Roger Goodell: 'Steroid use' is 'closest parallel' for Tom Brady's actions
Roger Goodell likened Tom Brady's actions in Deflategate and the subsequent cover up to "steroid use."
In his lengthy appeal ruling on Tom Brady's four-game suspension, which was neither reduced nor reversed, Roger Goodell cited many different cases of NFL discipline as it relates to Deflategate. The comparison he finally settled on? "Steroid use."
The commissioner determined that "the closest parallel" for what Brady did is "steroid use."
In terms of the appropriate level of discipline, the closest parallel of which I am aware is the collectively bargained discipline imposed for a first violation of the policy governing performance enhancing drugs; steroid use reflects an improper effort to secure a competitive advantage in, and threatens the integrity of, the game. Since the advent of our testing for steroid use in the 1980’s and now, pursuant to our Collective Bargaining Agreement, the first positive test for the use of performance enhancing drugs has resulted in a four-game suspension without the need for any finding of actual competitive effect.
… The four-game suspension imposed on Mr. Brady is fully consistent with, if not more lenient than, the discipline ordinarily imposed for the most comparable effort by a player to secure an improper competitive advantage and (by using a masking agent) to cover up the underlying violation.
When you start talking about the way this suspension and investigation affects the Patriots quarterback's legacy, this is a serious blow.
The NFL deals with four-game suspensions for performance-enhancing drugs use all the time. No one really thinks anything about it, to be honest. But this is different.
Goodell is striking a blow to Brady's credibility with not just his actual ruling to uphold the suspension, but the deeper, cutting meaning of the words within the ruling itself.
Likening Brady's deflating of balls (or alleged deflating anyway) and his cover-up via destruction of evidence -- Goodell was not a fan of Brady's cell-phone smashing habits -- to steroid use is a nicer of way of calling Brady a cheater.
It's a harsh ruling from the commissioner against one of the NFL's great quarterbacks.
