Greg Bedard has a story out Thursday that talks about how NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s power has never been greater now that Tom Brady has accepted (or at least acquiesced to) his four-game suspension. It’s a direct response to columns — some written right here at this very media company — that suggest Goodell has been irrevocably weakened by this mess.
Bedard, who seems to actively loathe Goodell, makes a few good points: That the Deflategate court rulings only strengthened Goodell’s power, and thus the power of ownership; that he’s done a good job delegating his way out of key decisions; that he has a chance to affect real change when it comes to head injuries now that he’s more or less been forced to do so, etc.
But the one item in Bedard’s column that really caught my eye was this, because it’s downright catty: No one in the league likes the Patriots and owner Robert Kraft anymore.
Even if Patriots owner Robert Kraft wanted to seek retribution and lead an ouster of Goodell, which all of New England would love to see (it’s about the only thing Kraft can do to reclaim his rightful place among Patriots fans), it’s not going to happen. NFL owners agreed to the rules and also that the threshold was a “preponderance of the evidence.” That the Patriots hit back so aggressively—both off the record and, later, on it—only bonded the other 31 teams against the Patriots’ position even more. It’s O.K. to appeal a league decision, but to engage in a lengthy all-out assault against the league and its personnel is just not how it’s done in the executive lodge. And when the Patriots basically trashed league counsel/executive vice president of labor Jeff Pash repeatedly, the Krafts were on their own. Pash generated a lot of goodwill around league circles with his long service, spearheading the labor strategy that yielded the new CBA. His public flogging did not go over well.
At this point, Goodell would win an ownership vote at worst 30–2, if not 31–0 with one abstention.
So Kraft can probably forget about his admitted goal of hosting the Super Bowl in Foxborough (this was probably obvious before Bedard’s column). Goodell, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
