NFL Commissioner Speaks Publicly For First Time Since Deflategate Overturning
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NEW YORK (CBSMiami) – NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appeared on ESPN's Mike and Mike show Tuesday morning where he spoke publicly for the first time since the overturning of the Deflategate scandal.
Roger Goodell made it clear that he wanted to put the focus back on the game of football and move forward, but show hosts Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg had a few questions about the Deflategate scandal before letting him move on.
Greenberg asked why is the league appealing the ruling judge Berman's reversal of Tom Brady's four game suspension instead of just letting it go and moving forward.
Goodell said he believes the league went about handling the situation the right away and will see it to the end of the appeal process.
The NFL commissioner was also asked about the severity of the punishment the league issued Brady. Goodell responded by saying it's his job to enforce all the rules for the integrity of the game.
"The new PED policy, guys who are suspended for the first four games of the season using street drugs, three positive tests before there's some discipline. And Tom was given four games for deflate gate?" asked Golic.
"The appeal of our game is that we are all playing by the same rules and when someone seeks to gain an advantage outside of those rules, that's something that has to be addressed," Goodell responded.
We also learned something new about the two Patriots employees who took the fall for the mishandling of the footballs during the AFC Championship game.
When Goodell was asked if the league was responsible for the suspension of John Jastremski or Jim McNally, the commissioner said absolutely not. "That was a decision by the Patriots."
Goodell did say that in the future, the role he would play in the disciplinary action of teams and players would likely be changing.
"It's become extremely time consuming and I think I have to be focused on other issues and that's what I've discussed with many of the owners over the last couple of years," Goodell said. "We believe that a discipline officer or some sort type of a panel that could make an initial decision and then a designated mind on some type of appeal would be a better system."
There was some speculation that Roger Goodell cracked down on the Patriots over Deflategate partially because he faced criticism over going too easy on the Patriots in the Spygate scandal.
Goodell denied that and said he was "not aware of any connection between the Spygate procedures and the procedures of Deflategate."