NEW YORK – Remember the Angry Ted Wells conference call? Seems like it happened in the Paleozoic Era. It was actually May.
So many great lines dropped with so much conviction and indignation that day.
Like this one from Wells: “Let's put it like this: I totally reject any suggestion that I was not independent or that the report in some way was slanted to reach a particular result. So I reject all of it.”
Or this one: “The Patriots were all over me from Day 1 about why the NFL did not warn them of the complaint in alleging that there was a sting operation. That came from the Patriots to me and I responded to it. I investigated that issue. The Patriots asked me to investigate that issue and I did not find that there was a sting.”
And, of course, this one: “The only role Jeff Pash had was as what I'll call a facilitator in terms of process issues. If I needed to get access to somebody, I would call Pash. There's things of that nature. Jeff Pash did not participate in any of the interviews. He did not participate in the evaluation of any of the evidence or our deliberations within our team.”
But one particular finger wag from Wells came back to me on Monday after Judge Richard Berman announced he’d have to render a decision on this clusterflock because the two sides couldn’t settle.
“The NFL, based on my view of the world, certainly wasn't hoping that I would come back with a report that would find that something had been wrong with the Patriots or Tom Brady,” Wells said in May. “They wanted me to get down to the bottom of the facts. All of this discussion that people in league office wanted to put some type of hit on the most iconic player of the league, the real face of the league, doesn't make any sense. It's really a ridiculous allegation. What drove the decision in this report, was one thing. It was the evidence. And I could not ethically ignore the import and relevancy of those text messages and the other evidence.”
New England Patriots
Sorry, Ted. At every checkpoint along the way, this farce continued precisely because it’s what the NFL wanted. Someone benefited at every single turn since Jan. 18.
First, it was the Patriots’ opponents – the Colts and Ravens - and the league’s operations guys who wanted the arrogant and always-up-to-something Patriots caught red-handed.
Second, it was the guys who ginned up the controversy – league officials like Mike Kensil and Dave Gardi obviously dropping dimes – wanting their effort rewarded with a pelt from Foxboro.
The next party to benefit because the NFL decided to make it happen? You, Ted. The NFL had find the right investigator from the right firm to find and confirm flimsy evidence which backed up the initial suspicions. This guy had to find a smoking gun. Or manufacture one. The guy had to be slick and convincing. Even if the evidence was highly questionable, he had to tie it all together so it looked a lot worse than it really was. Damning. And if he had to leave some stuff out, soft peddle some things and hard sell others, so be it. That was you, Ted. And you gave the NFL what it paid for, to borrow a phrase from De Smith.
With the Wells Report in hand, the NFL’s motivation shifted a little. It went big picture. It could render a reasonable penalty for an inconclusive investigation and a failure to cooperate. But that wouldn’t make Roger Goodell ooze competency and show he wasn’t Robert Kraft’s puppet. It was time for Goodell to put all players on notice. If Goodell would suspend a player with a resume and backstory like Brady’s for imagined ball deflation and not turning over his personal cell phone, well, no player could say in the future that his punishment was excessive.
Now, the NFL had to run a sham appeal. A legit one would have taken into account the electronic data demanded and provided by Brady. It would have considered that the Wells Report’s narrow “more probable than not” finding of general awareness was too flimsy to leave the four games intact. But a legit appeal would mean Goodell was selling out his suits and attorneys and admitting the ballyhooed Wells Report wasn’t really that strong. Too late for that. So Goodell smeared Brady with his appeal ruling, mischaracterizing conduct and misrepresenting testimony.
That was the point of no return. Because at that point, the NFL’s motivation shifted even further. No longer was it about beating Brady and a show of strength. With the inevitable appeal, the NFL was in line to validate Goodell’s power and Article 46 in court so that – for the foreseeable future – no player would even bother swimming up the waterfall of fighting Park Avenue.
Which is why, for the past three weeks, Judge Berman made no progress. Even with Berman’s derision for the way the NFL’s conducted its investigation. Even with his disgust that the league trampled a worker’s appellate rights. Even with the mocking Berman gave Goodell and attorney Daniel Nash in open court, the NFL was able to swallow hard and take it.
Because this is what it wanted. It’s like broccoli and asparagus for the league.
This – all of it – has benefited the collective NFL. The Patriots are diminished on the field and in the draft – good for any team competing in 2015 to have the top dog neutered. The franchise got its comeuppance – good for the league suits who’ve had it with the Patriots arrogance. The Krafts are pissed off and squealing – good for all the owners who’ve been told by Robert Kraft to do what Roger says. The players see the willingness of the commissioner to go ballistic over ball pressure and that the league can get away with a bag job investigation – good for the league’s disciplinary arm. And the commissioner’s power to hear appeals will be bulletproof.
The NFL is now through the hard part. The unseemly image of dragging Brady behind their car for seven months is over. Now they can just sit back and let Berman rule – which is what they wanted when they brought it to his court in the first place – and if they lose, they just take it up for an appeal of their own. It’s just business.
Goodell will inevitably speak at some point of how painful this has been for him. The paternal: “This hurts me more than it hurts you, son.”
We’ll probably hear from him before the opener in an awkward interview where he goes heavy on the use of “integrity” and “fair.” All said with a straight face.