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Deflategate ruling should cost Roger Goodell his job

 
In a major setback for the NFL, Tom Brady prevailed in his battle to have his four-game suspension overturned Thursday, as a federal judge reversed a ruling by Commissioner Roger Goodell to bench one of the league's biggest stars in a dispute over underinflated balls he used in a January playoff game. [Damon Winter/The New York Times]
In a major setback for the NFL, Tom Brady prevailed in his battle to have his four-game suspension overturned Thursday, as a federal judge reversed a ruling by Commissioner Roger Goodell to bench one of the league's biggest stars in a dispute over underinflated balls he used in a January playoff game. [Damon Winter/The New York Times]
Published Sept. 4, 2015

In football terms, this was more than just a loss. This was a blowout, a rout, an upset of historic proportions.

This was an embarrassment.

In the game of Deflategate, not only did Patriots quarterback Tom Brady beat NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, he ran up the score.

What happens when you're on the wrong end of a blowout? What happens when you continually get embarrassed?

You lose your job. You get fired.

Time for Goodell to go.

He has lost the trust of the players. He last lost the faith of the paying public. He has tainted the NFL and its almighty shield.

The reputations of the greatest player in the game and the most high-profile team in the league were dragged through the mud for nine months — over slightly deflated footballs, for crying out loud — because a commissioner was so drunk with power that he either totally forgot or completely ignored basic legal rights such as fairness and consistency and due process.

Thursday was a dark day for the NFL and Goodell. Not only has he lost in the court of opinion, he has lost in a court of law.

Where else is there?

U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman — the judge essentially handpicked by the league — vacated Goodell's four-game suspension of Brady because, as the judge wrote, Goodell was "fundamentally unfair" and used his own brand of "industrial justice."

Translated: You did what you basically accused Brady of doing. You cheated. Goodell suspended Brady because he wanted to suspend him. He came up with the ruling and then tried to build a case around that. It's supposed to work the other way around.

Making this even worse is that Goodell and the NFL could have reached some sort of settlement with Brady, but they were so arrogant and stubborn that they ignored Berman's warnings that this case might go against them — not because Brady didn't do it but because the league didn't cross all its T's and dot all its I's when handing out the suspension.

What we learned from all the legal experts Thursday was that it is incredibly rare for judges to vacate arbitration rulings. Yet Berman picked apart the NFL's case like Brady picks apart defenses.

Look, do I believe footballs were deflated in last season's AFC title game and Brady had something to do with it? Yes, I do. Even if Brady did have a hand in letting the air out of footballs, Goodell never had a smoking gun, and looking back, it seemed that he was so intent on burying Brady that he brazenly believed the collective bargaining agreement gave him the absolute authority.

Like any bully, Goodell was interested only in winning this case. And like any bully, he never thought he would lose.

But the guy can't win. This is just the latest embarrassing setback in a string of embarrassing setbacks for Goodell.

He loused up the Ray Rice domestic violence case, first by punishing him too lightly and then, according an arbitrator, too severely. He loused up the Adrian Peterson suspension for alleged child abuse; a U.S. District Court judge overturned Goodell's punishment for being "arbitrary and capricious.'' Sound familiar?

Remember Bountygate with the Saints? Former commissioner Paul Tagliabue ruled that Goodell didn't follow the proper process for disciplining players.

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And now Brady and Deflategate.

That's four high-profile cases, and Goodell is 0-4.

What has he gotten right? Which high-profile case has he won? Each time the shield took another dent.

Here's the thing: In each case, it's not that the players or teams were innocent. It's that Goodell bungled doling out the discipline. And, ironically, discipline is supposedly Goodell's specialty.

Thursday's decision in the Brady case, however, severely zaps Goodell of what little power he had left. He needed to win to reassert himself as a strong commissioner, the hanging judge. Now Goodell and the league will be gun-shy in all future rulings. From now on, you can bet any player who doesn't like his punishment will be sprinting to court to take on Goodell. And they likely will win, if recent history is an indicator.

As far as the Brady case, it's not over. The league is appealing. Plus, the judge vacated only the league's suspension. Technically, the league could still try to discipline Brady. But Goodell and the NFL should cut their losses and move on. Goodell should go into damage control and try to get back into the good graces of his bosses, the owners, many of whom are believed to still strongly support him. He should let it go because NFL fans are sick of hearing about it.

Thursday was a bad day all around, not just for the NFL and Goodell but all of sports. Now you have to fear that every ruling, every form of punishment, every league decision will end up before a judge in some court. I'm waiting for the day when the Supreme Court rules on a pass interference call.

It would be best if the courts stayed out of the business of sports, but Thursday made that less likely.

Then again, if Goodell had done a smart and thorough job to begin with, this case wouldn't have ended up in court. And if Goodell had done a smart and thorough job and the case still ended up in court, the NFL would have prevailed.

But Goodell and his staff dropped the ball. They lost. They lost badly.

Now Goodell should lose something else: his job.