Any effort by owners to pressure, influence, or lobby Commissioner Roger Goodell on the Tom Brady appeal undermines Goodell’s independence. Which in turn strengthens Brady’s case in court.
The looming lawsuit (absent a zero-game suspension for Brady) will entail an argument that Goodell wasn’t truly impartial. What better way to prove his “evident partiality” (lawyers) than to demonstrate the true contours of the mine field through which Goodell has been tiptoeing?
And what better way to do that than to march all 32 owners into court for sworn testimony regarding their communications with Goodell and the league office regarding the Brady suspension and appeal?
Before billionaires who routinely resisting submitting to any authority other than their own would submit to the authority of a judge, they’ll fight that requirement. Aggressively.
They’ll also aggressively fight any efforts to get their phone records, emails, and texts messages (irony), which will demonstrate the extent to which they communicated with Goodell or other key league employees about the Brady case.
The fact that Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti issued a strong statement on Sunday insisting that he has not “pressured” Goodell suggests that Bisciotti realizes how this could unfold for him and his partners. The fact that Bisciotti’s statement didn’t flatly deny any and all communications with Goodell or efforts to influence him without exerting pressure suggests that delving thoroughly into the efforts of all owners to make their views known to Goodell, with or without “pressure,” will prove that Goodell’s decision was based at least in part on keeping his primary constituents happy.
The possibility that owners may have to testify also could result in a new wave of pressure, influence, lobbying, etc. on Goodell. The new message won’t be, “Throw the book at Brady.” It may instead be, “Make this all go away. Now.”
