After Tom Brady’s 4 game suspension was nullified by Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman on September 3, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said that he is ‘very open’ to changing his role in player discipline. He recently spoke to Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio.
Berman did not address whether the NFL was non-partisan in his decision to uphold Brady’s suspension directly but said in part, “Because there was no notice of a four-game suspension in the circumstances presented here, Commissioner Goodell may be said to have ‘dispense[d] his own brand of industrial justice,’” Berman writes in his decision.”
The league’s next scheduled meeting is set for October and the current NFL CBA runs through 2020.
Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank told D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “change may be appropriate” to repair the process. Furthermore, he believes that working with the NFLPA is the right way to go.
“It’s not healthy for the NFL to be in the kind of litigious position that it’s been for last several years,” Blank said. “I think that the commissioner is working hard to hold up the respect and integrity of the game, the competitive balance of the game and the shield. Having said that, I think we have to find ways to get to a better place sooner with the NFLPA than the process that we’ve gone through.”
One factor that has not been discussed as much is the relationship between Goodell and Patriots owner Robert Kraft. However, Goodell downplayed the possibility of the relationship being torn.
Mike Chiari of Bleacher Report says that the deflategate controversy/scandal has not reached its true conclusion and despite the want to put it behind him, this debate will likely be talked about for some time.
Goodell recently spoke to union chief DeMaurice Smith before the decision came down about possible changes to the college bargaining agreement.
“We want to get to a better discipline system,” Goodell said. “We’ve had several discussions with the union about how to do that. We have done that on the field over the last several years and I think we’ve got a better system. We’ve done that in our drug and steroid program and I think we have a better system than we did before those changes.”
MMQB‘s Jenny Vrentas says that the big picture could be that there could be leverage but not until the next CBA is up for renewal in 5 years from now. The changes that will be made are unknown but some believe there will be changes of the organizational structure with the possibility of the commissioner being included.
I have said in the past that Goodell’s image has been tarnished because of a player on the field being the referee at the same time. I honestly believe that we will need a third-party arbitration but if that were to happen, it would be paramount that the individual(s) have a deep knowledge of the game and its rules.
The NFL needs to focus more on more serious issues facing the game. I understand that a controversy like this will generate ratings on ESPN and sports talk radio but the game has been ill served by the fact that NFL fans continue to see players who are showing to be bad examples to the game and those who want to play in the NFL someday. For example, the San Francisco 49ers released defensive end Aldon Smith after being arrested on driving under the influence, hit and run and vandalism in early August. Just today, it was announced that Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant could be out of action for more than originally thought when he suffered a broken bone in his foot in week 1 vs. the New York Giants.
Whether it is the commissioner himself or a team, I feel as if the NFL is not always shooting right when they focus on someone who didn’t commit a crime like Brady. Goodell has backed himself into a corner that will take some time to get out of and I feel as if he could have avoided it. You can blame the media for talking about the deflategate scandal but if it involves a player like Brady, there are valid reasons for this story to continue to be discussed on shows such as ESPN’s First Take. Conversely when a player that doesn’t have the name recognition like Brady does is arrested, stories like that can be overblown but how did Goodell not realize that trying to overpower the sports media by suspending Brady was not going to go over well?
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