Dan Wetzel:Roger Goodell's latest cowardly move

[SVN]

Roger Goodell needs to head to New England and face the music

As Goodell wrote in his ruling: “The sharp contrast between the almost complete absence of communications through the AFC championship game and the extraordinary volume of communication during the three days following the AFC championship game undermines any suggestion that the communications addressed only preparation of footballs for the Super Bowl rather than the tampering allegations and their anticipated responses to inquiries about the tampering.”

That sounded reasonable at the time. The idea that Brady and Jastremski would suddenly begin talking after being accused of cheating yet not discuss being accused of cheating is absurd. If true, that would be a damning sign of guilt.

Except, it wasn’t true. Despite vehement legal objections from the NFL, federal judge Richard Berman unsealed Brady’s under-oath testimony. It contained multiple statements from Brady that he and Jastremski did, indeed, repeatedly discuss the allegations as well as preparing for the Super Bowl.

“I was trying to figure out what happened,” Brady testified, according to federal court documents in one example of many. “[It] was certainly my concern [to attempt] to figure out, you know, what could be – possibly could have happened to those balls.”

So Goodell simply invented – or ignored – Brady’s actual testimony in order to find guilt. He claimed Brady said the opposite of what Brady actually said only to get busted when a document he never thought would become public did, indeed, become public.

Because this occurred more than six months after deflate-gate began it received a fraction of the initial attention and is rarely cited to this day. It remains the single most galling NFL action in the case … the champion of many strong contenders.

This thing bothers me to this day. No one ever mentions this open lie.

 

[The Gr8est]

Another troubling part of the Defamegate punishment, that I have never seen mentioned anywhere but here, is the clause that the Pats would lose the higher of the picks in the rounds they were losing a pick in.

The rest of the country is well aware that the Pats lost a 1st and 4th round draft pick, but seem unaware of the spiteful clause to additionally hamstring the Pats' attempts to conduct unfettered trades. It still affects them since the 4th round pick comes out of the 2017 draft.

 

[Gwedd]

 

[SVN]

Another troubling part of the Defamegate punishment, that I have never seen mentioned anywhere but here, is the clause that the Pats would lose the higher of the picks in the rounds they were losing a pick in.

The rest of the country is well aware that the Pats lost a 1st and 4th round draft pick, but seem unaware of the spiteful clause to additionally hamstring the Pats' attempts to conduct unfettered trades. It still affects them since the 4th round pick comes out of the 2017 draft.

Meanwhile the giants pick only dropped 12 spots. No reason why 12 was chosen.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Great article.

Hurley's also kicked ass

Hurley: Why Roger Goodell Avoiding Foxboro Is A Big Deal

 

[PatriotsReign]

I have that outfit

 

[oldrover]

"Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Roger..."

 

[Tony2046]

Roger Goodell needs to head to New England and face the music


This thing bothers me to this day. No one ever mentions this open lie.

That wasn't the only lie. Another was that the NFL and the NFLPA (Brady) had agreed to keep the appeal records sealed. Which further fueled the suspicion that Brady had something to hide. It wasn't until after the release we read that Kessler had not only asked but practically begged to have the appeal transcripts released to the public. It was the NFL who wanted to keep them sealed.

Edit to post Appeal transcript regarding releasing them to the public:

Kessler:

 

[PatsDeb]

This guy found his courage. I doubt Fraudger ever will.

 

[Tony2046]

Great article.

Hurley's also kicked ass

Hurley: Why Roger Goodell Avoiding Foxboro Is A Big Deal

Yep. He nailed it on many levels.

Actually, the fact that Goodell obviously faced no real threat of harm — be it physical or verbal — makes his decision to steer clear of Foxboro at all costs look even worse.

 

[Bill Lee]

Roger Goodell needs to head to New England and face the music

This thing bothers me to this day. No one ever mentions this open lie.

Yep, Roger wanted the outcome he got, not one that common sense would take him to:

Rather than consider that the NFL alleging Brady was at the helm of a major cheating operation might be the cause of the communication to begin with, Goodell was convinced this was an attempted cover-up.

Yet it would be quite understandable – the act of an innocent and dumbfounded man actually – for Brady to ask Jastremski what the heck was going on or if he knew anything. Further, as more and more inaccurate (and seemingly significant) reports were leaked to the media almost by the hour, why wouldn’t Brady circle back?

At this point, I wonder if Roger will ever show his face in Foxborough ever again.

And it does beg the question raised in the Hurley article above, if the man can't face the outcome of his decisions, how can he keep his job as NFL commissioner?

On the flip side, how can he ever expected to (a) rule against the teams whose stadiums he likes to visit and (b) rule in favor of the teams he doesn't like to visit, whenever the next ****gate shows up?

 

[patfanken]

Roger Goodell is not only despicable. He is also a liar, coward and unethical human being, who is personally making Marc Cuban into a seer.

Mike Holley, where is the book on this? It almost writes itself. The movie would be more dramatic than OJ mini-series. It NEEDS to be done.

BTW- after reading these 2 articles, why would ANY Pats fan, or fan of the NFL, for that matter, think that the Patriots are playing on a level playing field this Sunday

 

[1960Pats]

This guy found his courage. I doubt Fraudger ever will.

There's no way any wizard has the power to give Fraudger courage, even in Hollyweird.
There isn't a magician that can produce his honesty either because it doesn't exist.
Not to mention the BOLO that's been ordered to find his integrity.

As bad as he is though, he's only doing the bidding for the 32 owners.

 

[fourhour]

BTW- after reading these 2 articles, why would ANY Pats fan, or fan of the NFL, for that matter, think that the Patriots are playing on a level playing field this Sunday

C,mon man! Now I don't want to read them....

 

[oldrover]

BTW- after reading these 2 articles, why would ANY Pats fan, or fan of the NFL, for that matter, think that the Patriots are playing on a level playing field this Sunday

Actually, Roger's busy this week overseeing the re-turfing of NRG Stadium...

 

[ohiopatsfan]

Goodell will be in Atlanta this Sunday, once again avoiding Gillette Stadium. One more reason a Patriots' victory in the 2017 Super Bowl would be sweet. If the Pats get there and win the game, Goodell would be forced to stand on the platform with Brady, Bellichek and Kraft during the award ceremony (unless, of course, he has a sudden attack of Montezuma's Revenge). If he does need to use the men's room, better make sure he doesn't take any footballs with him. Don't want a Deflategate II.