Players, coaches and executives have come to view the Patriots’ situation as a referendum on commissioner power. Many of the sources I spoke to used the same word: “railroaded.” As in, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell railroaded the Patriots. As in, the commissioner used his power unfairly and arbitrarily.They think, in effect, that what happened to the Patriots could happen to any of them.
Source: The Patriots Are Not on the Clock: Deflategate Fallout Looms Large in NFL Draft | Bleacher Report
Oh, so now the rest of the NFL starts to get over their blinding Patriots hate and sees this whole charade for what it really was — a railroading. I’m still so surprised by those who checked out after the Wells Report, assured the Patriots were cheating cheaters who finally got caught cheating. Yes, there are actually still football fans who are Team Goodell in this once single solitary instance, because they hate the Patriots.
Anyone who read any bit of material beyond the Wells Report and the NFL’s court arguments should see that there was plenty about this whole thing that reeked of not just unfairness but of a systematic attempt to win the case both in real court and the court of public opinion no matter what the truth actually was.
And yes, if you can get over how much you hate the Patriots, you’ll see that arbitrary and severe punishment is now the law of the land in the NFL.
Still, for all the hate that Commissioner Goodell gets, and yes, he is uniquely terrible, it’s still the owners that control the NFL. Goodell is, for most purposes, just the figurehead. The one who gets paid a huge salary to take all the flack. And if it wasn’t Roger Goodell it’d be someone else we’d all despise. But it’s the owners that want an 18-game season and games all over the earth and games on Thursday every week and every other shitty addition that’s happened to the NFL under Goodell’s watch.
The NFL is the owners, not Roger Goodell.
So this article is a bit significant, if true. If the owners are starting to see how, even on his short leash, that Goodell is still mishandling every instance of discipline that comes his way, they could actually institute real change. And maybe that’s enough to put punishment in the hands of someone, or someones, who can rule neutrally and fairly based on the facts and precedent, instead of over-correcting and applying broad powers to make up for other past punishments that didn’t go far enough in the eyes of some.