Brady 4 Game Suspension Upheld

[pbmax]

Is Goodell, not his subordinates, the problem?

WaPo: Sally Jenkins, https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...m_sports_pop_b

The Brady case is really about one man’s immoderate need to horsewhip others. Taken with other anecdotes of Goodell over the years, a picture emerges of a stubborn desire to break those who oppose or question him, to bend them to his will when it comes to his personal authority. In Kent Babb’s excellent profile of Goodell, a player involved in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement remembered how Goodell would flush red with fury and stalk out of the room when his proposals were rejected. Another excellent profile by ESPN’s Don Van Natta a few years ago contained a similar story. An NFL assistant coach was stopped for suspicion of driving under the influence. The offense was reduced to reckless driving, and his lawyer pled for mercy from Goodell in a disciplinary hearing, telling Goodell that the coach had a previously unblemished record.

Sally is not my favorite columnist and sometimes she heads to places not supported by the evidence*. However, Kent Baab and Van Natta (whose article on the Asst Coach I cannot find) are very good. So if Roger is a red-faced maximalist and not simply a stooge, he might be the source of the change that Kessler (above in Guiness' post) sees in the League in 2012.

Here is Baab's article on Goodell that contains the CBA negotiations story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...0f8_story.html plus this:

“Good is not good enough,” a former league office colleague said of the kind of outcome Goodell pursues. “It’s got to be perfect.”