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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.Not bashing Reiss. Love Reiss. Just saying his employer poured gasoline on a matchstick.
There's a ****ing surprise.
Kraft? Kraft? Didn't there used to be an NFL owner by that name? I think it's all just macaroni and cheese at this point.Where the hell is Kraft? he should be all over this.
The league never wants to deal with PSI again because it knows that so-called deflated footballs are the norm after November 1 since Welly Mara and Art Rooney Sr. were in kneepants.
That’s why the whole “protocol” dodge was hatched in the first place. Pretty inspired idea, actually and one the NFL started pushing last February at the Super Bowl.
That’s when I asked Goodell what constituted a PSI violation and he said – in essence – there’s no such thing. Just don’t break the “protocols” and maintain the “chain of custody” and nobody gives a damn how flat the balls are.
“It’s not about PSI, it’s about procedure,” I was told by a high-ranking league official after Goodell’s press conference last February in San Francisco. “Were the protocols followed? Did the balls follow the chain of supervision they were supposed to throughout the process from pregame, through halftime to the end of the game? Or were there any detours when they went missing? There were not. This is about procedures being followed.”
I've seen a theory or two on why the Giants did what they did, in terms of measuring the footballs, informing the league and the media, but not making a formal complaint. There's a school of thought that the Giants were trying to subtly aid the Patriots by doing this. I have a different theory: Mara and Rooney thought it would be funny to rub Kraft's nose in it by treating this whole incident like a joke.
We all remember Kraft's bravado when he arrived in Arizona for SB49 and demanded an apology. We also remember how he turtled at the owner's meeting in May and accepted the penalties. He did that, in large part, because Mara told him he had no support. Mara is then conspicuous in his support of Goodell and Brady's suspension. Fast forward to this year, Mara and Rooney's team play each other. The Giants test 2 of the Steelers footballs and find them below the minimum level. These were the same circumstances under which Kraft's team and best player were screwed over. Instead of igniting the same kind of firestorm, the NFL shrugs it shoulders. Without even conducting any type of investigation, they declare that the footballs being below the minimum PSI isn't an issue. Then Mara comes out and says it's "much ado about nothing" and Rooney promptly agrees with him.
When Kraft's team was involved, it was literally a federal case. Mara and Rooney are saying to Kraft "These rules that we told you were so important, that we dragged you, your franchise, and best player through the mud over, they don't apply to us. We made you pay us $1 million, but when we do it, it doesn't affect us or our teams at all." Once again, Kraft was told to go home and get his shinebox. He and Jonathan just sit there silently and take it. Again.