ANALYSIS/OPINION:
There are so many levels of “Deflategate” that lack any logic that it almost seems like a collection of Lewis Carroll stories.
Why in the world would the NFL declare war on its golden boy, one of the biggest stars in the league, who, until we learned about PSI, appeared as pure as the driven snow?
What’s the upside of Roger Goodell bringing down Tom Brady?
This is the No. 1 question that comes up with every so-called piece of evidence presented by either side that allegedly makes their case.
Why?
Why would the NFL attack one of its most successful franchises, the gold standard in today’s league, the four-time Super Bowl champion?
What’s the upside of Goodell going to war with the New England Patriots?
Why?
Last year, when Goodell was under fire for his clumsy handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence investigation — for which the commissioner should have lost his job — who publicly came to his defense? Patriots owner Robert Kraft, one of the league’s most powerful and influential owners and reportedly a close confidant of Goodell.
Yet Goodell has now chosen to publicly take on Kraft and his organization more than any other team he has ever had a conflict with publicly. He appears to have embarrassed — and, according to Kraft, betrayed — the owner who begrudgingly accept the franchise’s punishment for “Deflategate,” rather than go to court, clearly expecting a quid pro quo in the form of a reduction in Brady’s suspension.
“I was willing to accept the harshest penalty in the history of the NFL for an alleged ball violation because I believed it would help exonerate Tom,” Kraft told reporters last week. “I was wrong to put my faith in the league.”
Again, I ask why? Why betray the owner who publicly stood by your side during the Rice debacle? Why engage in a nuclear war with your greatest ally?
Because of deflated footballs and a lack of cooperation? Really?
We didn’t get to this point because of air in footballs. This really can’t be about broken cell phones and clandestine text messages about how inflated or deflated footballs are.
At some point, intelligent men step into a process like this, grasp the damage of making a mountain out of a molehill, and put the brakes on.
What’s the NFL doing? Just the opposite, putting the pedal to the metal, with Goodell upholding his own four-game suspension of Brady and, in the process, drawing up its own version of a criminal indictment and turning Brady into a character from “The Wire.”
Any and all theories to answer the question “Why?” are in place, since the so-called evidence from both sides — from the bizarre report put together by Ted Wells to the Patriots’ laughable explanations of code words in text messages — have little or no credibility.
And the most improbably, remarkable, illogical part of “Deflategate”? Bill Belichick has not been implicated. He is the innocent bystander.
And, ironically, I believe he is the reason for all of this.
This is about years’ worth of transgressions and sins accumulated behind the scenes by Belichick, who rules the Patriots and wrote their manual on how to do business with arrogance and deceit. He angered Goodell and other franchise owners in the process, back to the days of “Spygate,” when the Patriots were probably put on double-secret probation and ignored it like crashing a Faber College Founders’ Day parade.
The only thing that makes sense is that this is all about Belichick, and air in footbalsl was the NFL’s version of going after Al Capone for tax evasion.
This is about the guy who answered questions about “Deflategate” last week like this:
Reporter: “Do you believe, as Tom Brady says, that he believed neither he nor anyone in the Patriots organization did anything wrong?”
Belichick: “We start training camp today and we’ll get ready for the 2015 season today.”
Reporter: “Is there something flawed about a system of the organization where you keep ending up in these cheating controversies? Can you explain why?”
Belichick: “It’s already been addressed.”
Reporter: “Can you elaborate a little?”
Belichick: “No.”
Reporter: “Why not?”
Belichick: “Because it’s already been addressed.”
Do you think Belichick’s communications with the NFL over the years for any number of league crimes he has committed have been any different than this?
No, this is about Belichick, and a sense of justice, however unfair or misdirected it may be, that the chickens have come home to roost.
Goodell does not take such bold steps without not the just backing, but the urging of other owners. I’m not talking about Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay. After the Ravens embarrassed the NFL last year with their own internal handling of Rice, and after Irsay was fined $500,000 and suspended for six games following his driving while intoxicated arrest last year, do you really think these are the two owners who can pick up the phone and lean on Goodell?
No, this comes with the blessing of the five families — and their target all along has been Belichick. Brady is just collateral damage.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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