Now that Tom Brady’s ridiculous four-game suspension has been overturned by Judge Richard M. Berman, it’s nearly time to get on with our lives and simply enjoy the game of football.
But before we do that, there is one more Deflategate-related activity worth pursuing.
The NFL has seen its fare share of miserable moments. Brady’s nine-month long Deflategate saga is just one of the league’s egg-on-its face mishaps in recent memory, which is why it seemed appropriate to examine some of the other ridiculous affairs that have occurred over the years.
The following are the most embarrassing blunders in NFL history.
Replacement referees
There was no need for the NFL to quibble with its officials in 2012 over relatively little money as far as the league is concerned. However, when the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement over a new CBA in 2012, the NFL decided it was better to use replacement referees rather than to give the trained refs a slight bump in pay.
The result was disastrous.
Blown calls were the norm, and who can forget the outrageous mistake during the Monday Night Football game featuring the Green Bay Packers at the Seattle Seahawks?
That play, dubbed “Fail Mary,” has gone down as one of the worst calls in NFL history.
Not surprisingly, it only took a few days for the league to get things squared away with the officials after that embarrassment. They were back the next week to officiate games after successfully negotiating a new eight-year CBA that increased their pay incrementally every season.
Bountygate
“Kill the head and the body will die,” Gregg Williams said back in 2012. The defensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints at that time was referring to Frank Gore, who was the running back of the San Francisco 49ers and the heart and soul of San Francisco’s offense.
Williams was caught giving a speech to his defense before the 2011 NFC Championship game that turned into a firestorm, torching the Saints badly. He had implemented a “bounty” system with his defenders in which they would get bonus money for making huge plays, including taking players out of the game with injuries.
Needless to say, when the league found out about it, the Saints were punished for their bad behavior. In the aftermath of the discovery, head coach Sean Payton was suspended an entire year, general manager Mickey Loomis for eight games, players were suspended, Williams was tossed from the league indefinitely and the team lost two draft picks and was fined $500,000.
Concussion lawsuit
2012 was a really, really bad year for the NFL. In addition to the replacement refs and Boutygate disaster, over 2,000 former players filed a lawsuit against the league, alleging a huge cover-up as it relates to concussions and the damage they do to the brain.
“Despite its knowledge and controlling role in governing player conduct on and off the field, the NFL turned a blind eye to the risk and failed to warn and/or impose safety regulations governing this well-recognized health and safety problem,” the players alleged.
The league eventually settled with the players, rather than face a protracted and very public court battle. Each player in the suit, which grew from the original 2,000-plus to over 5,000, is due up to $5 million to combat the effects of serious medical conditions associated with repeated head trauma.
There has long been a perception that the league only cares about the bottom line, rather than the players who give their bodies up on a weekly basis for this game. This lawsuit could be the tip of the iceberg on this front, and the new Will Smith movie “Concussion” will not help the NFL combat this perception, either.
Eugene Robinson at Super Bowl XXXIII
Truly one of the most embarrasing moments anyone has every experienced in league history belongs to Robinson, who made the biggest mistake of his life the night before Super Bowl XXXIII.
Robinson was busted soliciting a prostitute the night before the big game in a bad part of town in Miami. He had heard about the area after many of his teammates had visited the spot earlier in the week, but nobody else got caught.
”Guys had been going there all week,” a Falcon starter said. ”It’s just that Eugene was the only one who got caught.”
The reason this was so embarrassing to Robinson and the league is that he had just received the Bart Starr Award from Athletes in Action for “high moral character.”
Needless to say, his actions that night destroyed that reputation, as well as the Falcons’ chances for winning the Super Bowl. To say his arrest and following media frenzy shook up the Falcons would be an understatement. The Broncos went on to win by a score of 34-19.
Wardrobe malfunction at Super Bowl XXXVIII
With millions of people watching, Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson’s naked breast while the duo performed at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.
They said it was a “wardrobe malfunction,” but most people discount that as a poor excuse. The Federal Communications Commission sure didn’t take kindly to the mishap and fined CBS $550,000 for the stunt, which may or may not have been planned.
The faux pas surely boosted Jackson’s public image at the time, as the video of the “wardrobe malfunction” went viral.
