NFL’s Incompetence on Display Yet Again in DeflateGate

By Casey Drottar @cdrottar19 on January 23, 2015

I’m just going to go ahead and say it: yesterday’s press conference in which New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was questioned about the now-infamous DeflateGate scandal was downright bizarre.

Maybe it was the stone-cold seriousness from the press as they treated a controversy involving deflated footballs which in no way impacted the outcome of New England’s domination of the Indianapolis Colts as if it were the most soul-crushing event to ever happen in sports. Maybe it was Brady’s odd demeanor, his constant tip-toeing around the issue itself and the consistent “are you guys serious?” attitude he carried with him throughout the entire ordeal.

The whole thing was just strange.

What I took away from it, though, was a key moment late in the media session. After being peppered with questions which practically screamed “think of the children, Tom!!” all afternoon, Brady was asked a simple inquiry as to whether or not he had been contacted by the NFL during this investigation. His response was, simply, “no.”

As of Thursday, one of the people under fire for DeflateGate has yet to discuss the incident with the league amidst their investigation. The league claims they’ve interviewed 40 people already, but not the one many believe is behind much of the controversy.

Seriously?!

The report of the NFL investigation surfaced late Sunday night. On Thursday, four days later, one of the key suspects claimed he hasn’t even been approached by the NFL yet to talk about it. There have been no games or media events since, nothing which would prevent Roger Goodell and his crack team of investigators from heading to Foxborough and talking to the necessary parties. And yet, it appears they’re still stuck in “yeah, we’re going to get to it” mode.

I’m at a loss, I really am. Hearing Brady say the league hasn’t even communicated with him yet is the ultimate face-palm moment from yesterday’s circus of a press conference.

The NFL has spent the past year looking like fools, primarily thanks to their epic blunders when mishandling the Ray Rice incident. They lazily searched for the one piece of incriminating evidence which could’ve provided the most clarity on the domestic dispute. They ineffectively attempted to convince the public they had never seen actual footage of the incident taking place after TMZ retrieved and released it thanks to one phone call. As a whole, the NFL failed, and failed badly.

DeflateGate was their first real chance since to convince everyone they actually could handle investigations quickly and appropriately. Though it’s not nearly as serious as the Rice incident, it was still an opportunity to try and look competent in the face of adversity, to show fans and media around the country they could trust the NFL again.

And they’ll attempt to do so once they find it convenient enough to get around to interviewing one of the key parties involved.

Come on! This was a big chance for you, NFL! You could’ve taken this case and tried to show everyone that, no, you weren’t the keystone cops of trying to get to the bottom of league disputes. The country spent the entire year tearing down the NFL for how badly they botched the biggest scandal of the year, and this softball of a case by comparison was something the league could’ve taken to prove they learned a lesson.

But, after all of the spite thrown their way in 2014, after taking heat for Goodell saying in September he was working to build a personal conduct task force by the end of the year just to handle situations like this, the NFL proceeds to appear as though they don’t know the proper way to handle these things.

As mentioned, the league just now released a report saying they’ve interviewed over 40 people. How one of those 40 wasn’t Brady is beyond me. It’s tough to assume this timing doesn’t have anything to do with the press conference yesterday. Again, though, how can the league have interviewed 40 different people, but not one of them was the guy who many believe is the main culprit in the case?

How can we believe the NFL has learned anything from easily one of their most tumultuous years in decades? There is actual, investigatory evidence proving those in charge of handling the Rice incident were lazy and completely unmotivated to track down key components of said case. It’s there for everyone to see, thanks to the Robert Mueller reports. Now, not even a month after the country saw written proof of just how lethargic the league was in handling a major crisis, they’re once again taking their sweet time targeting the primary suspect of a hot-topic moment of misconduct.

People were calling for Goodell to resign after how much of an idiot he appeared to be when figuring out how to handle the Rice event. When the majority of the country is calling you out, claiming you don’t know how to do your job appropriately, one would think the logical reaction would be to prove your worth with the next controversy which comes your way. Getting handed yet another potential black eye to the league would certainly merit hitting the ground running in attempts to clean the still-tarnished image of the NFL.

Or, you can procrastinate. You can take the biggest league news of the moment, one in which people are calling for suspensions from the NFL’s biggest game of the year, and decide to bide your time and get to interviewing Brady when you feel like it.

Right now, it appears Goodell and the league are taking the latter option. Instead of meeting with Brady — who, after yesterday, many believe is guilty as sin — as soon as possible the very next day after they heard about it, they chose to pace themselves. Just like that, the Brady inquisition has become the elevator surveillance tape of DeflateGate.

I wrote yesterday the league was going to be scrutinized no matter what discipline they hand out. This is likely still the case. However, with Brady’s admission that he still hasn’t talked to anyone with the NFL, it looks like we don’t even need to wait for the punishment to come at all. The NFL already deserves criticism for yet another haphazard approach to solving problems.

Many former players and media alike reacted to Brady’s press conference by claiming they didn’t believe him, that the quarterback had to be lying. Maybe we’ll eventually find out this was indeed the case. You know, if the NFL is ever able to make enough time to interview him about all of this.

Casey Drottar is a Featured Columnist for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter or “Like” him on Facebook