The NFL Is Cracking Down

In one courtroom, judges were upholding NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s right to suspend Tom Brady for four games for maybe knowing (and maybe not knowing) how much air was in a football. In another courtroom, Johnny Manziel was indicted on a misdemeanor assault charge.

Brady has done nothing but bring attention and glory to the NFL, though the so-called “Patriots Way” generally endorses a cursory attention to the bounds of rules. Manziel has done nothing but embarrass the NFL and his previous employer, the Cleveland Browns, over the course of two benighted seasons.

The Brady decision was essentially by the book. The court in New York ruled that the NFL’s labor agreement gave Goodell the right to impose discipline, fairly or stupidly. Whatever he imposed wasn’t even the issue; it was that he had the right to do it. So call the NFL Players Association and ask what it was thinking in 2011 when it agreed to the same-old, same-old concept of a league official (the highest honcho) imposing suspensions that effectively can only be appealed to him.

Manziel? Well, psychoanalysis from a distance isn’t our long suit. Clearly his predilection for partying at the expense of his career is neither new nor anything the NFL won’t involve itself in. So Brady, a future Hall of Famer, has his career besmirched by an investigation that found it was “more probable than not” that he knew about footballs inflated to less than NFL specifications. That investigator, Ted Wells, handled the Miami Dolphins’ “Bullygate” investigation, in which Jonathan Martin was invested with sainthood and everyone else was Satan incarnate. Martin was later revealed to be suicidal and, at a minimum, somewhat disturbed. Meanwhile, other careers were – at a minimum – interrupted or wrecked.

So here it is, the week of the NFL draft. Are we talking about Jared Goff or Carson Wentz? No. We’re back to Deflategate. We’re back to talking about the Patriots playing their first four games without Brady because … well, because Wells found it “more probable than not” that Brady knew about something when Brady never said a word that would incriminate him.

If Goodell has any sense, he’ll commute this punishment to a simple fine and get it behind the NFL. I just re-read that sentence and burst out in laughter (and tears).

The funny thing about common sense? It’s not that common.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman