Keller @ Large: Bet On Brady In Appeal Hearing
BOSTON (CBS) -- Forget the Super Bowl.
If the NFL really wanted to rack up some ratings, they'd televise today's hearing on the crime of the millennium, Tom Brady's alleged rule-breaking involving the inflation of the footballs.
No need to thank me for not calling it "Deflategate," it's my pleasure not to.
Hurley: What To Expect At The Hearing
I would tune in, wouldn't you? You'll have NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the crack team that's helped him make hash of a string of disciplinary decisions, opposite Brady, his mega-lawyer, and the players' union.
Also in attendance - Ted Wells, a distinguished criminal defense attorney who's made a fortune trying to get big corporations and sleazy politicians off the hook. The NFL paid him $5 million for a report that read like a piece of kook mail we get in the newsroom alleging a massive government-wide conspiracy against the writer.
Even though Goodell will serve as judge and jury, it's been a bumpy run-up to Super Tuesday for the NFL. Pesky independent experts keep coming forward to note that the league botched its forensics. Their case is built on text messages that don't prove a thing.
I could be wrong, but I'm betting on a rout in today's big showdown, with Brady's team once again running up the score.
Let's be honest – I overinflated the football earlier when I called this charade "the crime of the millennium."
It's a joke, a case study in bureaucratic incompetence, and it will soon start costing this highly-successful business money and stature, if it hasn't already.
And that is an outcome I suspect even Roger Goodell has the brains to avoid.
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