Court reinstates Brady’s suspension
Goodell reigns supreme as even a superstar falls prey to a system rigged against players
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady must serve a four-game “Deflategate” suspension imposed by the NFL, a federal appeals court rules, siding with the league in a battle with the players union.
New England Patriots* Bill Belichick and Tom Brady* We’re almost there forever. The NFL’s living dynasty best known for two things: Super Bowl rings and cheating. The game’s most brilliant modern coach and most untouchable alltime quarterback dragged back into the ditch with all the other liars and losers who once fell before their silver-encased feet.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruling a measly judge Monday wasn’t just the annoying return of the overinflated Deflategate controversy. It was a little more important than every Pats hater in America receiving a get-out-of-jail-free card each time that some blueblood New England disciple starts bragging about BRADY!!! again at the bar.
It was big, bad King Roger
overpowering little Robert Kraft, part two. It was pro football reminding the players who feed the beast that life is short and prone to injustice — even for a four-time Super Bowl champion — when you’re living at the bottom of the food chain. And it was the NFL calmly reassuring us all that right is always more important than might, even if no one knows what they’re actually talking about anymore when it comes to PSI and the league has a thousand other larger problems that a couple tiny asterisks won’t solve.
Weaker in Week 3
It’s also Brock Osweiler’s Texans facing slightly better betting odds in Week 3 at Jimmy Garoppolo’s new place. Speaking of stars ... Those embarrassing historical symbols should stick around this time. And barring another last-minute reprieve for Boston’s once-perfect golden boy or the Supreme Court taking the side of football’s Evil Empire, we’ll always look back at the glory of the Belichick-Brady era with Spygate, Deflategate and a whole lot of legitimate uncertainty attached to their Mount Rushmore names. Did Brady cheat? Did a 38-year-old with a bunch of roman numerals wrapped around his fingers intentionally tarnish the sport and his personal legacy just to get a slightly better grip on the ball?
I’ll say what I said 14 months ago, when the stink first started to emanate from the 2014 AFC championship game. We’ll never know. But what we do know — and what drove commissioner Roger Goodell and his cronies so hard — was that there was a team employee proudly called the Deflator and a mountain of highly suspicious evidence.
Then there was this minor revelation: Tom Perfection intentionally destroying his cellphone while under investigation, despite almost 10,000 messages being thrown in the trash at the same time.
Only Lance Armstrong would be that dumb.
That stupid, useless phone was back at the center of the NFL’s win-at-allcosts world Monday. The league decided that Brady purposefully put himself in between freedom, justice and the shield. The 2nd Circuit backed pro football, rewarding the Patriots’ with-us-or-against-us superego by bringing Brady’s original four-game suspension back to life and reminding the country that Goodell is the greatest sports dictator of all time.
The hilarious irony of it all: Brady only has his brothers in arms to blame.
The NFL Players Association is the weakest of the sports unions. Despite playing a beloved game that rules the world for six months of the year — OK, let’s be honest, 12 — the dudes who get their brains beat in have the collective bargaining power of an elementary school pizza party. Which is why the owners once again stole the crown during the 2011 lockout and how mean, greedy Goodell sucked up all his world-changing power in the first place.
Players must push back
Once the Pats started (theoretically) altering the atmospheric reality of the game that much of America devotes its free time to, anything that Goodell wanted to do in the name of retaliation was fair game.
Don’t want some insanely overpaid emperor welding an asterisk next to your future bronze bust in the football heaven that is Canton, Ohio?
Then don’t back down from the old, super-rich guys when the state of the league is at stake. And don’t whine when the man you willingly turned into a god instructs you to kneel as he takes four precious games away.
Belichick and Brady will always have their precious trophies. They’ll get their asterisks in eternity, too.
It’s the NFL: You can win and cheat at the same time.