How Do We Stop From Feeling Completely Deflated?

Wai Sallas has a different take on the Wells Report and shines a light on a good deed by the Atlanta Falcons in this week’s Friday Sports Dump

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It seems the new NFL season is taking off right where it left off last year, with scandal and controversy. Unlike last year, where a player caused the initial issue, this particular kerfuffle is organically homegrown within the confines of the league.

A quick history lesson: last year the Baltimore Ravens tipped the NFL that the Patriots were using deflated balls during their divisional playoff game. Instead of the NFL stopping any type of foul play immediately, Commissioner Roger Goodell and his cronies wanted to catch New England in the act. At halftime of the AFC Championship game, the league found 11 of 12 footballs to be below the required psi range.

Four months later, Ted Wells’ investigation has proven, well nothing really.

There’s nothing declarative, nothing conclusive. Tom Brady probably knew. Bill Belichick maybe did this. The only thing we know for certain is “The Locker Room Guy” Jim McNally was not a fan of Brady.

The agent for Brady, Don Yee, unleashed a scathing rebuttal challenging the ethics of the league as well as the report itself. Of course, this is nothing new to a league playing fast and loose with no concerns over consequences.

Now, Goodell’s errors in his initial handlings of Deflateapolooza will come back to haunt him in ways unimaginable at the time. The commissioner must now come up with some sort of discipline for a crime to which there is no proof, nor confirmation of a misdeed taking place. Whatever steps Goodell does take will be magnified when the NFL opens up the season on September 10.

Why?

That’s when the Patriots will be taking on the Steelers in primetime in the NFL Kick-off spectacular.

Can you imagine the defending Super Bowl champions beginning the season on national television with Tom Brady suspended…in New England?

If you thought the boos were bad for Goodell during the draft, if there was a Guiness Book of World Record for loudest boo, there’s no doubt Gillette stadium would break it in the first millisecond Goodell’s face is shown or the first breath he exhales into the microphone.

It could be time for the owners to step in and silence Goodell once and for all. For all the money he’s made them over the years, the image of the NFL is in a freefall. Goodell is in over his head and that evidence is deafening.

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While boos rained down on Goodell throughout the first round, friday marked the second and third round of the NFL Draft. Former Clemson standout Grady Jarrett sat around 30 of his closest friends and family members as the buzz and excitement of a possible selection engulfed his Atlanta home.

Jarrett was expected to be a second round pick, and as SI.com’s Robert Klemko explains, there was much more going on in Jarrett’s Atlanta home besides the draft.

As the Texans were on the clock with the 43rd selection, several people mentioned they smelled something funny in another room (Grady recalls the timeline down to the pick, because he was sure the Falcons would take him at 42). Elisha rushed to the kitchen thinking she’d left a burner on. Nothing. Then a cousin saw a flicker of light upstairs where the youngest children had been playing. Grady and Elisha sprinted the stairs to find a wall in the game room in flames.

Rounds two and three came and went, and Jarrett stood there, sirens blaring, flames extinguished as the sizzle still crackled in his former home. The group would reconvene the next day for the final three rounds.

In round five, former Atlanta Falcon Jesse Tuggle stepped up to the podium to introduce the next pick. As season ticket holder Kimberly Newman announced the selection, Tuggle began to pump his fists and a huge smile emerged. The Falcons selected Jarrett, Tuggle is Jarrett’s dad.

“It doesn’t get any better than that,” Jarret’s mom, Elisha said. “He was totally surprised, like everyone else. He had no idea it was going to be his son’s name. He was ecstatic. We all were.”

Jarrett would lose most of his childhood memorabilia in the blaze, but there are some moments that can’t be burned. Jarrett watching his dad celebrate on national television, while he and his mom embraced, “It was just what I needed,” he said.

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Vines of the Week

First Round

https://vine.co/v/ezttEPM33jn

Second Round

https://vine.co/v/eZHVlWAVtP7

 

 

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Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons

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