Deflate-Gate is the best thing to happen to the NFL all year
Even if Tom Brady works his 4-game suspension down to nothing and Judge Berman completely rips apart the Ted Wells Report, effectively making Roger Goodell look worse than Pete Carroll in the closing moments of Super Bowl 49, it’s still in the NFL’s best interest.
Reason for that is simply it’s subject: It’s a football.
Instead of talking about the Dallas Cowboys, “America’s Team,” signing defensive end Greg Hardy, who allegedly strangled his wife to a point where she wanted to die or Adrian Peterson quietly slipping in between the tackles back into the Vikings good graces after child abuse charges, we are talking about the PSI in a slab of leather.
Deflate-Gate is the most innocent distraction and the most imperfectly perfect PR move maybe in history.
Want to talk about the number 1 overall pick in this years draft, Jameis Winston, who was investigated for sexual assault and according to ex-FSU head coach Bobby Bowden was viewed by boosters and fans as “an embarrassment" to the university?
No? How about Buffalo Bills offensive line coach Aaron Kromer who was arrested in Florida on a misdemeanor battery charge after allegedly punching a boy in the face and threatening to kill his family?
Instead of that, we talk about a football.
“Will a team sign Ray Rice?” has only just recently started scrolling across the sports ticker.
Footballs, PSI and the Ideal Gas Law have been there all sumer. Two of those three things you probably didn’t even know about until this. And, that’s great thing if you are Roger Goodell and the NFL.
Is Tom Brady guilty of something? Yes. Of actually what and to what extreme is something that we may never get answered fully.
At the same time, is he also being sacrificed or railroaded by the league with a harsher punishment so that his team appeals and then this thing drags throughout the summer months leading national headlines, keeping the year round brand alive while only deflating the NFL shield rather than shattering it completely with issues like domestic violence, aka real problems?
It’s more probable than not.
So if you’re the NFL, sure, give me Don Yee vs. Ted Wells, his report vs. wellsreportcontext.com and Goodell vs. Brady while Judge Richard Berman shakes his head in the corner.
At the end of the day, all we are really talking about is nothing but air.
Photo Credit: Players Tribune
Follow Tyler on Twitter: @TylerSully
