts and a bunch of other stuff, but he stood up to the criticism and held to the joint NFL/NFLPA line that guaranteed contracts did not benefit his constituency on the whole. Can you imagine the NFLPA going to bat for Goodell on an issue that the public is criticizing him? What was standard practice within a productive relationship back then is just totally unfathomable now.

While the MLB was cancelling a World Series in the 1990s due to a players' strike, and the NHL and NBA were locking the players out, the NFL had no work stoppages between 1987 and 2011. It's not some huge coincidence that this happened to be the time period in which it became the undisputed #1 sport in America.

This relationship was a significant driver in making the NFL the juggernaut that it is today, and Tagliabue had all the powers Goodell has. He just had the baseline intelligence to understand that nothing good could come from colossal overreach and acting in bad faith. Now we apparently have some owners sitting around wondering why their league has all the scandals? It's because the NFL is the only league with a stupid, vindictive, petty, insecure and incompetent commissioner.

Even if we wanted to go the strict interpretation "whatever the CBA says goes" argument, with no regard for common sense or federal law, the CBA states that Goodell can't be commissioner. The commissioner must be someone of unquestioned integrity, and Goodell is anything but that.

Somehow this dumb **** owner got it in his head that "ceding arbitration power to an agent of unquestioned integrity to be fairly executed in accordance with the law" means "ginger hammer can do whatever the hell he wants".

This owner's logic is warped, he is uninformed and daft.

Kraft did agree to the process. The problem is that nothing wrong happened. He accepted the punishment.

The Union agreed to the process. The problem is that the process wasn't followed.

As far as "Why our league?". What a head in the sand statement. Maybe this bozo should take his thumb out of his butt and call Goody and ask.

deters said:

"It’s hypocritical for the union to say they hate the process or for Robert (Kraft) to put up such a fight."

Well, FU too Mr. Anonymous. Hate that these sad sacks of crap won't reveal who they are. Cowards.

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Hypocritical for the union and kraft to say they hate the process. This guy must be a fcking moron, this whole dog and pony show was made up from the beginning by the total incompetents in the front office. It started out as a sting by people with an axe to grind, it was personal, goody and the gang showed how much the integrity of the game mattered to them by allowing the possibility of under-inflated footballs being use in the championship game. Goodell grasped this as a chance to redeem his public image, his minions leaked false information to the media there by heightening the histeria and putting the patiots in the position of trying to prepare for the Super Bowl and defend themselves against these accusations. Even when goody and his crew became aware that the football wern't 2psi below the minimum allowable level they did nothing except hire a hit team (ted wells) to try and come up with evidence that brady was behind it all. And it continued for seven months afterward, with leaks from the front office then goodell coming out to further slander brady. This POS owner and the rest of his buddys can go fck themselves, they disgust me.

MitchKumstein said:

Interesting that he considers Kraft to be putting up a fight. This is a fight between the NFL and the NFLPA. Kraft already wimped out and folded his hand. What else does he expect Kraft to do, pressure Brady into giving up?

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I think that comment may be what Robert may be doing behind the scenes and he is not being received well.

Hard to feel sorry for these spineless owners. They have no one to blame but themselves for chasing the dollar at the expense of competency and integrity.