ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Now that the New England Patriots are out of the playoffs following their 20-18 loss to the Denver Broncos in the AFC championship game, we can all concentrate on bringing the NFL’s public enemy No. 1, Tom Brady, to justice.
The last time we left “Deflategate,” commissioner Roger Goodell was accusing Brady of consenting to and providing inducements “in support of a scheme to tamper with the game balls” from last year’s AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. Goodell said Brady “willfully obstructed” the investigation into tampering with the air of the balls used in that game.
Tell me, aren’t you just a little disappointed that we will be denied the opportunity of seeing Goodell presenting the Lombardi Trophy to Patriots owner Robert Kraft — with Brady and coach Bill Belichick by his side?
It would be like Richard Nixon presenting the Pulitzer Prize to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, or something like that. You get the idea.
Would the words “scheme” or “obstruct” or “tamper” come up during that ceremony?
“Notwithstanding my enormous respect for his accomplishments on the field and for his contributions and role in the community, I find that, with respect to the game balls used in the AFC championship game and subsequent investigation, Mr. Brady engaged in conduct detrimental to the integrity of, and public confidence in, the game of professional football,” Goodell stated in upholding a four-game suspension of the future Hall of Fame quarterback.
Now, it’s just football for the next two weeks — the young rising star, Cam Newton, facing off against the old veteran on his last legs, Peyton Manning. It’s wonderful, but it lacks the drama that the Patriots would have brought with them to Santa Clara for the Super Bowl.
The Patriots have a sign in their locker room that reads, “Ignore the noise,” but the irony is that no one is noisier than the Patriots. You could argue that the Dallas Cowboys or the bottom-of-the-barrel Cleveland Browns lead the league in drama, but that’s small potatoes compared to the Patriots’ soap opera.
I mean, who else in the league had a tight end — Aaron Hernandez — that they agreed to pay $40 million, and then have him wind up in prison as a convicted murderer? That trumps Johnny Manziel’s disguised romps in Las Vegas.
The Patriots have been the gold standard of success in the NFL, yet no team has been punished more by its own partners — from “Spygate” to “Deflategate.”
No team in the league is more despised by its partners, so much so that they pushed forth this ridiculous scandal about inflated and deflated footballs as a way to damage the organization and in the process tarnish the NFL’s poster boy.
“Deflategate” was never about air in footballs. It was about payback from partners for real and/or perceived crimes and transgressions the Patriots had gotten away with under Belichick, the Al Capone of the NFL.
NFL owners were willing to risk damaging their own product to get even with the Patriots. That’s real passion. That’s drama. And, to have that very team they despise being handed the NFL’s greatest prize? That’s a devious Hollywood twist.
Kraft himself acknowledged in an interview with the Boston Herald that his team is ground zero for NFL drama. “This team, there’s been a lot of stuff going on,” he said.
Of course, the Patriots are victims in all this. “Sometimes, the motives are legitimate, and sometimes, it’s envy and jealousy,” Kraft said.
Envy. Jealousy. These are the days of our lives.
Kraft said they are hoping to put “Deflategate” behind them. “That’s in the past, and we’re moving on.”
But the NFL is not.
Brady has gone home to await the next legal step in this NFL war on New England — the league’s appeal of a judge’s ruling that overturned his four-game suspension. A hearing on that appeal is scheduled for March 3.
The NFL’s public enemy No. 1 will at least have more time to heal from the beating he took last Sunday.
“I got hit pretty hard,” Brady told reporters after the loss to Denver. “When you play quarterback, you’re going to take hits, and that’s part of it.”
He’s may have more hits coming — and he won’t have a fifth Super Bowl title to ease the blows.
⦁ 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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