Well, consider this specific case. I know we all have been over this a gazillion times. But try to wrap your head around it: A Patriots' opponent hinted to the NFL that the Patriots screw with inflation level of the footballs. They got their hands on an intercepted ball in the AFCCG and told the Patriots then and there that they're f***ed. They go through the most unscientific method possible to determine this, and then determine that, in fact, the Patriots' footballs were under inflated. They know nothing about the laws of physics. Yet they leak to Mortensen false information that they could easily have corrected, but it drives the narrative. They hire Ted Wells and, in conjunction with Wells, put together a report that is such a sham and a phony that it would be absolutely shredded by scientists and lawyers if it was introduced as evidence in a case. They find mysterious texts that say "deflator", but nothing - NOT A SINGLE SOLITARY THING - actually links Brady to ANY "ball deflation scheme". The only thing they can really pin on him is that he may not have cooperated to the degree that they'd like. And there was precedent for what the penalty should be in such a situation - $50,000 to Brett Favre. They went outside the rulebook which speaks to football tampering penalties. They didn't follow precedent. They made stuff up. They flat-out lied to a federal judge, for crying out loud. Goodell was the prosecutor, the judge, the jury, and the appeals judge. He ruled on his own case.
I literally cannot imagine how, so long as he "follows procedure" - i.e., issues a penalty, and then when that penalty is appealed, hears the appeal himself and upholds it - there is nothing he cannot do. I mean, why can't he suspend Brady again for "conduct detrimental" simply for taking this legally as far as he can (just claim that Brady fighting this has hurt the league's reputation and cost the league millions and millions of dollars)? Because it's not mentioned in the CBA or the rule book? Neither is anything else Tom Brady has been accused of. You could assign *anything* to "conduct detrimental" and if Goodell applies the penalty, hears the appeal, and upholds it, what can a player do?
This is the problem with the Court's ruling that Goodell is following the procedure.
I know that some lawyer types here may say that this is a ridiculous scenario, but honestly, why couldn't Goodell do this? Nobody in a million years would have ever thought that Goodell could literally make stuff up, change his ruling, hear his own appeal, lie to a federal judge, and get away with it over something that had essentially no evidence, and that science says didn't even happen. And yet....he has.
