Few things are more quintessentially American than standing up to tyrants. Those who persecute innocents, rule arbitrarily and capriciously, dismiss settled science as a hoax and lie with impunity deserve not only our silent scorn, but our overt disapproval. America touts a decorated record of defeating dictators, but unfortunately our nation is not immune to tyrants, and we now have one in our midst. This despot’s vast fortune and power must not deter us. This weekend, we must carry on the venerable American tradition of tormenting tyrants and register our displeasure with this clownish but fascistic overlord. It is unlikely we can drive him from power, but together we can make a statement.
We can cheer on the New England Patriots, and by aiding their victory we can humiliate America’s true menace: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Some may recoil from this pronouncement. No doubt influenced by Goodell’s “Pravda,” ESPN, many view Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the Patriots as America’s most prominent scourge. But as the Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins has meticulously documented, Roger Goodell is the true villain of Deflategate. Due to ESPN’s shoddy reporting and Goodell’s brazen lying, Americans have been duped into believing Tom Brady is history’s biggest cheat. Yet a closer look at recent history compels you to recognize American liberty faces a far greater threat from Roger Goodell than one team falsely portrayed as habitual cheaters.
I’m only half-joking.
For those who tuned out the Deflategate saga before informed consensus turned in favor of Brady and against Goodell, a quick recap: A vindictive Goodell and jealous sports media quickly branded Tom Brady a cheater after ESPN’s Chris Mortensen erroneously reported that the Patriots’ footballs in the 2015 AFC Championship game were “significantly” underinflated. The story captivated both sports and news networks, and after lengthy hearings and court battles, Brady eventually served a four game suspension. Assuming most non-Patriot fans stopped following this story around the time an ESPN host actually began crying on TV, the image of Brady as a lying cheater likely crystallized in the public’s view.
This commonplace view obscures the inconvenient fact that the NFL under Goodell acted with a dizzying amount of malice and incompetence. First, Mortensen’s report served as the catalyst for the media blitz on Brady’s reputation, yet the numbers he reported were false. Worse still, three of the four Colts’ footballs were also underinflated, yet this knowledge was not made public until the NFL-commissioned Wells’ Report concluded. The NFL had all this exculpatory information at the time, yet sat on it while one of their premier star’s reputation unnecessarily suffered.
Add incompetence to this malice, because the NFL and apparently everyone in the media were ignorant about what every car owner should know: air pressure drops in cold weather, irrespective of tampering. This should have immediately dispelled any claims of cheating, but even as countless scientists and lawyers excoriated the NFL for persecuting the league’s best quarterback despite scientific evidence exonerating Brady, Goodell pressed his case.What makes this worthy of the righteous indignation of every liberty-loving American is what Goodell did not deem worthy to vigorously investigate. Just last December, for instance, the New York Giants reported two underinflated Pittsburgh Steelers’ footballs; hardly a murmur from the League.
Yet that is nothing compared to Goodell’s treatment of domestic abuse. After Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punched his fiancee in a casino elevator and proceeded to drag her unconscious body away from the scene of the crime, Goodell punished Rice with a mere two game suspension. It wasn’t until after TMZ leaked the video that Goodell increased Rice’s punishment to an indefinite suspension, insisting he had not seen the tape. As Sports Illustrated shows, that claim was an absurd lie.
Add the fact that Goodell initially punished an innocent man more severely than a domestic abuser to Goodell’s other abuses and misadventures: His mishandling of Bountygate, his nonsensical punishment of the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys for spending too much on salaries in a year without a salary cap and, most egregiously, the League’s attempted cover up of the link between concussions and brain disease. Put simply, Goodell has proven to rule like an iron-fisted king at the helm of the NFL, arbitrarily punishing his perceived enemies and capriciously damaging the short and long-term interests of his subjects.
Goodell is largely unaccountable and thus appears immune to suffering consequences for his actions. But there is one punishment within reach, that all dictator-deploring people should hope comes to fruition: that Roger Goodell is forced to stand on the podium after Super Bowl LI; that he must smile for the cameras as his battered but unconquered nemesis Tom Brady lifts the Lombardi and Super Bowl MVP trophies; and that Brady, though far too polite to do this, grabs a microphone and completes Goodell’s humiliation by announcing to the world that Roger looks a little deflated.
Matt Winesett is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at m.winesett@cavalierdaily.com.
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