Professional Football Researchers Association Forum
PFRA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the history of professional football. Formed in 1979, PFRA members include many of the game's foremost historians and writers.
JohnH19 wrote:It is beyond comprehension that this has dragged on for six months. The NFL has become a real life soap opera. How much embarrassment to the "shield" can Goodell possibly survive?
Well, they've been hoping to have a 12-month news cycle.
Brady's partly to blame for this going on as long as it has. I think if he privately comes clean a week or two after the SB, there's no suspension and this disappears from most people's minds by spring time.
JohnH19 wrote:It is beyond comprehension that this has dragged on for six months. The NFL has become a real life soap opera. How much embarrassment to the "shield" can Goodell possibly survive?
He survived the Ray Rice fiasco, didn't he? Sure, a lot of people bitch about him, but how many have actually stopped watching NFL games because of him? Again, Goodell works for the owners, not the other way around. Anyone who thinks he's been making the moves he's made throughout this without a good amount of owner backing is kidding themselves.
JohnH19 wrote:It is beyond comprehension that this has dragged on for six months. The NFL has become a real life soap opera. How much embarrassment to the "shield" can Goodell possibly survive?
He survived the Ray Rice fiasco, didn't he? Sure, a lot of people bitch about him, but how many have actually stopped watching NFL games because of him? Again, Goodell works for the owners, not the other way around. Anyone who thinks he's been making the moves he's made throughout this without a good amount of owner backing is kidding themselves.
This situation is reminiscent of the Hornung/Karras suspension, in that a number of people simply assumed in that case that Rozelle wouldn't have the guts to do the right thing, i.e. suspending a key player from the defending champion, and thus dealing with the wrath of Lombardi. In this case, the fact that Goodell and Kraft were perceived as close friends made the cynics even more sure that this would be a bag job.
26554 wrote:Brady's partly to blame for this going on as long as it has. I think if he privately comes clean a week or two after the SB, there's no suspension and this disappears from most people's minds by spring time.
No doubt...if Brady did indeed have something to come clean about...but allowing the Wells report process to go on for as long as it did is the most egregious part of the scenario. The league would have been far better off to sweep the AFC Championship Game under the carpet in the first place and go to work on implementing an improved internal process to insure that balls are properly inflated. After all, the Pats won the second half of the game with regulation balls by more than they won the first half using the balls in question.
26554 wrote:Brady's partly to blame for this going on as long as it has. I think if he privately comes clean a week or two after the SB, there's no suspension and this disappears from most people's minds by spring time.
I think the essence of the criticism is that players who are innocent of wrongdoing, or even players who are guilty of wrongdoing but want to assert their innocence, have a reasonable expectation that matters will be handled expeditiously and with some sense of fairness. Blaming Brady for the delay is like blaming cancer patients for the delays for surgery - if they'd just go away and die, then other people wouldn't have so long to wait for their surgeries.
"It was a different game when I played.
When a player made a good play, he didn't jump up and down.
Those kinds of plays were expected."
~ Arnie Weinmeister
"It was a different game when I played.
When a player made a good play, he didn't jump up and down.
Those kinds of plays were expected."
~ Arnie Weinmeister
"It was a different game when I played.
When a player made a good play, he didn't jump up and down.
Those kinds of plays were expected."
~ Arnie Weinmeister
"It was a different game when I played.
When a player made a good play, he didn't jump up and down.
Those kinds of plays were expected."
~ Arnie Weinmeister
