Sen. Jeanne Shaheen Calls For NFL To Release PSI Numbers: 'Public Has Right To Know'
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Politicians probably shouldn't concern themselves with air in footballs. But, Patriots fans shouldn't have an issue with U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) defending the team and quarterback Tom Brady. She tweeted Wednesday afternoon that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should release the PSI measurements the league recorded throughout the 2015 season, but never unveiled publicly.
.@nflcommish should release results of checked balls. Public has right to know. No credible evidence against #TB12 https://t.co/T3hK90lncF
— Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (@SenatorShaheen) April 27, 2016
Sen. Shaheen linked to a story in the Washington Post by Sally Jenkins, who has been fairly critical of the NFL during much of the DeflateGate storyline.
It's just a tweet, so Sen. Shaheen likely hasn't spent hours, days, weeks, months, years poring over the Wells Report and DeflateGate-related court documents like some of us here have done. But I always had a problem with the late senator Arlen Specter's call for congressional investigations into the Patriots in Spygate, so in the interest of consistency I have to hope she doesn't actually bring this issue to a congressional setting.
SEE ALSO: Roger Goodell: No PSI Violations Found In 'Spot Checks' This Season
It's fairly obvious what happened here, in my opinion: the PSI measurements were consistent with previous ones and did not fit the NFL's narrative or work against the Patriots, so they withheld the numbers. For that reason, we may never see them. It's best to let politicians worry about more serious issues and just accept that the Patriots got railroaded throughout the process of DeflateGate - several NFL owners have - whether you think they're guilty or innocent.
Sen. Shaheen is right about one thing, though: the public has a right to see those numbers. But, as we've learned in the past two years, in a lot of cases the NFL acts as if it is sort of above personal rights. I'm not expecting them to change now.
If Shaheen can get Goodell to release the numbers, great. But, like the Patriots getting their draft picks back, there's virtually zero chance of it happening. Personally, I just want this whole debacle to be over. We're going on a year-and-a-half and Goodell isn't giving in to anything. Certainly not one senator who sent one tweet.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.