Hurley: Amazing For Roger Goodell To Keep Saying 'Integrity' After Being Outed As A Liar
BOSTON (CBS) -- Though some people may have missed Roger Goodell's late afternoon comments on Wednesday, CBSBostonSports.com's Michael Hurley most certainly did not.
As a result, Toucher & Rich invited him on the program the following morning after Hurley "went ballistic" on Twitter during Goodell's meeting with the media.
The first topic of conversation was this quote from Goodell:
"I have a lot of respect and admiration for Tom. I know him personally. As I said, I admire him tremendously, he is a future Hall of Fame player. But our rules apply to everybody. They apply to every single player. And every single player expects those rules to apply to everybody. Every coach does, every fan does, every partner, every team does. Our rules and the integrity of the game aren't different because somebody is popular or somebody is a Super Bowl champ or not. They are to be applied evenly. Our teams expect that and that's our job, that's our responsibility. It's my job. So no, I don't regret that and we will continue to uphold the integrity of the game and we will do that as vehemently as we can.
The use of the word "integrity" continues to drive deep into Hurley's soul.
"I don't know how he keeps saying this when the whole ordeal exposed him and the people who work for him as having lied and cheated throughout the entire time," Hurley said. "Goodell lied when he wrote his ruling to uphold his own suspension. He lied and said Tom Brady said this at the appeal hearing, because he didn't think we'd ever see the testimony. Then the judge unsealed it, we saw it, Goodell lied. It's the same thing he did with Ray Rice.
"The head of officiating, Dean Blandino, lied about when he knew. The false leak to Chris Mortensen -- someone from the NFL lied. Troy Vincent either lied or is just completely stupid, so it's one or the other, I don't know which one's worse. And [senior VP of football operations] Dave Gardi lied when he told the Patriots some false PSI numbers.
"So the rules apply to everyone ... unless you work for me, or you're me. We make up our own rules and we adjust when we break them. I don't know how he keeps saying this integrity crap. I don't know how many people can actually believe him."
As for the rest of the press conference?
"Lies, more lies. Just always lies. Nothing but lies," Hurley said. "What really drove me over the edge was the answer to Rachel Nichols' question about Greg Hardy's comments, and he just said, 'Well I haven't heard them yet.' You're the commissioner of the NFL. This story has been covered by every single major media outlet in the country, and I understand you're in meetings with the owners, but you don't have some underling saying 'Well, Roger, here's the news of the day in the league'? You're lying, and then immediately you start talking about, 'Oh, well, most of our players do great things in the community, they do a lot of work with charity.' Just answer the question or don't. He can't do it."
The question remains -- why is Goodell hesitant to say a bad word about Greg Hardy, a man who was convicted of assaulting a woman last July.
"Is it that hard to condemn a guy that does bad things and says dumb things?" Hurley asked. "Couldn't you say, 'Well, no, I don't approve of that and I will talk to him'? Is that the hardest thing to say. Instead he has to lie and say he hasn't heard the comment. It's his natural inclination to lie."
Goodell also tried to evade a question about what the NFL hopes to gain by gathering information on PSI this season, and if the league will make those results public.
"He talked, like he does, in detail about nothing, just spewing rhetoric and saying absolutely nothing while moving his mouth, and saying, rules are important, we're a game of rules, rules are important, integrity of the game, blah blah blah," Hurley said. "And he tried to walk off the stage before answering the second part. And the reporter followed up and asked Roger if they're going to publish the results, and he came back and he had his little water bottle and he actually said, 'I don't know.'
"You should have a plan. The plan right now is that if it does come out that the balls deflate naturally on their own, then no, they won't be published. If they don't, and all the balls in December and January stay at the same level where they were inflated, then hell yeah we're going to publish them.
"I expect the leader of a multi-billion dollar industry to lie. That's sort of par for the course. It's part of the job. But he is so bad at lying, and he is so unnecessarily lying. This isn't something you have to lie about. You can just actually be out for the truth and what actually happens with these footballs, and then say we actually do want to learn what happens with footballs and then we'll learn more. But instead it's all about covering himself, making his league look good, trying to justify the actions of the past nine months and justifying the fight that he still continues in court to this day. It's so egomaniacal, and it's so disingenuous."
Listen to the full interview, with cameos from Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys and Bruins organist Ron Poster, below:
