The Never Ending Saga

Roger Goodell

We all knew that the day would come when the National Football League would appeal the overturned suspension of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Last spring Brady was suspended by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for the first four games of the 2015 season for his alleged role in under inflated footballs being used in the first half of the AFC Championship Game in January 2015 against the Indianapolis Colts. Brady along with the NFLPA appealed the suspension in Federal Court in New York last summer where U.S. District Judge Richard Berman overturned Goodell’s suspension. But the door was left open for the NFL to appeal Berman’s ruling and that process began earlier this month in the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan where a panel of three judges consisting of Robert Kateman, Barrington Parker Jr., and Denny Chin heard arguments from both the league and Brady’s representatives. Each side was grilled over the matter as the National Football League is hopeful to come away victorious, but at what expense?

This issue has been drug out now for more than a year over something that most people don’t care about. And regardless of the court’s ruling on the matter, there won’t be any winners that will emerge from this as Brady appears to be a man that feels he is above the law while Goodell who is serving as the stuntman for the NFL owners cannot accept defeat.

Tom Brady

A big reason why Berman overturned Brady’s suspension last year was due to the fact that he saw right through the National Football League’s glorified witch hunt that was orchestrated in their investigation of Brady. The NFL never informed Brady that he could be subject to a league mandated suspension if he failed to cooperate with the investigation that was conducted by “independent” investigator Ted Wells who happens to work for the NFL. In Wells’ final report, he could only say that Brady “probably knew” that the footballs were purposely under inflated, but he was never fully able to determine the quarterback’s involvement. And when Berman questioned the National Football League over the matter in regards to their evidence against Brady, the league failed to produce any.

This isn’t the first time that a player has appealed a suspension by the National Football League in federal court and won, but this is the first case of Goodell and the league are fighting the court’s decision. Goodell is attempting to maintain his post as the dean of discipline in the National Football League, but at what cost?

Right now money is being wasted by the National Football League and the NFLPA in court over this matter where those finances could be put to better uses. There needs to be more money allotted by both parties for research on the long-term effects of head injuries to players as well as more health benefits for retired players who have suffered debilitating injuries from their playing days and that currently is not the case.

Goodell appears to have a personal vendetta against Brady which became evident this past season when the quarterback seemed to have suffered more questionable hits against him by defenders than in years past, but referees appeared to turn a blind eye more often than not. And on top of that, the outcome of the game against the Colts would not have been changed had the footballs been properly inflated for the entire game. This is the same league that once allowed wide receivers and defensive backs to use stickum on their hands to catch the football better until it got out of hand with former Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders cornerback Lester Hayes. Now wide receivers simply use gloves that practically stick to the football when they contact each other. The National Football League sat idly by when former Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula purposely left the field at Miami’s Orange Bowl uncovered during a storm which led to a much slower playing surface during the 1982 AFC Championship Game against the New York Jets. And we can also not forget about Goodell and the NFL changing the suspension of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice from a two-game suspension to an indefinite suspension once TMZ released video footage of him striking his then fiancee Janay Parker in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino.

As previously mentioned, Goodell is only doing this because the owners that put him in this position (minus Patriots owner Robert Kraft) who are fueling him with the ammunition to do so. But just like Brady’s legal representation is being grilled about the quarterback destroying his cell phone, the league must also prove that they gave him a fair shake which is far from the case. And regardless of what the panel decides to do on this matter, nobody wins as the majority of the public views Brady as a cheater while the National Football League comes off as a multi-billion dollar organization that wants to flex their financial muscles to prove a whimsical point.