Keidel: As Evidenced By The Circus Up In Foxboro, Success Corrupts Everyone
By Jason Keidel
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We dig the dementia from Foxboro, from Robert Kraft, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick -- the holy trinity of the NFL's most successful franchise.
No matter how steadfast, progressive, and proactive a man or an organization may be, success corrupts everyone. It infects you with hubris, entitlement and the delusion that the rules, no matter how nuanced, don't always apply.
Kraft wants us to believe the 11 deflated footballs were arbitrary, that the equipment guys who scurried to a bathroom with the pigskins didn't doctor them, and that Brady had no knowledge of it. He talks about laws of science, yet his argument was more like science fiction.
And perhaps his most laughable argument of all is asking us to believe that Brady's cellphone just coincidentally imploded around the time Ted Wells asked for it. Not just the screen or keyboard, mind you, but the SIM card, too. So either Brady is blessed beyond comprehension or Wells was just unlucky.
Kraft doesn't seem to understand that this issue transcends the participants. It's about symbolism, the perception that the game of football is played within the lines and by the book. If Brady's suspension were to be rescinded, then it sets a perilous precedent, tells the league that the rich get richer, and that the friendship between Kraft and Goodell trumps the truth.
Belichick, as always, murmured his corporate cliches about preparing for the 2015 season, his current iteration of "We're onto Cincinnati." Every question about the matter at hand was rebuffed with training camp protocols.
Kraft said if you want to get a deal done, you have to get the lawyers out of the room. Yet he spoke without rebuttal, silenced his franchise, and then sent his ornery coach to the dais for more of the same. The atmosphere was completely controlled by a pair of legendary control freaks.
Then we have the king himself, Tom Brady, the eye of the PR storm, the most polarizing and productive quarterback of the 21st century, posting his indignity across his Facebook page. He assured us that he destroyed no evidence, did no wrong. The natives have his back, say he's a victim of some abstract cabal, a tornado of haters who just want to see him fall. Sure.
Some say Brady should take the NFL to court, get his case heard by a judge. But he runs a severe risk. If he gets an injunction, starts the season under center, and then loses his court case, he will serve his suspension during a way more vital part of the season. Brady is known as the best bad-weather QB in the sport.
Brady knows this is more than PR or PSI. It's about legacy, which is probably as precious to him as a Lombardi Trophy. He should have thought of that before he ordered his minions to deflate 11 footballs. Allegedly.
Pro Football Talk reported that if Brady had just admitted his transgressions, he would have missed no more than two games. Thus are the fruits and foibles of unlimited success. It infects the best of us, and brings out the worst in us.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
