Roger Goodell says Deflategate report should be released 'soon'

[Jet Fan RI]

[h=1]http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on...ys-deflategate-report-should-be-released-soon[/h][h=1]Roger Goodell says Deflategate report should be released 'soon'[/h]By John Breech | CBSSports.com
April 28, 2015 6:45 pm ET

If you've been holding your breath waiting for the Deflategate investigation to be released, you're probably not alive right now, but for the rest of us, there looks to be some light at the end of the Deflategate tunnel.
During an interview with "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told Charlie Rose that he expects the report to be released "soon."
"I do think it will be soon," Goodell said. "We have a responsibility to the 32 teams -- not just the one team, to 32 teams -- and our fans and the general public here to make sure things were done fairly."
The league is definitely doing its due diligence.
The NFL announced in January that it was going to investigate whether or not the footballs used by the Patriots in the AFC Championship game were deliberately deflated. That investigation, which is being run by Ted Wells, reached Day 100 on Tuesday.
During the interview with Goodell, Rose asked the commissioner why the investigation has taken so long.
"I think it's hard because you want to make sure you have all the information," Goodell said. "It's not just whether the balls are properly inflated. The question is, one of things [Wells would] be asked to look for, 'Was it just one game?'"
Goodell did add that there's no suspicion that the Patriots played more than one game with deflated footballs.
"There's no suspicion of anything," Goodell said. "What we're trying to do is try to make sure we're thorough. The most important thing here is, 'Was there a violation of the rules and if so, how did that occur?'"
Although the investigation has seemingly taken forever, let's not forget all the laughter Deflategate's brought us.

 

[SackExchange]

I still think Thursday afternoon. They will want to bury it in the draft news cycle by releasing it a couple hours before the draft begins.

 

[Jet Fan RI]

I still think Thursday afternoon. They will want to bury it in the draft news cycle by releasing it a couple hours before the draft begins.

If we're lucky, and there is a conclusion that that Pats cheated, there will undoubtedly be a loss of draft picks. Hard to see how that could be buried.

I was also encouraged to see that Goodell said that the league wanted to know whether deflation may have occurred in more than one game. That might allow the physicist who was tasked with the research to bring in statistical evidence that the Pats' fumble rate went way down immediately after the ball-handling rule changed. If so, the likelihood of draft pick losses, and suspensions, is even greater.

 

[Jet Fan RI]

My hope is that they find that the Patriots cheated and announce Friday morning that Belichick is suspended for the draft, along with their first round draft pick being docked. It'd be such short notice that they couldn't possibly regroup and their draft would be a mess.

Ah shoot. I was hoping for a Bellichik suspension for a year, plus picks 1 and 2 this year. Remember, this is a second case of cheating.

 

[SackExchange]

My hope is that they find that the Patriots cheated and announce Friday morning that Belichick is suspended for the draft, along with their first round draft pick being docked. It'd be such short notice that they couldn't possibly regroup and their draft would be a mess.

It would have to be Thursday morning, if it was for this year. First round is Thursday night.

Not that the punishment will be anywhere close.

 

[The Wicker Man]

Goodell will give the Pats a stern warning and make them pinky promise not to do it again.

 

[SackExchange]

Goodell will give the Pats a stern warning and make them pinky promise not to do it again.

And their fans will cry that there's some anti-Pats bias, that the allegations never had any validity, and the whole thing was a witchhunt.

 

[SackExchange]

Don't get your hopes up. Part of the impact of Woody getting a relatively light punishment is it softens the ground for Goodell to come down VERY light on the Pats for this.

I would suspect at MOST a fine, maybe a late pick taken, and the league changing the policy on how footballs are handled before and during games.

 

[Jet Fan RI]

Don't get your hopes up. Part of the impact of Woody getting a relatively light punishment is it softens the ground for Goodell to come down VERY light on the Pats for this.

I would suspect at MOST a fine, maybe a late pick taken, and the league changing the policy on how footballs are handled before and during games.

