DeflateGate Data, Destination Deutschland and More — What Roger Goodell’s Super Bowl Press Conference Bullet Points Mean for the Patriots
Super Bowl LVI is just days away. The NFL’s flagship event will take place on Sunday, February 9, 2022 from SoFi Stadium as the Los Angeles Rams battle the Cincinnati Bengals for the league’s highest prize.
For the first time in recent memory, Sunday’s super matchup will be devoid of a connection to the New England Patriots. Whether it be the team itself, team legend Tom Brady, or the ever popular Jimmy Garoppolo, a key member of New England’s football folklore will not take the field to vie for Lombardi trophy silver.
Still, one can take the Patriots out of the game, but can’t quite take the Patriots out of Super Bowl week.
Just ask the Commish.
In his annual Super Bowl week press conference, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed various topics as he provided a pseudo-state-of-the-league prior to the season’s culmination on Sunday. Among the topics discussed were three matters with
Disappearing Data?
Seven years after the ridiculousness that was Deflategate, the subject recently re-entered the collective consciousness of NFL fandom. Per a report from ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio, the NFL allegedly stifled evidence, which may have significantly weakened the case against the Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady in the football/ air-pressure scandal.
In the wake of New England’s victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the 2014 AFC Championship game, the league spent millions on an investigation into whether Brady and the Patriots tampered with psi levels of footballs in hopes of gaining a competitive advantage. According to Florio’s report, the league (under the direction of NFL general counsel Jeff Pash) intentionally withheld the collected data. Reportedly, the findings displayed the same psi trend as the Patriots’ footballs in the 2014 AFC Championship Game, in dictating no wrong-doing on behalf of Brady or the Patriots.
When asked about the subject on Wednesday, Goodell claimed to be unaware of the NFL’s purported mishandling of data.
“We were very clear that we were going to do spot checks to make sure that people were following the policies. That is something that we fully engaged in, and I don’t know what happened to the data, to be honest with you,” Goodell said.
“We don’t look back at that. We just make sure there’s no violations. That’s the purpose of the spot checks: are there violations, and if there are violations, we need to look into it. But thankfully, we did not see any.”
New England’s alleged involvement spawned an 18-month legal battle, resulting in Brady being suspended for four games and the Patriots losing first- and fourth-round draft picks, while being fined $1 million.
Going to Germany?
As expected, Goodell confirmed a report that the NFL will play its first ever regular season game in Munich, Germany later this year. The Commissioner also announced that the city of Frankfurt will also host games at one point in the future.
“We are very pleased to welcome Munich and Frankfurt to the NFL family and are excited to reward our fans in Germany for their passion by bringing them the spectacle of regular-season NFL football,” Goodell said in a statement. “We look forward to staging our first game in Germany at FC Bayern Munich’s fantastic stadium later this year and to exploring areas of broader collaboration with the Bundesliga.”
Earlier this year, the NFL awarded global marketing rights to its teams. Four teams were selected for Germany: the Patriots, the Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Carolina Panthers. One of those four teams is almost certain to participate in the 2022 regular season season contest played at Munich’s Allianz Arena.
The Patriots also have a potential player connection, as soon-to-be free-agent fullback Jakon Johnson was born in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Johnson entered the NFL via the International Pathway Program, signing with the Patriots in 2019. With many expecting Johnson to return to New England in the offseason, it would allow the 27-year-old to return home playing professional football for the Patriots
Diversity and Inclusion
Lastly, Goodell addressed the recent allegations of impropriety regarding hiring practices of coaches throughout the league.
The controversy stems from former Patriots defensive assistant, and most recently ex-Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores’ filing of a discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and its 32 franchises, alleging the active presence of racist hiring practices throughout the league. In the lawsuit, Flores says that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick accidentally informed him, via text message, that the New York Giants had already chosen Brian Daboll to be their next head coach, with Flores having yet to interview for the same position. In the chain of text messages between Flores and Belichick, the Pats head coach mistakenly congratulates Flores instead of Daboll on getting the Giants job. The exchange of texts between the former colleagues occurred three days before Flores was set to interview for the position. Daboll, like Flores, was also a former Belichick assistant.
In essence, Goodell admitted the league has not done a good enough job on diversity and inclusion at the head coach level across the league. He expressed his belief and frustration that while the league has made progress in other areas of inclusive hiring practices, it has not done so at the head coach level.
"That is something that we're really focused on to try to get the kind of results that we would expect and we fell short of that by a long shot," he said.
The league currently has only five minority head coaches. Only two were hired in the latest hiring cycle. Goodell said the league will step back and look at everything, including potential changes to the Rooney Rule, and seek independent advice on ways they can improve their hiring practices. When asked specifically about Flores’ lawsuit, Goodell acknowledged that there are some matters of concern in the suit, which both he and the league need to address.
