When the Kansas City Chiefs were hit with a tampering charge and then levied a punishment that a blind man can tell is unfair, I reached out to an expert in the area of getting screwed by Goodell -- our Patriots blog, Pats Pulpit.
Rich Hill over at Pats Pulpit answered a few questions for me because I thought if anyone could understand what the Chiefs were going through it would be the blogger who covered the NFL debacle that is DeflateGate.
Thanks to Rich for answering my questions...
Do you see a comparison between DeflateGate and the Chiefs tampering charges?
PP: The only comparison is rooted in the complete unfairness of the penalty. The Chiefs were hit with a penalty far beyond anything another team that had been charged with tampering received - and that resonates with the Patriots penalty. Both the Patriots and Chiefs were viewed as cooperative during the investigation, which makes me wonder how much of a penalty the league could be willing to levy on tampering in a vacuum.
Did the NFL learn any lessons from DeflateGate?
PP: No. The league waited until AFTER the tampering period this season to announce a penalty as a deterrent. This is one year after they let the Jets and Dolphins skate for tampering of their own. It's like when the league sent a notice to the Panthers to not warm their footballs on the sideline, and then call in the Navy Seals to take down the Patriots when the NFL didn't realize that the Ideal Gas Law was a thing. Of course everyone is going to respond negatively and all of the league's lip service won't cover the fact that their inconsistent mismanagement of these incidents does more to harm the integrity of the game and the fan experience than anything the teams are accused of doing.
What's your advice for Chiefs fans?
PP: Unfortunately, you'll probably just have to accept the penalty. It's dumb, it makes no sense, but that's just the way it is. The league has no idea how to apply rules in a consistent manner because they make so many of them up as they go.