Michael Vick dogfighting scandal
Vick was one of the NFL’s most popular players before being exposed as a ringleader in a dog fighting ring in 2007.
He was investigated and then charged with a federal indictment for illegal dog fighting at his Virginia home. The stories of animal cruelty that came out of that investigation were horrifying and disturbing, causing public opinion to sway completely in the opposite direction.
Vick was sentenced to one-to-five years in federal prison and suspended indefinitely by the NFL for his actions. After serving his time, he came out with a new attitude and outlook, actively advocating against animal cruelty and dog fighting—something he still does to this day. The league allowed him to return, as well.
Regardless of his efforts, there are plenty of people who don’t believe Vick should be allowed to play football in the NFL, as was plainly evident when a petition to get the Pittsburgh Steelers to get rid of newly signed quarterback in 2015 gained over 20,000 signatures.
Colts move to Indianapolis under cover of night
This embarrassing moment in league history would not be possible in this day and age. With the 24-hour news cycle, Twitter and other social media dominating sports coverage, no owner could just move his team from one city to another in the middle of the night. But back in the mid 1980s the media’s ability to cover professional sports was still limited by technology.
Robert Irsay moved the Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis overnight in 1984. The team had been losing for years, couldn’t sell out games and desperately needed a new stadium. The city of Baltimore wasn’t being cooperative in this effort, and Irsay decided to bypass an eminent domain ruling by the state of Maryland. He hired 14 tractor-trailer trucks to move the entire organization under the cover of darkness.
To this day, it remains one of the most infamous moves in all of sports, and there are some folks in Baltimore who are still bitter over the betrayal.
Super Bowl XLV ticket faux pas
More than 2,000 people bought tickets to see Super Bowl XLV at AT&T Stadium, only to show up for the big game to discover the seats listed on their tickets didn’t exist.
Talk about a fiasco.
After a trial, which concluded in March of 2015, a jury found the NFL guilty of breaching its ticket contract. The end result is that they awarded “varying amounts between $5,600 and $22,000—a total of nearly $76,000″ to those who were robbed of their chance to see the game in the seats they were promised.
While I’m sure those folks were grateful to get their money back, you can bet they would rather have been able to watch the game in the seats they paid for originally.
Spygate
Deflategate wasn’t the first instance in which the NFL came down hard on the Patriots.
Back in 2007 the franchise was accused by the New York Jets of illegally taping their practices as a means to gain an advantage on game days. After an investigation, the league determined the Patriots had, indeed, broken the rules.
Bill Belichick claimed he didn’t realize he had been breaking any rules, but he was slapped with a $500,000 fine by the league. The team was also fined $250,000 and it lost its first-round draft pick for the 2008 NFL Draft in the aftermath of the investigation.
Deflategate
The NFL has some serious image problems at this time.
Goodell has been the judge and jury when it comes to league discipline for a while now, and it’s clear he has been abusing this power. When he first slapped Brady with a four-game suspension based on Ted Wells’ flawed report that the quarterback was deflating footballs, it was a shocking development. After all, the previous penalty for ball-tampering was a mere $25,000 fine.
Judge Richard M. Berman vacated Brady’s suspension, and this is part of what he wrote to explain his reasoning for making the ruling:
“The Court is fully aware of the deference afforded to arbitral decisions, but, nevertheless, concludes that the Award should be vacated. The Award is premised upon several significant legal deficiencies, including (A) inadequate notice to Brady of both his potential discipline (four-game suspension) and his alleged misconduct; (B) denial of the opportunity for Brady to examine one of two lead investigators, namely NFL Executive Vice President and General Counsel Jeff Pash; and (C) denial of equal access to investigative files, including witness interview notes.”
This ruling is a huge blow to Goodell personally, and it is also tremendously embarrassing for the league. Judge Berman gave the league multiple opportunities to settle the case with Brady, but the attorneys for the NFL thought they had a strong case, which is also embarrassing.
No doubt, players across the league are rejoicing over this verdict. After all, a recent poll conducted by ESPN found that 88 percent of NFL players polled think Goodell shouldn’t have ultimate disciplinary power.