Blog Post 7: NFL

On January 18, 2015, the New England Patriots showed up ready for the AFC Championship Game in Foxborough, Massachusetts against the Indianapolis Colts. After the absolute beat down by the Patriots, the Colts claimed that they had information regarding a ball deflating scheme which was intended to aid the Patriots and that Tom Brady was at the head of the entire thing. Needless to say, the Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl in a thrilling ending with Malcolm Butler’s interception at the goal line to win. Since then the NFL has had a really tough time.

Roger Goodell

On May 11, Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner decided he was going to flex his nonexistent muscles and try to show Tom Brady and the Patriots who’s boss. He dealt the Patriots a loss of a few draft picks, and dealt Tom Brady a four game suspension for the 2015 season. This all came crashing down once the Wells Report was released and debunked and ripped apart by multiple world renowned scientists. This already didn’t look good for the NFL and it only got worse from there when Tom Brady appealed the suspension. The case ended up in Federal Court where a judge ruled that it was an unfair punishment (the fair, according to the NFL rule book is a fine “including but not limited to” $25,000) which resulted in Tom Brady loosing almost $1.8 million for the punishment decided by Roger Goodell.

Since these events, Tom Brady started the season on a 10-0 winning streak proving that he’s one of, if not the best quarterbacks of all time. This made the NFL look really bad as well by showing that Tom Brady didn’t need slightly deflated footballs to win a game in which the majority of the points scored were in the second half, when the underinflated balls were inflated. But on top of that, Goodell can’t help but make himself look worse and worse with all of the terrible calls made by the referees this season. Tom Brady and the Patriots have lost an NFL record 360 yards due to penalties. A lot of these penalties aren’t valid and it’s causing a lot of media coverage of these blatant issues people have with the referees calls.

The NFL has had their fair share of controversy surrounding it for the past few years. With issues like the Ray Rice domestic abuse issue, the Saints and their headhunting operation going on, and even with spygate, the NFL can’t seem to win. They’re constantly in the news for negative things that are going on. Roger Goodell seems to be a large part of the problem with the NFL as well. Over the past few years, any issues that have risen are usually exacerbated by Goodell, who is known for his erratic, unfair punishments. With all of the sports analysts constantly debating over what Goodell’s next horrific move is going to be, the NFL is treating on thin ice with a lot of its viewers. While the Super Bowl is one of the most watched sports events in the world, the NFL is losing its credibility fast with no prospect of turning it around any time soon.