Roger Goodell’s power has been called into question in the last few days since Tom Brady’s suspension was upheld in a court ruling.
Everyone has been talking about Deflategate which has been a bigger nightmare for the NFL than Watergate was for Nixon. Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it’s been an equal headache and bigger annoyance because people in general just want the blasted thing to be over with already.
Now Drew Brees just opened his big fat mouth and gave his two cents.
“The bigger issue is just the commissioner’s unilateral ability to make these decisions, the league’s ability to basically conduct investigations behind closed doors, leave everyone else in the dark and just make decisions supposedly based upon their findings and facts, which unfortunately when you dig a little deeper … it’s found there was a lot of inconsistencies,” Brees told ThePostGame on Tuesday. (Via msn.com)
Sure that makes sense. He has dictatorial power and he’s hiding things potentially.
Brees continued on calling him the, “judge, jury, and executioner,” alongside “Maybe there was an agenda at play where information or testimony or certain elements of the case were being pushed a direction that wasn’t necessarily the truthful thing. Just kind of the direction, that the conclusion at the end that the league was trying to get to, to make a basis for their punishment.”
Oh dear. That’s a very serious accusation by the quarterback of the 2009 Saints team that was found to be guilty of bounties in the Bountygate scandal in 2012. Remember the scandal that involved defensive players putting thousands of dollars of reward money if players could “take out” certain players like quarterback Brett Favre.
Here’s where the hypocrisy of our lovely Mr. Brees comes in and I’ll portray it in a fake mock interview with Mr. Brees.
Me: Drew, you’re the quarterback for the Saints aren’t you?
Brees: Yes I am.
Me: You stated that you had no involvement or knowledge of the Bountygate program on March 9, 2012 to Yahoo sportswriter Doug Farrar who now works for Sports Illustrated, correct?
Brees: Yes I did.
Me: Do you think the quarterback should be the leader of the football team right?
Brees: Yes I do.
Me: You think you’re a good leader?
Brees: Yes I do.
Me: And good leaders…well they know what’s going on right?
Brees: Sure I guess.
Me: Well then here’s the problem Drew and give me a second to phrase this so you get the question just right. If you’re the quarterback and a good leader of the Saints, then how the heck were you not at least knowledgeable about the Bountygate Scandal? Because good leaders know what’s going on, right?
Either you knew what was going on and you let your own peer Brett Favre be targeted and you probably should’ve been suspended for that because your intentional failure to act can be constituted as an accessory to the assault or you just suck at your job of being a leader. Which is it?
Because for you to criticize the commissioner at his job while you claim to not know about the bounties, which it should’ve been part of your job as an elected leader of the team, that is quite an arrogant double standard. Don’t you think?
Brees: (If he’s smart, he shuts up).
People, don’t buy Drew Brees as an unbiased clean source just because he’s a smoother talker with a prettier smile than Roger Goodell. He says that Goodell is hiding things well it’s not a leap to believe Brees is hiding plenty of things too.
Goodell’s power may be out of hand and I’ve often criticized the man to the end of time, but he was given that power by the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) and he uses it how he sees fit. He deserves criticism but not from Drew Brees. Brees is lucky he wasn’t suspended and he’s lucky he’s still a Super Bowl MVP because Goodell could’ve vacated the Super Bowl win that the Saints had after defeating the Vikings by TARGETING BRETT FAVRE!
Sure, that probably shouldn’t happen anyway, but Goodell could do it and Brees needs to shut up and answer to his own actions because as far as this writer is concerned, he’s just as guilty as the rest of the guys who were suspended in Bountygate.