Goodell: 'There Will Be No Changes' To Patriots' DeflateGate Penalties
BOSTON (CBS) -- Robert Kraft generated many headlines this week when he told the media that he wrote a letter to Roger Goodell requesting a return of the draft picks which were taken away as part of the NFL's "DeflateGate" punishment.
Two days later, commissioner Roger Goodell has shut down the story.
Despite Kraft's insistence that the league admitted to not being aware of basic scientific principles before ascribing guilt on the Patriots, Goodell said Kraft's letter raised no new points and thus has been dismissed.
"I did receive the letter from Robert a few weeks back. I also responded to him two weeks ago and told him that I had considered his views," Goodell said at the owners' meetings in Boca Raton, Fla. "I didn't think there was any new information in there that would cause us to alter the discipline and so there will be no changes to the discipline."
The Patriots, of course, were docked a 2016 first-round draft pick and a 2017 fourth-round draft pick after the NFL-sponsored Ted Wells investigation found Tom Brady to have been "generally aware" of an action of deflating footballs which was deemed "more probably than not" to have happened. Though many holes have been exposed in that investigative process, the NFL has only added to the charges against the player and the team instead of admitting any fault in the process.
Brady's fight continues in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. Recently, NFLPA director DeMaurice Smith speculated that if Goodell were to give up his disciplinary power, then all pending litigation would have to be settled. Goodell was asked specifically on Wednesday if settlement talks are ongoing with regard to Brady.
"I'm not aware of that," Goodell said.
Regarding the potential to lighten his disciplinary powers, Goodell said he would deal directly with the NFLPA on that front, rather than negotiate through the media.
"We began after we signed the collective-bargaining agreement in 2011 to discuss how we could modify the existing plan. And we're always open to that," Goodell said. "And I've said that before. If we can find a better discipline system, let's do it."
