Interestingly, teams across the league aren’t jumping for joy that the New England Patriots are slated to enter the 2016 NFL Draft without a first-round pick as a result of their Deflategate punishment.
As Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman wrote in an article published Tuesday, the consensus sentiment among team executives, coaches and players regarding the Patriots has changed over the last year. Whereas teams once took joy in the discipline handed down to New England, many of the same sources now believe the NFL got its Deflategate investigation wrong — or mostly wrong — and that the Patriots never cheated, according to Freeman.
“I hate the Patriots. I despise them,” one NFC team executive told Freeman. “But they really should get those picks back.”
The Patriots were forced to relinquish a 2016 first-round pick and a 2017 fourth-round pick as part of the NFL’s Deflategate punishment. They also were fined $1 million, and quarterback Tom Brady still is fighting with the league and the courts about the four-game suspension he received for his alleged role in the underinflated football saga.
This harsh punishment initially was met with massive joy, wrote Freeman, who interviewed 10 different sources for his story. But now, 15 months after Deflategate first broke, many of the same players, coaches and executives view the Patriots’ situation as a referendum on commissioner power.
In other words, if NFL commissioner Roger Goodell can use his power so unfairly and so arbitrarily against an influential organization like the Patriots, who’s to say he won’t do the same against everyone else, even when there’s very little evidence to support his inferences?
“The Patriots aren’t victims,” an NFL general manager told Freeman, “but they are a cautionary tale for the rest of the league. They’re a reminder the commissioner can do whatever he wants, and there isn’t a damn thing any team can do about it.”
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
