After poorly botching the procedure and allocation of punishments associated with domestic abuse during the NFL's 2014 off-season, Commissioner Roger Goodell has kept a low-profile...knowing he's a loathed man by many, and perhaps sensing the public's lack of confidence in his ability to lead one of America's most profitable and visible businesses.
Though these facts made his decision - announced Thursday - to oversee Tom Brady's appeal of his 4-game suspension a difficult one, it was without question the correct decision by Goodell for several reasons.
First and foremost, the Commissioner of any league should primarily be charged for using his position to govern over and protect the integrity of the game. If the Patriots and Tom Brady were indeed guilty of deflating footballs in the first half of the AFC Championship game versus Indianapolis in January 2015, then there needs to be punishment to dissuade all teams from ever doing this again for the sake of the game's integrity. Rules are rules.
And if the Patriots have a history of skirting the rules (they do), and if they were not wholly cooperative with the current investigation (they weren't according to independent investigator Ted Wells), then the league has every right to punish with full force.
The second reason Goodell needs to hear this appeal is to save face. Plan and simple. Save face, stand up tall, and finally demonstrate some leadership.
If Goodell shied away from this case during the arbitration process, he would have looked like a coward. His office and legacy can't afford that right now. Moreover, Goodell's decision to hear the appeal himself is in accordance with the process agreed upon with the NFLPA in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement. It's the league's right and his right to hear the appeal. So to run away from that, again, would be a sign of weakness. He needs to reassert some level of strength and control over the situation, regardless of who Brady and the Patriots hire as legal counsel.
Third, if Goodell ultimately doesn't back the penalties levied by his colleague Troy Vincent, based largely on the Wells report which costs in the millions to execute, then he erodes internal relationships within the NFL's headquarters in New York, and further makes the league's punitive efforts look ineffective and wasteful.
When the Patriots decided to appeal the Deflategate penalties, you knew there would be a tough decision to follow. He hears the appeal, and Patriots fans will scream bias. He passes the baton to another, and the other person lessens the penalties, then he's called a coward without a backbone.
Given the options at hand, Roger Goodell made the right choice to hear this appeal.
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Dr. Rishe is the Founder and President of Sportsimpacts, as well as the Director of the Sports Business Program within the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St Louis.
