HOUSTON — So what is it going to take, Boston? If Roger Goodell agrees not only to visit Foxboro next season, but sit in a dunking booth at the 50-yard line for a couple hours before the season opener, would that do it?
Or better yet: How about a stockade in Copley Square? That way, all of New England can take turns hurling rotten vegetables at the NFL commissioner and lecturing him on the Ideal Gas Law for a full 24 hours.
This is just a hunch, but even that wouldn’t be enough of a public punishment to satisfy some Patriot fans and Boston media. Deflategate has mostly become an afterthought for most Americans, a weird episode that seemed a bit silly at the time and seems really, really ridiculous given all that has happened in the world since then.
Did we really all get that worked up about the air pressure in a bunch of footballs? Man, those were different times.
But in Boston, it is still a raw, festering wound. Goodell had his annual Super Bowl week press conference on Wednesday, and in the 45-minute session he fielded five questions from Boston-area media on the ball-inflation melodrama that led to a four-game suspension for quarterback Tom Brady.
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I am exaggerating a bit here, but each of the five exchanges were some variation of this:
REPORTER: Roger, you have not shown ugly your face in New England in two years, but in case you were wondering, everyone there hates you and thinks you are a lying, conniving sack of potatoes that perpetrated one of the single greatest frauds in sports history.
GOODELL: Uh, was that a question?
He was clearly coached on how to respond, and given his many public flubs in these settings, that was appropriate. He refused to take the bait on recent comments from Robert Kraft about the NFL’s mishandling of the case, and certainly wasn’t about to rehash the details.
“We had a violation,” Goodell said. “We went through a process. We applied the discipline in accordance with our process. It was litigated, as you know, extensively and validated by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. We’re moving on from that. It’s part of our history, but it’s something we’re comfortable with the process and the decision.”
Look, I’m not going to go into the arguments here, because you no doubt made up your mind long ago. Some people think this was an NFL witch hunt that used faulty science and media leaks to create outrage and unfairly punish an unpopular franchise. Others looked at the circumstantial evidence — he called himself the Deflator! — and figured Brady was up to no good and got what he deserved. Geography, it should be noted, had a minor role in shaping these opinions.
But no matter what you think about the episode, what has happened since is beyond debate. Boston teams have won nine championships since the turn of the century, so you’d think people there would know a victory if they saw it. But, clearly, the message has been lost, so here goes:
You’ve won!
The Patriots won three of the four games Brady missed and, in the process, identified their quarterback of the future. Brady returned, perhaps more motivated and certainly better than ever, leading the team to a 14-2 regular season and a breezy romp through the playoffs.
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Now, with a victory over the Atlanta Falcons, Brady and head coach Bill Belichick will not only become the winningest quarterback-coach tandem in NFL history, and celebrate with the Lombardi Trophy as Goodell squirms. If there was any tangible impact from Deflategate, good luck finding it.
I think I’m beginning to understand why a man sitting in the White House but still worried about the crowd size at his inauguration is a loyal Patriots fan. The people who follow this team want to have their cake and eat it too and smash it the smug face of you-know-who.
What more could Boston possibly want? It is clear by now that the NFL commissioner is never going to offer up a mea culpa. He believes he did the right thing and enough of the billionaires who pay his salary believe that, too.
“We do our job when there is a violation,” he said. “We apply the process and the discipline and we came to the conclusion that was supported by the facts and by the courts. So from our standpoint, we understand when fans who are loyal and passionate for a team object and don’t like the outcome. I totally understand that. That’s not an issue for me.”
But even if he did give himself a public flogging, chances are plenty of Boston supporters wouldn’t let this die. They believe their team and quarterback was wrong, and no silly thing like another Super Bowl championship is going to make that go away.
Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find Steve on Facebook.
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