Roger Goodell could rule on Tom Brady, deflate-gate appeal ‘soon’
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC that he could rule “soon” on the appeal of the four-game suspension for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady over the deflate-gate incident.
Of course, we’ve grown weary at the NFL’s and Goodell’s definition of “soon” — applied to many league issues over the recent past, including player discipline cases, an HGH policy, discipline for Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, a team (or teams) landing in Los Angeles or London and the like — when reality says we should learn to get comfy.
Along the same lines, Goodell also has said he’s available to the media almost every day of the year. It’s a droll and enchanting NFL universe he oversees.
For Goodell, a “soon” response has been his go-to boilerplate stiff arm over the years, roughly translating to “it’ll happen when I say it happens,” much in the same way that parents respond to their kids’ backseat inquiries of “Are we there yet?” Essentially, he could rule on Brady at any time he pleases.
But assuming there’s truth to this “soon” (and good lord, we’d hope a ruling would come down before the Patriots report to camp on July 29, which is 20 days from now) then it will be interesting to see what the result might be now that Brady has been knocked off the top of the fold by a pair of bizarre pyrotechnics accidents.
We do know that Goodell and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who had been traveling in Israel until recently, are in the same place according to the Boston Globe’s Ben Volin. And even though Kraft bowed out of a fight against the league after Goodell (or, rather, minion Troy Vincent) handed down his draconian sentence of a suspension for Brady, a $1 million fine and two lost draft picks for the Patriots, you know Kraft will find a way to seek an audience with Roger somewhere on the sundeck or perhaps at the spa.
Soon this all will be over. And by soon, we mean sometime in the next couple of years. Maybe.
And while we’re at it … any word on Greg Hardy?
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
