PSI DGAF

Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. Did the groundhog really predict three more months of Deflategate? That seems cruel, even by rodent standards.

 

Will he or won’t he? That seems to be the question when it comes to Robert Kraft and a possible lawsuit against the NFL. Let's assume for a moment that any man whose worth is measured in billions isn't stupid. He'll have to stack some cheddar for legal fees up front but unless his legal team comes back with a "this is how we win" brief, it won't happen. It seems fair to assume Kraft will exact his revenge on Roger Goodell; we may not know the "how" but this is so going to happening. People don't grow up to be Robert Kraft by taking this kind of shit laying down. Its nut-cutting time and Robert Kraft ain't no sheep.

Still, as much fun as it would be, Kraft v. NFL seems unlikely at best. (Not that he's going quietly into that good night.) I can't see Kraft throwing good money after bad, just to prove a point. If he doesn't think he's got a good chance to win in court, he'll cut the $1,000,000 check and move on. As for the draft picks, Belichick will probably miss the 4th rounder in 2017 more than the 1st round pick in 2016. Or he'll make some moves with the 11 picks he'll still have in 2016 and wind up back in the 1st round. And yes, he'll still pick a safety nobody had on their boards in the 2nd round.

Accepting that revenge is a dish best served cold, it seems likely Kraft will simply wait for Goodell to make his next big mistake. It may be likely that Kraft won't need to actually do anything except sit back and enjoy the show. In the past, Kraft has provided whatever support Goodell needed to keep his job, whether that was through public statements or lobbying other owners on Goodell's behalf. Without Kraft's backing in the future, how much longer does Goodell keep his job? I'm going to set the over/under at 2016. Too many owners are way too happy seeing Kraft and New England getting bitch-slapped; I can't see anything happening to Goodell in 2015 but I have confidence in his almost uncanny ability to get things wrong. I'd be shocked if he was still the NFL's commissioner in 2017.

The early consensus of the gridiron cognoscenti is that Tom Brady actually has a good chance to not only reduce his suspension but to have it vacated entirely. Given the Wells Report is a steaming pile of predetermined conclusions built on uninformed assumptions based on selectively interpreted data that ignores any exculpatory evidence, yeah, I think he's got a chance.

As low as my opinion is of Goodell and the league office, they had to see this coming, didn't they? I get that they understood public opinion and the other 31 owners would be on their side in handing down this unprecedented punishment to the Patriots. Everybody west of the Connecticut River hates the Patriots and has the deeply held belief they're the cheatingest cheaters who ever cheated.

Were they really that comfortable the Wells Report would stand up to legal scrutiny?

Did they really think Robert Kraft and Tom Brady wouldn't fight back?

Destroying the Wells Report has become something of an off-season cottage industry for pigskin pundits and bobbleheads and those guys aren't lawyers with the legal chops of one Jeffrey Kessler, Esq., the lawyer hired by Brady to lead his appeal. I've yet to come across an opinion supporting the Wells Report as complete, well-researched or unbiased. Was this really the document Goodell and the League wanted to use as the basis for the unprecedented punishment given to the New England Patriots? Or, perhaps more importantly now, defend in a court of law?

Didn't anyone on Goodell's staff give the Wells Report a critical reading?

A cursory reading?

What level of fail will it be if Kraft does sue and has even parts of the NFL's judgment overturned? What if – as seems to be the current assumption – Brady's suspension is overturned and in the process, the Wells Report is compared unfavorably to used toilet paper? What will happen to Roger Goodell's credibility under those circumstances?

How will those other 31 owners (who I imagine have had a Deflategate boner since Monday and they really should contact a physician about it) feel about Goodell if there's a perception that he had the Patriots in his grasp and let them get away?

Perhaps I should bet the under on Goodell's future as NFL commissioner.