Commissioner Roger Goodell’s glowing quote regarding Tom Brady on the day of his retirement avoided any of the past ugliness regarding Goodell’s decision to suspend Brady for four games on trumped-up (in our view) charges that Patriots employees acting at Brady’s behest removed excessive air from footballs prior to the 2014 AFC Championship.
Sure, it was seven years ago. But it was a huge story. A massive controversy, one of the biggest of the decade. And while the league may have ended up tripping over evidence of something very fishy when it comes to the activities of John Jastremski and Jim McNally, the league never proved that, on the day in question, foul play actually occurred.
They tried. They tried hard. Ultimately, however, they failed to harvest and preserve sufficient proof to show that cheating happened on a cold afternoon in January 2015.
And here’s the place where I turn this post into an ad for Playmakers. (You should be used to that by now.) The book contains some new information about the scandal, including an important P.S. that will help underscore the inadequacy of the evidence that the NFL collected and presented.
Playmakers is on sale now. For those of you who have been coming here for years, wouldn’t you like to have something for your bookcase or coffee table to remind you of all the productive hours you’ve wasted reading our stuff for free?
Now that you’re working from home, it’s even easier. And you can use the book as one of the things to lift up laptop so that the camera angle for your Zoom calls will be more flattering.
I think that’s everything. I feel like I’m forgetting something. Wait, now I remember; buy Playmakers.
