Deflategate has kept the NFL in the sports news right when the NBA Finals and draft, NHL finals and draft, and College World Series are all happening? During the NFL "dry time", in the heart of the baseball season?
Isn't this essentially what Goodell is paid to do? Hype the product and keep everyone talking about it?
If so, regardless of the outcome of the case, hasn't he already won?
Is this why Kraft "capitulated" (it isn't a capitulation if it is in your own best interest).
Or should I take off the tin foil hat?
Mods, feel free to merge to an appropriate thread if there is one.
That's very helpful.
I think Goodell actually thought he could get away with the four game suspension as part of the media hype (as another poster has suggested by noticing that the game against the Colts was mysteriously scheduled as the fifth game on the Patriots' schedule back in April), but the unexpected and arguably fatal flaws in the Wells report dramatically increased the probability of a successful appeal by Brady.
So, Goodell's objective has now swung towards keeping this out of court while saving face with the owners and the vast majority of the public.
Gary Myers, who has deep ties to the NFL offices and the two New Jersey teams, started suggesting right after Brady's Appeal this week and repeated it again this morning in the Sunday paper that Goodell will completely exonerate Brady from "complicity" in what we all know was the "non crime" at the heart of deflategate, but leave a two game suspension in place for "failure to co-operate" fully with the "investigation" (I put "failure to co-operate" and "investigation" both in quotation marks because Brady did co-operate and the investigation was a fraud).
That's the equivalent of a "Hail Mary" pass by Goodell, since the NFLPA and Brady could make the case in court that Favre was only fined $50,000 for a similar "offense." Myers also points out that the NFLPA is chomping at the bit to take this case to court.
I think it's not out of the question that Myers is floating a trial balloon on behalf of the NFL, trying to drive a wedge between Brady and the NFLPA, while looking for a back-channel response from Brady's team: complete exoneration and a $50,000 fine would be my counter-offer if I were Yee, in response to which Goodell could offer complete exoneration and a one game suspension for non-co-operation as a compromise. At that point, Goodell would have shown so much weakness that, if I were Yee, I'd offer "$100,000 and complete exoneration, take it or we'll take it to court."
If Goodell insisted on keeping a suspension of any duration in place, at that point, a completely exonerated Brady would have to decide whether standing his ground on an excessive penalty for "non co-operation" is worth facing months of the risky, distracting and divisive legal battle that the NFLPA would want.