The Sports Xchange

If anybody really believes Tom Brady’s four-game suspension is the final word in this “DeflateGate” matter, well, there is a fancy, old bridge not far from the NFL’s New York offices that they might be interested in buying.

That is, shall we say, “more probable than not.”

Lawyers are limbering up in the bullpen even as we speak.

Look, it is likely there were some shenanigans going on with the footballs used in the New England Patriots’ AFC Championship Game victory over the Indianapolis Colts and Brady likely was involved. But no one is coming out of this mess looking good, and while Brady’s legacy takes a hit regardless of the matter’s final disposition, it’s hard to believe Commissioner Roger Goodell could have handled this issue any more ineptly, either.

Remember that Goodell is the one who, in the New Orleans Saints bounty case, issued his punishment with the admonition, paraphrasing here, that ignorance at the top of the organization was no excuse. So if Goodell was not aware, in the days leading to the AFC title game, that the Colts gave the league a heads-up about concerns over the football, well, ignorance is no excuse. This mess falls at his feet.

That is just one of three significant issues here, and both sides come out looking really, really bad.

1. With the Colts’ warning in mind, it remains incomprehensible that the league would not have taken extra precautions in handling the balls before the game. Instead, we have a championship game referee, Walt Anderson, not only allowing the footballs out of his sight and control in the minutes before the game, but not even being certain which air pressure gauge he measured them with.

You are left to wonder if someone at 345 Park Avenue was more interested in trying to catch the Patriots in the act than in assuring a conference championship game was played with no funny stuff.

Remember, the NFL is a league that worries about the height of players’ socks and whether they have any skin showing between their uniform jersey and pants. But the actual game footballs? And remember, also, the league had known for many years how fussy some quarterbacks – including Brady – are about the condition of the balls.

In fact, nearly a decade ago, the league changed procedures, at the behest largely of Brady and Peyton Manning, to allow quarterbacks more leeway in preparing game balls. Ever hear the phrase, “slippery slope”?

And has anybody asked Goodell, in light of the Colts’ warnings about the balls, why the league did not take precautions to prevent mishandling?

2. Unfortunately for Brady, no matter how cavalierly the league handled the balls before the game, he cannot come out of his looking good, either.

The NFL is not a democracy. When he refused to turn over his electronic records in the investigation, he lost a claim of innocence.

We can argue all we want about whether the league had a right to those materials – and it would certainly seem to be a failing of the NFL Players Association to negotiate a clause in the CBA so players do not have to incriminate themselves. But even if the union had the foresight to negotiate such a clause, we are just talking legalistics here.

Brady looks bad, and no amount of twisting “more probable than not” is going to change that. In fact, his refusal to turn over requested information is, in some ways, an offense more likely than the actual deflation issue to generate a punishment that will hold up under outside legal scrutiny.

3. Which brings us to this … This matter, more probable than not, will wind up in front of an arbitrator or a judge, and given the NFL’s track record, it would hardly be stunning if Brady were the starting quarterback for the Patriots on opening night against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Bottom line, once more, is that Goodell makes us long for the good, old deliberative ways of his predecessor, Paul Tagliabue. Tagliabue did not have the greatest public persona but we are left to wonder how much dirty laundry he and the late Gene Upshaw, former players union boss, cleaned up between themselves rather than subjecting the league to a one-man lynch mob.

–Ira Miller is an award-winning sportswriter who has covered the National Football League for more than four decades and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee. He is a national columnist for The Sports Xchange.