The NFL and the prison of violence

November 16, 2015

Lost amid preoccupations with Super Bowl 50 and various teams’ quarterback problems – Whither Colin Kaepernick? How’s Andrew Luck’s lacerated kidney and torn abdominal muscle? – is the domestic violence scandal that rocked the NFL last season.

Things were pretty quiet on that front until a recent article in Deadspin revealed photographs of bruises on the former girlfriend of Dallas Cowboys’ defensive end Greg Hardy.

When he was with the Carolina Panthers last season, Hardy was arrested for assaulting her. But the charges were dropped and the record later expunged as she settled a civil suit with him. ...

Is Tom Brady going down?

July 24, 2015

Tom Brady has apparently made the NFL an offer it can refuse.

The NFL Players Association, on behalf of the Deflategator, has offered to have Tommy Boy pay a big fine in lieu of a four-game suspension. The overture has “met with silence” in the office of commish Roger Goodell, who heard Brady’s appeal June 23. The New England Patriots’ quarterback is prepared to make a federal case out of this should he be suspended for probably having knowledge of subordinates deflating footballs in the A.F.C. Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts earlier this year. But the fact that the Players Association has put out an offer seems like the moment in a crime show when the defense looks to plea bargain. And that suggests a certain guilt ...

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Deflategate keeps a lot of balls in the air

May 20, 2015

From the spongy balls that the gentle American Pharoah wears as earplugs to race (poor baby) to the fuzzy tennis balls of the Italian and French opens, we turn our attention back to the squishy balls of Deflategate – a subject that is a writer’s dream, because it just keeps on giving.

The latest is that New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft won’t appeal the $1 million fine and loss of two draft picks that resulted from the Pats’ more probably than not deflating their footballs before the A.F.C. Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts.

"Although I might disagree what is decided, I do have respect for [commissioner Roger Goodell] and believe that he's doing what he perceives to be in the best interests of [all 32 teams]," Kraft said, while speaking to the media at the NFL owners meetings. "So in that spirit, I don't want to continue the rhetoric that's gone on for the last four months.”

Translation: The NFL has got us by the squishy balls, and the jig is up. ...