Now you know. Now you know that, in Roger Goodells batshit crazy universe, the greatest crime of all is defying authority. Tom Brady just got locked in the attic for four games this fall, and it wasnt REALLY because he dicked around with the ball (a crime that, as already noted in many other places, has been met with a relative slap on the wrist elsewhere), but becauseand here I will use the wording of the letter Troy Vincent had dictated to him by Goodellthe Patriots QB failed to cooperate fully with the investigation.
Thats what costs you four games and $2 million in salary in todays NFL. This is because Roger Goodell is a shit-eating moron. Under his watch, the NFL has adopted the very American legal tradition of manufacturing crime out of crime. You can take a small crimeany crime, reallyand you can inflate it by making the PROCESS of pursuing that crime utterly sacrosanct, to the point where an entity like the NFL says, with a straight face, that The extent to which the club and relevant individuals cooperated with the investigation is somehow one of the most important factors in determining if a maneven one as wildly successful and wealthy as Tom Bradyshould be allowed pursue his livelihood and collect his paycheck.