Roger Goodell is so screwed. I know I've said this before, but I mean he is really screwed.
Yes, he has a lot of money and could go away and hide at his gated estate on the coast of Maine. But this guy doesn’t want that. He is pure ego . . . and, boy, is he dumb. Ego and stupidity are a recipe for disaster. Toss arrogance in there, as well. Mix it all up and . . . BOOM!
On March 3, Patriots fans will look for Tom Brady to throw egg on Roger Goodell’s face again when the NFL appeals Judge Berman’s Deflategate decision. One legal source told me the league has a 35 percent chance of winning its appeal. Not great odds.
As Tom E. Curran points out, Paul Clement -- in 2008 considered to be the LeBron James of lawyers -- will argue for the NFL. (If the NFL is smart, it'll keep its in-house legal dodo bird, Jeff Pash, as far away from these proceedings as possible.) The reason the league is bringing in a hired gun like Clement? It's a desperate situation . . . for both the NFL and Goodell.
The New York Second Court's Big Three (my nickname for judges of the appeals court) are going to take up the case. An announcement could take up three months. If the NFL gets beat again, the foundation of power that the owners have over the players will begin to crumble. And Roger Goodell will be known as the commissioner that allowed the initial crack.
In Curran’s article, Michael LeRoy of the University Of Illinois College Of Law predicts the NFL will fight this all the way to the Supreme Court because another decision in Brady's favor sets precedence and delivers a major blow to ownership’s grip on the players. Their absolute power will have been weakened. Legally.
All because of Roger.
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How does Goodell still have a job? Seriously? If I was an owner I would think, “I'm paying this guy $35 million and all he's done is screw things up.” Ray Rice. Adrian Peterson. Bountygate, where his player penalties were overturned in arbitration. Deflategate. Hey, go all the way back to Spygate, when he destroyed tapes to please the Patriot ownership that put him in the commissioner's chair to begin with. And it's that act -- the destruction of the tapes -- that reportedly angered the other owners and led Goodell, in what we'd describe as a makeup call with a referee or an umpire, to drop the hammer on the Patriots and Brady over the legal equivalent of jaywalking.
And, at least with Brady (the Patriots, having agreed to the NFL bylaws, have no recourse to their penalties), that was the proverbial step too far.
If Goodell and his bag man Pash had just followed the rules -- if they'd followed the guidelines of the CBA and suited Brady's punishment to fit his "crime" -- they'd have been fine. As unfair as it may have been, Goodell would have been well within his power, as defined by the CBA, to make that sort of ruling. Instead, he handed Brady the same penalty that's given to domestic abusers. For allegedly deflating footballs. When Brady appealed to Goodell, the commish doubled down on his idiocy, equating Brady's offense to PED abuse. His over-the-top ruling, and over-the-top denial of Brady's appeal (remember, Goodell reduces virtually every suspension on appeal) opened the door for Berman to overturn the suspension. That was what Berman was ruling about: Whether Goodell overstepped his boundaries and abused his powers. Berman rather emphatically said he did. And now those powers -- which, as we said, the NFL may be willing to go the Supreme Court to preserve -- are in serious legal jeopardy.
Think about that. The NFL and Brady could end up in the Supreme Court because Goodell told his goons to smash the Spygate tapes. It's that crazy.
Next Thursday will mean something for Patriots fans. But it will mean everything for the future, and legacy, of Roger Goodell.