That would not make sense. There are two possibilities. One, the Pats cheated. That would result in a severe penalty. The other possibility is the Pats didn't cheat. In that case, no punishment at all, I would think.

 

[hobson54]

no way this comes down before the draft. the nfl doesn't want people talking about this during the draft (even if it absolves the pats). and obviously if it implicates the pats, it would over-shadow the draft.

 

[SackExchange]

The league may not want it interfering in its draft hype, but it will want to bury the news cycle. What other event between now and the opening of camp would allow that?

 

[hobson54]

The league may not want it interfering in its draft hype, but it will want to bury the news cycle. What other event between now and the opening of camp would allow that?

well nothing nfl-related, but you have the NBA and NHL finals coming up in a month or so.

or really just wait a couple of weeks after the draft when most of the sporting world turns its eye temporarily from the nfl to these playoffs and baseball. they can't bury it completely, but dump it during the quiet time for the league, and by august, when camps open, it's yesterday's news

 

[SackExchange]

Possible. No matter what the findings, the league will do its best to dump it whenever it causes the smallest waves.

 

[SackExchange]

You know, I don't see it happening that way. If the report substantiates cheating and attributes it to a senior person (Belichick, McDaniels, even Brady), I can't imagine the penalty being a slap on the wrist. Not after Spygate. What I think is much likelier is that the Pats covered their tracks and the report won't find anything conclusive, getting them off scot-free. In that case, the "tampering" penalty shouldn't be relevant.

This is probably the most likely scenario. Not only would the league preserve the notion of integrity, assuring everyone that there was no cheating, nor would the league allow for cheating, but they also protect the image of the defending champion and one of the big three franchises.

If a penalty does come down, though, it will be equivocated with some talk about how there is no direct evidence of impropriety, but there is enough circumstantial evidence to suggest something untoward happened. This is what would lead to a small punishment, which would likely be more palatable to the other 31 franchises and could be spun into the league preserving its integrity by having a zero tolerance policy on cheating (even if that would not be true).

 

[Jet Fan RI]

You know, I don't see it happening that way. If the report substantiates cheating and attributes it to a senior person (Belichick, McDaniels, even Brady), I can't imagine the penalty being a slap on the wrist. Not after Spygate. What I think is much likelier is that the Pats covered their tracks and the report won't find anything conclusive, getting them off scot-free. In that case, the "tampering" penalty shouldn't be relevant.

If that's the case though, I can't understand why the league would not have released the results quickly. No cheating by the champs, no punishment, case closed, problem vanishes.

 

[ucrenegade]

i'd be very surprised if their isn't a ball boy or employee take the fall

if i was the commish i would have taken back all their sb victories and suspended beli and brady for a year.

 

[NCgreen12]

In order to find that they cheated they will need an actual transgressor. In Spygate that person was the head coach who admitted he thought they were within the rules to tape as long as it was not during the same game. So they had the culprit and the evidence.

In this case they have some evidence (the ball/s) but not sure they have anyone admitting anything. Bellichick and Brady have already publicly done their Colonel Klink ("I know nothing"). So unless someone has admitted something I'm not sure they will even get a fine.

 

[Jet Fan RI]

i'd be very surprised if their isn't a ball boy or employee take the fall

if i was the commish i would have taken back all their sb victories and suspended beli and brady for a year.

I think in that case the team is still responsible, and would get a severe punishment. Anything like that involves a confession, and removal of doubt.

 

[Jet Fan RI]

In order to find that they cheated they will need an actual transgressor. In Spygate that person was the head coach who admitted he thought they were within the rules to tape as long as it was not during the same game. So they had the culprit and the evidence.

In this case they have some evidence (the ball/s) but not sure they have anyone admitting anything. Bellichick and Brady have already publicly done their Colonel Klink ("I know nothing"). So unless someone has admitted something I'm not sure they will even get a fine.

On the first point, I agree only if the physical testing is inconclusive as to whether natural causes could have resulted in the known facts. As to the second point, that was actually Sgt Shultz.

 

[cysporsche]

Punishment, one year with Aaron Hernandez !

Go Jets...Cyborg